Another gem of the „Naturkunden“ series by Matthes & Seitz Verlag. At some stage I think I really want them all. I was never particularly interested in snails but that certainly changed after reading this funny, insightful and beautiful little book.

There is so much more to these fascinating creatures than their chalky little shells would make you believe. So let’s get closer to  dsiscover the creature that is hidden most of the time and let’s carefully open up the entrance so we can carefully and slowly ever so slowly sneak into the entwined coils to have a proper look.

We admire the snail for its beautiful spiral shell, we laugh about their slow method of locomotion are disgusted by their slimy body but enjoy eating them with garlic butter. We have a highly ambivalent relationship to the snail so it was high time to get closer to it and better understand this highly fascinating creature.

Florian Werner takes up it’s trail from an cultural-historical point. He visits the World Snail Racing Competion in England, an eco snail farm in France and he explains the virtuosity of snail sex. He is not only checking out the outstanding position the snail had in the history of Architectur or movies he also looks into their participation in founding the financial system and brass music.

Maybe the tenacity and persistance of the snail is the perfect antidote for our hectic and restless times.

You can really tell that Judith Schalansky has a hand in this series and I highly recommend to check out her books for example her beautiful and interesting „Verzeichnis einiger Verluste“ or her „Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln“ that I introduced here a few days ago.

Can’t wait to read another one from this series, I am quite keen on „Korallen“ and have high hopes to read one about the „Octopus“ or about „Jellyfish“ pretty soon.

Have you read any of the titles? Which one would you recommend?