Wednesday, 2 August 2006

As the break fades away....

I really should be working on my report(s) for 4263 but just had to have an entry on this rather good book I came across in the library last week ^^

Was hunting around for some books on swimming when I came across the section with dive books. There was the usual array of books on dive sites all around the world, as well as books for beginners. And it was here that I found Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World by Tim Ecott. (No, it's not a book on tips on improving buoyancy!!) Initially, I thought it was just gonna be a series of dive anecdotes by the author, but it turns out to be this and more! It makes real good light reading material, and starts off with a little history about diving, and how the equipment started off prior to Jacques Cousteau's aqualung; a bit on how sponges were harvested and processed into their usable products; how the cause of bends was found out with more understanding of human physiology; divers pushing depth limits, resulting in the dicovery of nitrogen narcosis.... Have only read half of it, and am enjoying every bit of it. As far as I can tell, even the details on holothurians (the humble sea cucumbers) and sharks and physiology stuff is rather accurate. This is one author who HAS done his background reading. Definitely a good, informative book on mankind's fascination with the deep blue ^^ Do hunt it down in the library when you can!! The Dewey decimal code is 797.23 ECO-[REC].

And for those who are interested, here's the Amazon link to it:



p/s. On a sidenote, am getting my basic dive gear!! Too bad the Atomic Split Fins cost near to 200 after discount, so would be getting Tusa Imprex fins instead..... Now, back to my reports...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wah!!! congratulations!

juanicths said...

on? getting gear? lol... BTW, Angie Seow from SJSM is in my lab too~~

Anonymous said...

Oh really? Well, that wasn't entirely unexpected since you're both marine biologists. I don't know her that well; maybe we've talked a couple of times.