How to Be Animal

A New History of What It Means to Be Human

By: Melanie Challenger

Narrated by: Hannah Curtis

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

“A remarkable combination of biology, genetics, zoology, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy.” (Richard Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Overstory)

“A brilliant, thought-provoking book.” (Matt Haig, New York Times best-selling author of The Midnight Library)

A wide-ranging take on why humans have a troubled relationship with being an animal, and why we need a better one

Human are the most inquisitive, emotional, imaginative, aggressive, and baffling animals on the planet. But we are also an animal that does not think it is an animal. How well do we really know ourselves?

How to Be Animal tells a remarkable story of what it means to be human and argues that at the heart of our existence is a profound struggle with being animal. We possess a psychology that seeks separation between humanity and the rest of nature, and we have invented grand ideologies to magnify this. As well as piecing together the mystery of how this mindset evolved, Challenger's book examines the wide-reaching ways in which it affects our lives, from our politics to the way we distance ourselves from other species. We travel from the origin of homo sapiens through the agrarian and industrial revolutions, the age of the internet, and on to the futures of AI and human-machine interface. Challenger examines how technology influences our sense of our own animal nature and our relationship with other species with whom we share this fragile planet.

That we are separated from our own animality is a delusion, according to Challenger. Blending nature writing, history, and moral philosophy, How to Be Animal is both a fascinating reappraisal of what it means to be human, and a robust defense of what it means to be an animal.

©2021 Melanie Challenger (P)2021 Penguin Audio

A lucid description of what we are

Eloquent and complete in its poetically scientific explanation of why we are animals in every way except in our resistance to being one.

An excellent rebuttal against the boogeymen everyw

Melanie challenges a vast array of ideas that numerous people may have believed at various times. By combining these beleifs into a single strawman, she manages to make a disjointed, rambling argument that could be summed up in a short essay.

The writing is nice though.

Clever but misleading title

This book is a bit of a meditation, so it is hard to pinpoint it with a specific title. But I’d suggest a more accurate title might be “humanity’s self-serving belief that it is higher than the animals.” That’s not a bad subject, but its misleading title with a how-to commercial flair to juice sales leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I have less of a problem with its subtitle, which doesn't feel misleading to me even if it seems a bit too vague.

The book is more of a popularization than something that charts fresh ground, which isn't a defect depending on what one is looking for.

One important positive is that it is well-written and well-researched, so if you’re unfamiliar with the subject matter, it brings a lot of material together in a professional and helpful manner.

As for why I'm giving this only three stars, the misleading title is the primary reason.

Not good for audio

Hard to follow, annoying monotone narration. I was hoping for much better on this topic.