Pecked To Death By Ducks

This is the first of Tim Cahill's books I have read, and I have three others in my shelf.
This is a collection of short stories, and as I understand it some have been published in magazines or news papers previously.

They cover a variety of locations, although around half are set in the USA. They are loosely categorised into the following headings: The Unnatural World, Tooth and Claw, The Natural World, Other Peoples Lives, and Risk.

There are a real mixture of stories provided, from fire fighters in Kuwait, Bison in Yellowstone National Park, Kayaking in Baja to traveller's diarrhea, Australian slang and racing a ‘chariot' constructed from a 44 gallon oil drum.

As might be expected there were good stories and stories that appealed less. There were some very good ones, where Cahill described events very well, and had interesting quirks or situations - generally the animal related stories and the actual travel stories appealed more to me than the more abstract. Also the Risk section quickly became tiresome - a middle aged man undertaking adventure sports - just not my wheelhouse. In some respects it is a shame this section was located at the end of the book, as my take away memory wasn't good.

I am not a big fan of Bill Bryson, but this book reminded me a little of him and his writing

For me this was an ok read - a chapter at a time - a 15-20 minute window at a time. I will probably carry on and read the other books I own.

3 stars.