#BlogTour-‘Effin’ Birds by Aaron Reynolds

About the book…

Have you ever looked a bird dead in the eye and wondered what it was thinking?

With Effin’ Birds, the most eagerly anticipated new volume in the noble avocation of bird identification, you can venture into nature with confidence.

This farcical field guide will help you identify over 200 birds, but more importantly, for the first time in history, it will also help you understand what these birds are thinking:The vainglorious grebe is acutely aware of its own magnificence.

The hipster pelican thinks the world is a shitbarge.
The overbearing heron wishes you better luck next time, fucknuts.
The counsellor swallow wants you to maybe try not being a dickhead.
… and many, many more.Alongside beautiful, scientifically accurate illustrations and a whole lot of swearing is incisive commentary on modern life and the world we, as humans, must navigate.

Or maybe it’s just some pictures of effin’ birds, okay?

‘Effin’ Birds’ by Aaron Reynolds is published in hardback by Unbound from 17/10/19, huge thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the blogtour invite and for my gifted review copy

What can I say about this book?(apart from apologising profusely to the author, publisher and blogtour organiser for putting the wrong date in my diary…I was both a month ahead and behind myself, top organisational skills there!)

It is both stupendously awesome, beautifully made and pant wettingly funny. It makes you look clever to the unitiated -it appears to be a reference book from a distance so is unlikely to scare Great Aunt Margaret unless she gets close enough to read the swears!
This was everything-it does not purport to teach you the ways and meanings of the language of birds, it says this right at the start. But what you somehow, magically, leave ‘Effin Birds’ with is this impression, that by an odd osmotic effect, you are somehow closer to the very creatures that are telling you to fuck right off.

And keep on fucking off.

Yes you, over there, keep it going until we cannot see you any longer…and…perfect!

It even worked this mornign on our ‘wherever we can fit them in walks on the beach’-not a single damn bird was there! Not even Zoltan, the possibly a crow, definitely a blackbird, (see I told you it wouldn’t really teach you the species of flying bastards!)who always lurks by our car was gone. I ran up and down the beach and not a single bird could be heard! I was brandishing the book and everything!
My long suffering book widower of a husband has gotten used to random peels of laughter as I am reading, and no longer checks if I have finally toppled over into insanity, he was absolutely delighted to see me chortling loudly but reminded me that hand gestures in cars are inevitably thought of in a negative manner by other drivers, who responded to my gesticulations with ones of their own.

Ahem.

So, we have this searing analysis-it is filthy rich in swear words, hilarious, beautifully illustrated and narrows the gap between human kind and the avian race somewhat. It’s lovingly rendered, bloody funny and a totally brilliant Christmas present. It will keep your favourite book blogger quietly laughing in a corner but will not stop them thrusting random pages into loved ones faces with exhortations of ‘LOOK!!!’

‘Effin Birds’ is, in short, effin marvelous, effin funny and effin wonderful.

Effin read it.

About the author…

AARON REYNOLDS is a humourist, professional speaker, and the man behind the @EffinBirds and @swear_trek Twitter accounts. When he’s not on Twitter, you can find him producing a series of podcasts and at ComicCons dressed as George Lucas. He has been a baseball writer, a fine art printer, and a mall Santa Claus photographer. Aaron was raised in Mississauga, Canada, a suburb where they cut down all the trees and named the streets after them. He currently splits his time between Toronto and Ottawa.

Links-https://effinbirds.com/

Twitter @aaronreynolds

@unbounders