Books: Not Your Typical Love Story

It has been sometime since I last wrote about a book. 

About 10 months ago, I decided to go on a book hunting spree after my final A levels exams. It had been so hard refraining myself from leisure reading during exam period. Too hard. That was why the third thing I did right after my exams was book hunting. [In case you are curious, the first thing I did was to hit Red Box and sing like there was no tomorrow. And, the second but most important thing was to clean up my room.]

Back then, I thought since I had applied for a university degree in 'Biology', it would be helpful to read more Bio-related books. Perhaps it was fate. I was casually glancing through the animal section in Borders when the title of a book caught my eye. 

It seemed interesting, so I flipped to its back and read the synopsis. Bad move. With just six simple words, I could feel a huge lump of emotions forming in my throat, threatening to suffocate me on the spot. And then I knew I just had to read it. I bought the book despite the poor condition the book was in.

And so you must be wondering, what sort of book had me bewitched there and then. A true story indeed and not a fiction, it is called 'Alex & Me', and I believe most pet owners would need lots of tissue reading this book. 

 

'Alex & Me' is a story about a determined female scientist who managed to shed some light on animal intelligence through her studies with an African Grey parrot. 


                                                  

A few different book cover designs. 

Dr. Irene Pepperberg is truly an amazing woman and I admire her guts. She started out as a Chemist but later moved on to work on animal intelligence, which was a relatively new field of study in science at the time. 

Not all members of the scientific community are kind to new science, and even more so to female scientists. Just a few decades ago, people still believe that humans are superior over other species. And Dr. Pepperberg, being a bird lover since she was young wanted to show that birds do have a certain degree of intelligence. 

However, what Dr. Pepperberg never would had expected was to discover that a bird with its brain only the size of a shelled walnut could actually possess a relatively high degree of intelligence. According to her, Alex’s intelligence rival that of a 3 year old child!

I feel that this book is not really meant to be written from a scientific perspective, but more of a journal of  why and how Dr. Pepperberg started the Alex Project, and also a biography of Alex the intelligent African Grey. [For your information, Alex means Avian Learning Experiment.]

Reading this book grants me more insights into the hardship a scientist might experience in his or her career. But also highlight that fundamentally a scientist is just only human.

It may had started out as a scientific experiment, yet a strong bond was inevitably forged between Dr. Pepperberg and Alex in the end. For they had been through thick and thin together. 

I know i can vouch for animals having emotions and how we could end up sharing a bond deeper than the center of the earth with them. My heart ache for Dr. Pepperberg whenever i turn to the page when she found out Alex was gone forever. It was more than devastating. More than what words could do it justice. 

This is a relevant, painfully moving love story that I truly recommend people to read. But that is if you are not afraid to cry. 

[Warning: I sobbed during the first and second last chapters. And after the heart-breaking first chapter, it was only six months later that I could finally continue and finish reading it.]

“I love you, you be good.”  ~ last words of Alex to Irene Pepperberg.

  

For more information: 

http://alexfoundation.org/products-page/publications/