Chris of the Buggeryville blog refers us to this thoughtful piece on why unicorns are traditionally slaughtered rather than caught.

Meanwhile, our Field Guide to Identifying Unicorns by Sound: A Compact Handbook of Mythic Proportions is now available through Amazon.com.  Did you know you can preview the book in HTML format at OneLetterWords.com?

A pragmatic reference book replete with tips and easy-to-digest tidbits from folklore, physics, and literature, A Field Guide to Identifying Unicorns by Sound is at once a commonplace book, a work of refined playfulness and wit, and ultimately a self-help tool for centering and opening awareness through active listening.  Blending the author’s signature sensitivity to the awe and magic wrapped up in folkloric phenomena with a tongue-in-cheek bending of scientific principles to his fanciful purpose, this concise book uniquely balances humor, scholarship, spirituality, and imagination.

A Field Guide to Identifying Unicorns by Sound invites imaginative readers to step outside and suspend disbelief for a spell.  The book gently reminds readers of their capacity to perceive subtle signals in nature as they meditatively pay attention.  As readers open their ears and awaken their inner senses, they are guided to effortlessly attune to whispers of the soul.  Receptivity and intuition emerge from dormancy.  Readers may set off in search of hearing a unicorn, but through deep listening they are likely to encounter their higher selves.

From time immemorial, unicorns have captured the imagination of humankind and figured in fantasy, folklore, and myth.  Public interest in unicorns is at an all-time high, as evidenced by the American Museum of Natural History’s recent “Mythic Creatures” exhibit about dragons, unicorns and mermaids.  Yet until now there has not been a practical guide to observing these beloved creatures.  A Field Guide to Identifying Unicorns by Sound fills this void with light-hearted humor.  It’s the only portable handbook of auditory unicorniana you’ll ever need.

A Field Guide to Identifying Unicorns by Sound is organized into approximately fifty brief chapters, each of which serves to expose the reader to a particular variety of unicorn sound.  Only the author who dazzled us with a thousand One-Letter Words could have catalogued 49 distinct varieties of unicorn sounds and described in luscious, colorful detail their salient qualities.  Delightful, enchanting, and unique, it is perhaps the ultimate in whimsical zoology.

Through how-to narration, evocative imagery, meaningful quotations, and irreverent asides, the author sustains a premise as well developed as it is accessible and as engaging and convincing as it is fantastic.  The meditational imagination is stimulated, and the funny bone tickled, by means of eclectic lists of evocative associations that illustrate the sonic flavor of each featured unicorn sound.  In concert with all this, dozens of easy-to-grasp, deceptively sensible illustrations expertly marry science and whimsy.

Enchanted by the author’s hushed whispers, cogent explanations, and fresh, sparkling laughter, readers will experience a strong yearning to listen for unicorns.  Moreover, they will be pleased to learn that in the stillness of profound, focused listening they may discover a transformative connection to the grand mystery of the universe.  The book encourages readers to “slow down, sit in silence, and savor all of the precious moments that enrich our daily lives,” as in Virginia Lang & Louise Nayer’s How to Bury a Goldfish.

(Thanks, Jonathan!)