Insectopedia by Hugh Raffles

Let me start off by saying that I am not a big fan of bugs. I definitely do not like them in my house. When I was in Thailand and we would see large stackes of them for sale to eat, I decided then and there that I am saving eating bugs for when I am stranded on a desert island and they are the only available source of calories. I am not even all that tolerant of them in the great outdoors--but I loved this book, which is entirely and completely about insects.
This is not so much an encyclopedia about insects as it is an ode to bugs. The opening chapter tells about the earliest attempts to quantify how many insects are in the stratosphere, up to what heights, and in what density. They found a spider floating 15,000 feet off the ground, propelled by what, we do not know. Fascinating stuff, and it gets better from there.
This is an entirely readable book, with lots of interesting information about insect behavior and culture. There is the inevitable chapter on bees, and Raffles admits that bees are so incredible that it was hard not to devote the entire book to them, but he resisted that temptation--what I did learn was who began the study of bee behavior, and how he went about it, which was interesting--the book is full of "I didn't know that" moments, and they are presented in a "isn't this cool" format. The author poses as many questions as he answers, and he has a deeply abiding respect and awe of the creatures that are the most numerous on the planet.