In the USA, some 50 million people lay claim to being bird-watchers or 'birders', spending over $60 billion on 'birding-related' travel each year and over 4560 million on birding-related membership fees. And for a select - and utterly obsessed few - they compete in one of the world's quirkiest contests: the race to spot the most species in North America in a single year. And 1998 wasm't just a big, it was the biggest. THE BIG YEAR is Pulitzer Prize-winner mark Obmascik's account of what was to become the greatest 'birding' year of all time (freak weather conditions ensured all previous records were broken) as experienced by three of the biggest, most obsessive, hitters in the birding world. Greg Miller, the recently divorced software engineer for a nuclear plant; Al Levantin, retered vice President of billion-dollar chemical conglomerate; and sandy Komito, a new Jersey roofing contractor and holder of the Big Year bir-spotting record for 1987. Oh, and there's the Californian who, now too infirm to go into the field, participates in big Sits - birdwatching on TV - his greatest fear is those competitors with satelite dishes. Such are the author's powers of observation that he brilliantly brings to life, gets under the skin of, this extraordinary, eccentric triumvirate of obsessive 'birder' while empathizing with and eventually succumbing to the all-consuming nature of their obsession. The result is a wonderfully funny, acutely observed classic to rank alongside the best of Bill Bryson.