Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The excellent I heard Peter Wohlleben on a radio interview about this book, and found his discussion of tree communication, community and interactions with mushrooms, so interesting that I bought the book. What impressed me was that his answers were all scientific and to the point, though some of the questions were pretty whacky. The good part of his book is that Peter brings together in one place a really good look at forest ecology. He outlines how trees work in terms of light and water, their intricate relationship and co-dependence with the mushroom family. How they communicate, how they deal with pests and warn nearby trees of danger, how they even feed and support each other. He goes into soil ecology and also that of birds, animals and insects that live among and in the trees. I found that after reading this book, as I walked in the forest I started noticing things I had not before. That is all excellent The execrable. The style of the book is readable, but not elegant, and occasionally repetitive. But the problem with Peter’s style is that he loves trees so much he want them to be people, and his anthropomorphism can really grate. (I am not the only reviewer to note this problem.) When we talk of trees we look to ourselves to help our descriptions thus “parenting trees” is a fair metaphor. (It also works the other way when we consider our “roots” or our project “bears fruit”). But in this book metaphor morphs into reality and may have confused the author along with some of his readers. For example Peter seriously talks about trees feeling pain and trees having an emotional balance. These are very human characteristics and we share them with most animals as they are necessary to stop us killing ourselves as we learn to move about our environment and also to make choices. But it is hard to see how they would be of any advantage to a sessile tree with limited options, and so there is no obvious reason to think they would have evolved in plants. I can’t help feeling that in trying to humanize trees, the wonder of what they are and how they work becomes diminished. However, this is not to say don’t get this book, do! Just be forewarned to take the humanization as metaphor, not reality.