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Reviews
The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature by Peter Wohlleben
colorfulleo92's review
3.0
My first book by this author. Quite an interesting audiobook but not a new favorite. Love trees and such but never really thought about learning about them further.
smitchy's review against another edition
2.0
This is no-where near as readable or as interesting as Peter Wohlleben's first book The Hidden Life of Trees. While the concepts are interesting, Wohlleben's waffling style was too meandering for my taste and some of the theories just too far out there.
Drawing on new scientific discoveries, and with a good bit of philosophy as well, he looks at the idea of plant consciousness, the physiological impacts nature has on people, and the harm and good we can cause with our interventions, attitudes and connection to nature.
Some of these ideas are pretty out there: I admit I struggled to wrap my head around some of them. But they are certainly interesting and if you enjoyed The Hidden Life of Trees then there will be plenty in this book to keep you interested.
Naturally, given that Wohlleben is German, most of the information about trees and forests imparted here has a Northern Hemisphere / deciduous forest bent. I found myself wondering how much things applied to Australian bush, or if the same type of studies mentioned are being done over here too. I often had the same thought when reading Hidden Life of Trees too - do these same things apply to an evergreen, drought and fire tempered, eucalypt bushland?
While I am of the opinion that forests / bushland / etc. are vital for us and can indeed affect our emotional and physical health and are equally vital for the state of the planet in general a lot of what is presented here is more about philosophy than facts.
Nothing wrong with philosophy if that is what you want. I just wasn't expecting it and didn't enjoy it. And I'm kind of sad that I didn't because I was really excited about this one.
Drawing on new scientific discoveries, and with a good bit of philosophy as well, he looks at the idea of plant consciousness, the physiological impacts nature has on people, and the harm and good we can cause with our interventions, attitudes and connection to nature.
Some of these ideas are pretty out there: I admit I struggled to wrap my head around some of them. But they are certainly interesting and if you enjoyed The Hidden Life of Trees then there will be plenty in this book to keep you interested.
Naturally, given that Wohlleben is German, most of the information about trees and forests imparted here has a Northern Hemisphere / deciduous forest bent. I found myself wondering how much things applied to Australian bush, or if the same type of studies mentioned are being done over here too. I often had the same thought when reading Hidden Life of Trees too - do these same things apply to an evergreen, drought and fire tempered, eucalypt bushland?
While I am of the opinion that forests / bushland / etc. are vital for us and can indeed affect our emotional and physical health and are equally vital for the state of the planet in general a lot of what is presented here is more about philosophy than facts.
Nothing wrong with philosophy if that is what you want. I just wasn't expecting it and didn't enjoy it. And I'm kind of sad that I didn't because I was really excited about this one.
seaglanz's review
4.0
Learned quite a bit, but felt it was a little repetitive in it’s delivery. Still worth a read, I did enjoy it!
benrogerswpg's review against another edition
3.0
This was another good Wohlleben book.
I learned some things throughout it, but honestly, I didn't find it all that too interesting as a whole.
3.3/5
I learned some things throughout it, but honestly, I didn't find it all that too interesting as a whole.
3.3/5