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jeremy's review
4.0
I have been fascinated by redwood trees for years, and really enjoyed the excerpt from this book that appear in the New Yorker a year or so ago. The book is longer, with more stories and more details. The book focuses more on the characters and less on the science than I would have liked, but it's a quick and enjoyable read.
I also enjoyed Preston's American Steel, written several years ago.
I also enjoyed Preston's American Steel, written several years ago.
jdintr's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to this book in advance of a road trip up the California/Oregon Coast, and I'm really glad that I did.
The tops of redwood trees have been unexplored until the last twenty years, when an intrepid group of climbers and explorers sought to find the tallest trees, climb them, and record them for us.
The book centers upon the explorers and climbers, but it shares plenty of fascinating insights about redwoods along the way. Some of my favorite parts were reading about a man who fell 96 feet out of a Douglas fir and survived, Preston's clear descriptions of skywalking among the trees.
The book filled me with respect for these magnificent trees. When I'm there next summer, I'll visit the parks with a knowledge of what's "up there" over 300 feet above my head, and a great respect for the adventurers who discovered and climbed these lofty giants.
The tops of redwood trees have been unexplored until the last twenty years, when an intrepid group of climbers and explorers sought to find the tallest trees, climb them, and record them for us.
The book centers upon the explorers and climbers, but it shares plenty of fascinating insights about redwoods along the way. Some of my favorite parts were reading about a man who fell 96 feet out of a Douglas fir and survived, Preston's clear descriptions of skywalking among the trees.
The book filled me with respect for these magnificent trees. When I'm there next summer, I'll visit the parks with a knowledge of what's "up there" over 300 feet above my head, and a great respect for the adventurers who discovered and climbed these lofty giants.
jdintr's review
5.0
This is THE BOOK to read for anyone visiting Redwoods National and State Parks on the Northern California coast. My family and I read it as we visited the Redding area and drove out to hike Redwood Creek to the Tall Trees Grove.
While there is much information about the redwoods, Preston's subtitle, "A Story of Passion and Daring," indicates where the book is headed. The two primary passions featured in the book are Michael Taylor's obsession with finding the tallest redwood on the coast, and Steve Sillett's obsession with climbing said trees.
Preston, for the most part, goes back and forth between the two stories, adding in details of Sillett's personal life--how his obsession with trees contributed to the end of his first marriage, and how it bonded him to his second wife, Marie.
These personal aspects of the book are very honest. Characters' flaws come out into the open. Unlike many reviewers here, I really liked this aspect. It gives the book a narrative arc that a normal nonfiction book about the tallest redwoods would miss.
Having hiked to the Tall Trees Grove after completing this book for the second time, I will share a few more observations about the book.
1. I really don't know how Taylor could have maintained his obsession with finding the tallest tree on the coast. Trees grow. Trees fall. It seems like the whole forest is dynamic. Considering all the clear-cutting that let up to the establishment of the national park, there is no way to even get an all-time figure.
2. When I tried to look from the trail into the thicket of thorns and spiked nettles, it gave me new respect for Sillett and Taylor's "Day of Discovery"! I don't know how anyone could make it more than six or seven feet off a trail without serious cutting tools. The underbrush is dense, and it looks painful. Mad respect to those two.
3. There really is a spiritual side to experiencing a redwood or a redwood grove that Marie Antoine describes in the book. I'm not sure that climbing to the very top adds to the awe one feels looking up, up, and away.
While there is much information about the redwoods, Preston's subtitle, "A Story of Passion and Daring," indicates where the book is headed. The two primary passions featured in the book are Michael Taylor's obsession with finding the tallest redwood on the coast, and Steve Sillett's obsession with climbing said trees.
Preston, for the most part, goes back and forth between the two stories, adding in details of Sillett's personal life--how his obsession with trees contributed to the end of his first marriage, and how it bonded him to his second wife, Marie.
These personal aspects of the book are very honest. Characters' flaws come out into the open. Unlike many reviewers here, I really liked this aspect. It gives the book a narrative arc that a normal nonfiction book about the tallest redwoods would miss.
Having hiked to the Tall Trees Grove after completing this book for the second time, I will share a few more observations about the book.
1. I really don't know how Taylor could have maintained his obsession with finding the tallest tree on the coast. Trees grow. Trees fall. It seems like the whole forest is dynamic. Considering all the clear-cutting that let up to the establishment of the national park, there is no way to even get an all-time figure.
2. When I tried to look from the trail into the thicket of thorns and spiked nettles, it gave me new respect for Sillett and Taylor's "Day of Discovery"! I don't know how anyone could make it more than six or seven feet off a trail without serious cutting tools. The underbrush is dense, and it looks painful. Mad respect to those two.
3. There really is a spiritual side to experiencing a redwood or a redwood grove that Marie Antoine describes in the book. I'm not sure that climbing to the very top adds to the awe one feels looking up, up, and away.
diannaobrien's review
5.0
This is a lovely book that reveals and highlight the people and hidden biology, ecology and wonders if the world’s largest trees. The tops of large trees is a new frontier people are only beginning to learn about.
That said, I would note the beginning of the book is a bit like a complex novel with many people introduced and it is at first difficult to see how they are all connected, but they are! The book introduces you to many complex, some troubled, but all amazing people who took the skills and passions they had to create a web of understanding to explore where literally no one had gone before.
If you love a mystery, science and discovery, and learning about quirky and brilliant scientists and the turns of fate behind discoveries, you will love this book as much as I do.
I just finished reading a library copy and am going to buy my own copy so I can enjoy it again, something I rarely do.
I also enjoyed getting to know the author a bit as he mentions his later interactions with the scientists and tree climbing. Such a lovely view of him and his family.
That said, I would note the beginning of the book is a bit like a complex novel with many people introduced and it is at first difficult to see how they are all connected, but they are! The book introduces you to many complex, some troubled, but all amazing people who took the skills and passions they had to create a web of understanding to explore where literally no one had gone before.
If you love a mystery, science and discovery, and learning about quirky and brilliant scientists and the turns of fate behind discoveries, you will love this book as much as I do.
I just finished reading a library copy and am going to buy my own copy so I can enjoy it again, something I rarely do.
I also enjoyed getting to know the author a bit as he mentions his later interactions with the scientists and tree climbing. Such a lovely view of him and his family.
teaoles's review
4.0
A truly romantic journey through the trees. I love being blanketed in beautiful descriptions of these wonderful beings.
“It’s a being. It’s a ‘person,’ from a plant’s point of view. A tree is not conscious, the way we are, but it has a perfect memory.”
“It’s a being. It’s a ‘person,’ from a plant’s point of view. A tree is not conscious, the way we are, but it has a perfect memory.”
gaderianne's review
3.0
There were parts of this book I really loved - and they all involved the parts about the trees. The mystery of them. How new tall ones continue to be discovered. How they were wiped out. How they were saved. The world up in the canopy that is interesting and unique and still being explored and discovered. I especially loved reading about these tress that I just saw and visited on a recent vacation to California.
I did not like reading about the personal lives of the “tree ninjas” that are obsessed with climbing the tress. To a certain extent their story is interesting, but I think it should have been relegated to what was discovered scientifically. I do not care - and this book did not make me care - about their lives. About the fact that a tree climber dropped out of college, was cut off by his dad, started selling knives (and the interviews with the people he sold knives to!), that someone else got divorced because of their obsession with climbing trees, how they fell out of tress and almost died, or about the author’s own story of learning how to climb and taking his family to Scotland. I would have really loved this book if it was just about the trees.
I did not like reading about the personal lives of the “tree ninjas” that are obsessed with climbing the tress. To a certain extent their story is interesting, but I think it should have been relegated to what was discovered scientifically. I do not care - and this book did not make me care - about their lives. About the fact that a tree climber dropped out of college, was cut off by his dad, started selling knives (and the interviews with the people he sold knives to!), that someone else got divorced because of their obsession with climbing trees, how they fell out of tress and almost died, or about the author’s own story of learning how to climb and taking his family to Scotland. I would have really loved this book if it was just about the trees.
neilrcoulter's review
3.0
One of my students recommended this book to me, and it seemed like the right time to read it. My youngest son and I just finished watching a documentary series about the national parks, so with the words of John Muir and other parks advocates fresh in my mind, I opened up The Wild Trees to venture into the redwoods (vicariously) once more.
Richard Preston’s book is unlike any other book I’ve read. It’s a mix of scientific information, history, and the personal lives of the people who made the important discoveries in the redwood canopies of the American West. I think Preston’s idea is to include all the details, to show that all life is interconnected. The failed marriages and everyday disappointments of the researchers are just as much a part of the world as the new species being discovered 370 feet above the earth’s surface.
Unfortunately, I found myself far, far less interested in the mundane everyday of the researchers than I was in the scientific discoveries. I would have preferred that the book be weighted much more toward the history and science, and much less on the personal lives of a group of extraordinarily socially awkward people. In addition, Preston uses a lot of words to describe the intricate climbing systems devised by the central characters of the story—but that would have been a lot clearer and quicker if this were a documentary film rather than a book. In fact, I think this whole project would have been more engrossing as a film.
As I read the book, I never felt that Preston justified people's desperation in trying to find the world's tallest tree. What's the difference between a 360-foot-tall redwood and a 370-foot-tall redwood, exactly? I felt a little sad for the people the book follows as they frantically try to prove that they've located the world's tallest tree.
Those criticisms aside, however, the writing style is smooth and breezy, and the history and science are quite fascinating. I was amazed to learn how little was known of the redwood canopies until the 1980s. Though the book is no substitute for actually swinging around in the trees, it is a beautiful glimpse into a part of the natural world that most of us will never experience, but which is vital for our survival. Reading this and watching Ken Burns’s national parks documentary affirm what a fantastic idea America had to set aside areas of the country as off-limits to industrial development. The Wild Trees hints at the same tension Burns explores in his documentary: how do you discover pristine natural locations and study them without exploiting them to their ruin?
One final wish for The Wild Trees: why couldn’t it have included photographs? The only illustrations are hand-drawn images. Photographs would have helped so much!
Richard Preston’s book is unlike any other book I’ve read. It’s a mix of scientific information, history, and the personal lives of the people who made the important discoveries in the redwood canopies of the American West. I think Preston’s idea is to include all the details, to show that all life is interconnected. The failed marriages and everyday disappointments of the researchers are just as much a part of the world as the new species being discovered 370 feet above the earth’s surface.
Unfortunately, I found myself far, far less interested in the mundane everyday of the researchers than I was in the scientific discoveries. I would have preferred that the book be weighted much more toward the history and science, and much less on the personal lives of a group of extraordinarily socially awkward people. In addition, Preston uses a lot of words to describe the intricate climbing systems devised by the central characters of the story—but that would have been a lot clearer and quicker if this were a documentary film rather than a book. In fact, I think this whole project would have been more engrossing as a film.
As I read the book, I never felt that Preston justified people's desperation in trying to find the world's tallest tree. What's the difference between a 360-foot-tall redwood and a 370-foot-tall redwood, exactly? I felt a little sad for the people the book follows as they frantically try to prove that they've located the world's tallest tree.
Those criticisms aside, however, the writing style is smooth and breezy, and the history and science are quite fascinating. I was amazed to learn how little was known of the redwood canopies until the 1980s. Though the book is no substitute for actually swinging around in the trees, it is a beautiful glimpse into a part of the natural world that most of us will never experience, but which is vital for our survival. Reading this and watching Ken Burns’s national parks documentary affirm what a fantastic idea America had to set aside areas of the country as off-limits to industrial development. The Wild Trees hints at the same tension Burns explores in his documentary: how do you discover pristine natural locations and study them without exploiting them to their ruin?
One final wish for The Wild Trees: why couldn’t it have included photographs? The only illustrations are hand-drawn images. Photographs would have helped so much!