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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Learned about history of redwoods in PNW and Cali which was fascinating. Trees alive now that were around during Mayan culture?! The people that explored this area in the 70’s to present are a unique bunch which balanced well with the factual nature of the content.
After finishing this book, I immediately went out into the back yard and looked up at the trees, trying to imagine just how big the Redwoods described in this book must be. That is the hardest part about this book to figure out; what is the scale of these things. In some cases it seems that the upper levels of these trees must be massive, and in other cases when describing how long/short their ropes are, then it seems that they have to be smaller than my imagination. I personally would have liked to have seen actual pictures of the canopy in the book to get a better sense of what is being desribed. The book does start out slowly, in trying to figure out why we are being told the events of children, and how they will fit into the book, but it does work in the end. And any book with a person surviving a 100 foot fall from a tree, and two people engaging in sex 300 feet up in a tree, can be too bad.
obviously I had my issues with some of the white men in this book being given the mediocre white man treatment
Spellbinding! Similar in style to "Into the WIld" or "A Walk in the Woods".
Lots of detail about the flora and fauna & other explorers, as well as a darned good tale.
Lots of detail about the flora and fauna & other explorers, as well as a darned good tale.
The Wild Trees blends nature, science, and adventure writing to tell the story of the world's tallest trees and the people who study them. In fact, although the trees are at the heart of the story, the narrative itself is really more about the people: scientists, professional tree climbers, and amateur explorers who are obsessed with, primarily, the redwoods of California (the book also touches on the Douglas firs of the Pacific Northwest and the eucalyptus forests of Australia). I found this book an interesting one and enjoyed Preston's quirky cast of characters, as well as the fascinating glimpses he shared of a world most of us will never see: the canopy of a redwood forest. I was less enamored of his writing style, which I found quite choppy. The vast majority of his sentences were fairly short, with a simple subject-verb structure. "The trees were tall and imposing. They had reddish bark and green leaves. The color of the leaves varied from light green to almost black. We climbed to the top using ropes and pulleys so we could get a closer look." I've made those sentences up, but they're representative of how I felt much of this book was written. I guess it's just Preston's style—and since he's been a staff writer at The New Yorker for many years and has won awards, I guess there are people who love it—but personally I wished for a bit more complexity in his writing to improve the flow. This grew more and more noticeable to me as I got further into the book, and it detracted from what was otherwise a very interesting read.
Really interesting look at canopy science and the people who study giant trees. We’re going to Redwood National Park next year and I can’t wait to see the trees.
"We can be hammered and burned, and we can come back and be more beautiful as we grow." Love that.
With the book itself I would have liked to hear more about the trees and less about the people.
With the book itself I would have liked to hear more about the trees and less about the people.
As a lover of nature and trees, this was a great read in how people immersed themselves in the discovery, climbing and finding passion in trees. A beautiful and passionate story between humans and trees.
A world I knew nothing about - very informative with lots of great stories about the tops of redwood forests. Fascinating.