"The Hidden Life of Trees" by Peter Wohlleben (BR)

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World is the winner of our 2024 April 1st non-fools poll. Join us in reading about what our leafy friends get up to in their extended spare time!

[a.g.e. montagner]

I am re-reading a novel in Spanish but too slowly, so today I started both The Hidden Life of Trees and The Word for World Is Forest.

I've only read a handful of chapters so far, but my feedback is positive.
The prose in translation is fine, if a bit pedantic in places; I prefer a more poetic style. The short chapters should prevent readers from getting lost or bored; but if the opening pages of chapter 1 send me to chapter 27 or whichever it was, something is wrong.

A couple of recommendations that might interest readers:
Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn (I had the opportunity to interview her for a bookclub and even met her when she was invited by the Scottish Pavillion at the Venice Biennale);
How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human by Eduardo Kohn: an anthropological dissertation with basis on semiotics, which is to say a knotty text; but it reshaped my way of thinking about nature.

[Kirsi]

I read this in Finnish a couple of years back and thought it was fascinating. I actually have it on my bookshelf, so maybe it's time for a re-read.

[Becky]

Looking forward to this one, but I likely won’t start for a bit. My hold of Making It So: A Memoir just came in from the library, and it’s a whopper of a memoir (19 hours on audio!) so I’ll likely be starting closer to the true start for this read.

[Stephen]

I have a copy at the bottom of a tbr pile here. I like trees, though I’ve never taken the trouble to learn much about them. This buddy read may be the excuse I need to read the book.

[Becky]

Stephen wrote: "I have a copy at the bottom of a tbr pile here. I like trees, though I’ve never taken the trouble to learn much about them. This buddy read may be the excuse I need to read the book."

My husband and I listened to a book about fungi last year(ish?) Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, and part of it dealt with how underground fungi networks facilitate a communication of sorts and nutrient tranfer between trees and other plants in the forest. I'm assuming (hoping?) that there's something similar in this. I found it really fascinating. :)

[a.g.e. montagner]

Paul Stamets is a legend in the, ahem, field.

[Becky]

a.g.e. montagner wrote: "Paul Stamets is a legend in the, ahem, field."

Indeed he is! :D

[a.g.e. montagner]

And yes, the wood wide web is a staple from early on in this book.

[Becky]

Excellent. :)

[Cynda]

What still stands out in my mind after several years later: Thirty years somehow is understood to be enough to mature a tree yet a tree may have decades left.to live and contribute to a forest or woodland. . . . .Made me think just how much are trees a renewable resource.

[Cheryl]

What I remember best is that trees need habitat, ecosystem, almost as much as critters do. One tree in each suburban lawn, especially if they're different species, is not a good thing.

[Cynda]

Right Cheryl. I remember the discussion on how we benefitted when cities had a series of tree-named streets Willow, Elm, Maple, Oak, Peachtree, Blueberry where only the named tree was its own street.

[Shomeret]

a.g.e. montagner wrote: "I am re-reading a novel in Spanish but too slowly, so today I started both The Hidden Life of Trees and The Word for World Is Forest.

I've only read a handful of c..."

Thank you for bringing How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human to my attention. I just put it on hold at the library.

[a.g.e. montagner]

Food for thought!
Be ready to have your brain rewired.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I'm enjoying learning some of the biology, but am waiting to have my hair blown back. So far the part that's made me most curious is the fungi. The trees themselves seem to be a lot of what I feel I already knew.

But it's definitely told with true love, if a bit saccharine

[a.g.e. montagner]

Regarding mushrooms, a couple of books that I'd like to read: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake and The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing.

[Becky]

Entangled Life is very good, a.g.e. I enjoyed it quite a bit despite much of it focusing on the “magic” type of mushrooms and their effects, which interests me not at all. But still, the rest of the book is worth it!

[a.g.e. montagner]

Good to know, thanks!

One book about mushrooms I have read is The Way Through the Woods: Of Mushrooms and Mourning by Long Litt Woon; it would more accurate to say that it's about mushrooms as metaphor for the process of mourning her husband, but well, there's mushrooms galore, including the psychoactive varieties, which are treated with neither pomp nor puritanism, and I appreciated that.

[Becky]

I'll check that one out, thanks!

Entangled Life does definitely have a positive tone and feel to the way that Sheldrake writes about mushrooms. He focused a lot of time on the various studies and uses of mushrooms and the ways that they can be used in medicinal and cultural practice, from microdosing to heroic dosing, and he mused widely on the meaning and 'mind opening' aspects that many people report experiencing. It felt a bit... "spiritually scientific", if I had to choose a phrase. I'm NOT spiritual at all, so that aspect was kinda woo-woo to me, but I did still appreciate the scientific info and studies.

[Aga]

I’ve started yesterday. Love the idea of trees having friends. I look around more as I walk through my city to spot some signs of trees’ friendship.

[Cynda]

Aga, your comment encourages me to reread. I found my copy of the book, maybe tonight I will start rereading a chapter or two each night

[Carro]

Read this last year and found it both informative, clear and highly readable, and then went on to read his other two books.

[Katy]

I didn't realize we were reading this one. I'm in as soon as I can get a copy.

[Aga]

Cynda wrote: "Aga, your comment encourages me to reread. I found my copy of the book, maybe tonight I will start rereading a chapter or two each night"

It’s very nice as a bedtime story. Very calming and relaxing.

[Becky]

I listened to this a few weeks ago, and forgot to comment. I really enjoyed it, though I will say that both the concept of trees screaming when they are starving and of trees being social yet isolated by humanity's "management" is a little bit traumatizing.

A big part of the appeal of my house is that there is a lot of established greenery (that means I won't be likely to kill it), including a massive Maple tree , and an enormous Rhododendron, a Burning Bush centerpiece of the yard, and various other flowers and bushes and such. Even though I viewed the property in EARLY early spring, just after a huge snowfall, I could see the amount of work that the previous owners put into the yard, and I loved it. Plus the 3-season enclosed sunroom on the front that the cats would love, and I was sold.

Anyway - now I feel a little sad about all of that. Yes, they are all well-established and seemingly thriving (no thanks to me - I just leave them alone), but I wonder if they just appear that way and that the lack of other plants of their own species. :(

Anyway, I did like it. I thought the audiobook reader was a little grandfatherly for my tastes, but it also kinda fit the chill tree-lover style of the book.

[a.g.e. montagner]

It is a straightforward book in content and tone, unlike more experimental non-fiction in recent decades which charted a path across memoir, nature writing, biography, and more.

Perhaps because of this, it can be read in bites, one or two chapters at a time, which I enjoy as a side gig to reading fiction.

[Cynda]

I knew trees communicated. They'd have to. But how? Why? When? Wohlleben answers some of my many questions about trees--like Why do some trees stumps continue to grow although humans cut them down and cut them down again.

[a.g.e. montagner]

By sheer chance, I happened upon the graphic novel adaptation of the book, written by Fred Bernard and illustrated by Benjamin Flao.

I'm not sure about any American edition; flipping through Goodreads I've only been able to find the French original and the Italian edition I've read.

While clearly based on The Hidden Life of Trees, it has a different and original approach. Apparently targeted at a young public, and more didascalic than the original. It is also, paradoxically, more openly biographical: Wohlleben speaks in the first person and shares much more of his life, despite not being the writer in this case; he appears in the opening pages as a young child, as though accompanying the readers into the story, and narrates his biography chronologically, as a student, then an adult &c.
Meanwhile chapters are organised seasonally, from spring to spring: in a sense matching Wohlleben's biography but also underlying the cyclical life of trees. There are more scientific and even taxonomic passages. Illustrations are really gorgeous and the real strength of this edition.

[a.g.e. montagner]

edit:

I pieced together both German and English editions. The latter from Greystone Books, a Canadian imprint which seems interesting in its own right: https://greystonebooks.com

[Aga]

a.g.e. montagner wrote: "By sheer chance, I happened upon the graphic novel adaptation of the book, written by Fred Bernard and illustrated by Benjamin Flao.

I'm not sure about any Americ..."

Wow! Is there a digital version or only a paper one? My Italian is good enough to read a graphic novel.

[a.g.e. montagner]

Really?
I'm surprised when I discover people know Italian.

Anyway, apparently both Greystone (hardcover) and Mondadori Electa (paperback) only sell physical editions.
https://greystonebooks.com/products/t...
https://www.mondadorielecta.it/libri/...

[Aga]

Thank you for the links. I’ll check it out anyway.

I’ve spent almost every vacation in Italy in the 90’s and later (in Sperlonga), so in high school I decided on Italian as the second foreign language.

[Cynda]

I found an English edition of the graphic book


Usually I use the book home page of any translation or edition. It will show me other editions. That's where I found this book.

[a.g.e. montagner]

Cynda, they were all merged with the original book.
I personally separated each edition of the graphic novel and then merged them.

[Cynda]

Ohhh.

[Cynda]

I was preparing for a philosophical talk about the nature of trees that did not quite happen. Short trees of the tundra. Tall trees of the woods. Trees with multiple trunks. Oh go on philosophize.

[Cynda]

Wohlleben writes of beavers and their contributions to climates. If interested in reading more about beavers, I suggest reading Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb.

[Cheryl]

Oh, neat, I bet we've learned a lot about beavers since I was a child in the 60s; I'll have to check that out.

[Cynda]

If you read it Cheryl, I'd be interested in your thoughts :)

[Cheryl]

Ok, I made a note. It'll be a little while....

[Cynda]

Aga has noticed trees" friendship. . . .I too have noticed trees a bit more. After recent coastal small sudden storm, some trees were robbed of much of their bark, more than their limbs. At the library today, I saw four oaks plants in a row. All show their own character by branching differently. I will enjoy this awareness for as long as it lasts.

[Cynda]

Those interested in trees' mycorrhizal network might enjoy reading all or part of If Trees Could Talk: Life Lessons from the Wisdom of the Woods by Holly Worton.