The Wild Trees

[ginasketch]

I just finished Richard Preston's new non fiction book The Wild Trees about Giant Sequoias.

This may not sound very interesting, but it's suddenly gone into my top ten and has become one of the best books I've ever read. I'm going to insist that nadriel and any of you other rabid bookworms read it. Why is the book so good? It follows 3 botany students at different times in their lives. Eventually they meet, united by their love of giant trees. Up in the trees is an entirely different world. There are caves, ferns, even other trees growing up in these giants. It's actually incredibly exciting and fast paced reading it, and I love the real life heroes in it. They're all Dungeon and Dragons geeks who are obsessed with their calling. They even name some of the trees after Tolkien characters. I can definitely relate to being so obsessed with a calling that any other career would make you unhappy. Their goal is to find the world's biggest tree and name it.

Okay, I admit it, the book made me cry in several places. It's that good. You just have to read it. It's hard for me to sell a book about trees to anyone, but trust me, it's worth it.



Um, yeah, see all that green stuff? That isn't the ground...

Comments

[wieselkind.livejournal.com]

Damn and have so much reading to do for Uni >< *should get off the internet*

[3dsoul.livejournal.com]

Heh. I thought it was the ground for a second actually...damn.

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

WONDERFUL BOOK! Easily one of my favourites too...makes me want to go and see those incredible trees (though I'm not sure I'm brave enough to go UP one...) :)

[madra-liath.livejournal.com]

Whoa. That is some big tree.

[copperfeel.livejournal.com]

I've been to the Sequoia National Park in California. Amazing place!



I'm definitely going to check that book out. If you ever get the chance you should visit it. It's a spectacular place, and I'm not just being sentimental. You get really in awe of nature because you're so far from anything.

[happiestsadist.livejournal.com]

I now seriously want to read that.

[gatcat.livejournal.com]

Why haven't I heard of this book?!

I grew up in the redwoods and am somewhat obsessive about both of California's big sequoia types...though obviously not as obsessed as that lot. As out of touch as I am, I'm still surprised that this is the first I've heard of the book! Thanks for the recommend.

Redwood Titans / The Wild Trees - Photos

[(Anonymous)]

Stumbled on your blog / journal while web surfing for redwood pages.

You liked the book - I did too.

Want to see some bigger images of the Grove of Titans mentioned in the book?

http://www.mdvaden.com/grove_of_titans.shtml

Much more complete images than the small cropped view on Preston's site.

If word ever leaks out about the location someday, I may add a GPS link to my page. For now, very few people have seen the grove.

But a nice cluster of images can really help to imagine parts of the book.

M. D. Vaden of Oregon

Redwood Images

[(Anonymous)]

Almost forgot...

If you like one of those images, don't hot-link to them as was done with some images in above replies.

If you post a hyperlink to the page, you may save, copy and use ONE image as long as the Copyright mark remains intact and credit supplied.

Thanks,

M. D. Vaden of Oregon