How to Read a Tree: Clues and Patterns from Bark to Leaves (Natural Navigation) Hardcover – May 2, 2023

This is such a wonderful book to get you outside looking at trees in a whole new way!I learned so many things I had no idea about within the first couple of chapters. It is written in a very engaging style.

I absolutely loved this book! I've read several of his other books before and this one might be my favorite. Gooley is the master of providing a way to examine patterns and this pattern recognition is so much more beneficial than trying to memorize specific traits of a single species. This book includes personal stories of his experiences as well as some good pictures and drawings that help to illuminate the concepts that are discussed in the book. I have a science background and have taken several ecology classes and I still learned a great deal from this book but it is written in a style that will pique the interest of someone who is looking to expand their horizons in exploration or someone like me who has been on numerous hikes who now sees the same paths in a different light. Can't recommend this enough as it will help to change your perspective for the good!

well written, but little on US trees and forests

Great book. While you’ll know some of this, I bet you’ll find much that’s new to you, just as I did.

This book was selected for our book club review and I am still reading it - the club meets in two days time, so I need to finish it obviously. But the 75% I have read so far has been wonderful. Much I can remember seeing as a child, but I have gained so much more now and I am anxious to get out to put into practice what I have learned.

Fabulous book!

I could write a book about this book. After the first five pages I knew my forest hiking was already permanently changed. After five more I began ordering copies for some fellow tree-loving friends. Later still I felt my brain could not hold any more information and figured Gooley must be running out. No, I was only halfway through. How could I have been walking by so many trees for years and not seen all this, read so many books about trees and not known all this? Well, Gooley has dedicated his life to seeing all these stories in the leaves, bark, trunk shape, root patterns, branching, etc., etc. and he's just really, really good at it. But, he makes it all so clear and it's as easy to read as a novel (I'd planned to read a few pages a day. So factual). My advice is to stop reading reviews and just order it. Better get a couple.

If you like love stories, you might like this book. Tristan Gooley has a love affair with trees that exceeds anything you’ll ever read in a romance novel. But 373 pages of details and minutia about tree shapes might be a bit much for most people. However, if you're truly gaga about trees, this is your book.