|
|
US Mall 1 - The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring
|
List Price: $16.00
Our Price: $9.42
Your Save: $ 6.58 ( 41% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 585.5
EAN: 9780812975598
ISBN: 0812975596
Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2008-02-12
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Release Date: 2008-02-12
Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Big Kids Climb Big Trees
Comment: Growing up, my nickname was "Monkey" for good reason. I loved climbing trees. To this day, I have trouble resisting grabbing low-hanging branches and hoisting myself into the canopy of a well-structured tree. My natural fear of heights seems to melt in the face of a good tree, no matter how high I climb. It's no surprise I was immediately excited when I discovered a book called Wild Trees, about the admirably insane people who string up ropes in ancient redwoods, "skywalking" from trunk to trunk, and take naps in canopies 300 feet above the ground.
Written by Richard Preston, noted previously for novels that combine science and suspense to weave an engaging story, this book provides a fair balance between biology, botany and adventure. In a loose chronological structure, it is mostly a narrative story that details the lives of the most prominent climbers of big trees. Preston describes climbing excursions that will cause your heart to lift into your throat as passionate individuals lift themselves far above the forest floor. Between episodes of risk and excitement, though, are explanations of tree growth cycles, forest ecology, climbing techniques and more, all in clear layman's terms.
The only downfall of this book is its somewhat monotonous litany of dimensions and statistics. You will learn more than you ever wanted to know about the heights, widths and locations of the tallest trees in the world. I listened to this in audiobook form, so I had no choice but to listen to all the details. If you read it for yourself, though, I imagine it will be easy to bypass overly specific data.
Another drawback that could be considered a negative point for this book is that it delves deeply into a very small subculture with little room for participation. It would be rather difficult to go out after reading this book, find the correct equipment, and start climbing tall trees in your area, especially if you don't live in the relatively small area where redwood trees still grow.
For an excellent opportunity to pick up some mostly-useless trivia, a basic understanding of trees and their environment, and the latest techniques for swinging through Earth's largest living things, I would highly recommend this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Needs a Ruthless Edit
Comment: This book could easily have been edited in half, so much of it was irrelevant fluff. Yes there was a story to be told, but it was padded out with the prosaic details of it's subjects personal lives. Why would we want to know their golf handicaps, or what they have for breakfast? These people are interesting for the exceptional things they do, and where some context in their wider experiences would have added power and meaning to the story, Preston simply over does this, and actually weakens the story.
The writing style is painfully uneconomical. Condensing the narrative, and increasing the complexity of its sentence structure would intensify the reading experience.
I believe the science described in this book. I think it's important and it interests me, but there just wasn't enough of it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book!!
Comment: Richard Preston has a way of making a scientific story come to life by bringing you into the lives of those who lived it. By far my favorite of all his I've read. This is now on my list of favorite books of all time. If you love trees, you'll be crazy about this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment!
Comment: I was expecting too much from this book and I was VERY disappointed. What I got was a mediocre, disjointed story of the activities and love lives of tree-climbing geeks looking for little more than the adventure of the climb and the search for the world's tallest tree.
I was expecting a book that better described what was found in their climbs. Where was the emotion? What did it look like? Where are the pictures for those of us who will never climb a redwood? Where was any sense of the majesty and awe and timelessness that one feels in presence of these ancient giants? It is unlikely that anyone who had never experienced the redwood forest would appreciate any of that majesty from this book. Are the redwoods there just to be climbed? Is that their only value? It would be easy to think so after reading this book.
The few hand drawings and the brief, inept descriptions gave me NO feeling for what was really there in the forest. And I've been there many times. What about the folks who have never seen the unbelievable magnificence of the redwood forest? What could they sense from this book of the awe one feels by just being in the presence of these timeless giants? Could there have been a few real pictures? Where are the impassioned environmental reasons for saving the forest? This book tells more of ropes and carbiners than it does of any of this.
These guys were aledged scientists, yet this book tells very little of what they found of any scientific value. Where was their scientific curiosity? What are their passions beyond just climbing the trees?
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Muddle
Comment: The Wild Trees has several different elements - some work but most don't. I generally enjoyed the parts that focused on the trees and the related ecosystems. However, I would have preferred he focus more on facts and the science and less on trying to inspire awe. I understand the trees are tall, wide and old, but his endless references to number of board feet, who was alive when the tree was young, or looking at a solid wall of tree quickly became tiresome. Most of the book focused on several characters who Preston clearly admires but I generally found them to be irresponsible, self-absorbed and annoying. Several of the characters are botany professors or scientists, but it was very unclear from the book whether they were doing worthwhile research or just wasting time climbing trees and occasionally measuring them. The book is non-fiction and the people are who they are; but its not particularly enjoyable reading page after page about the day-to-day lives of people you don't like. Final, a significant portion of the end of the book focused on Preston's experience with tree climbing, a family trip to climb some trees in Scotland and his involvement with some of the book's main characters in an expedition to Australia. This part of the book did not seem to fit with the rest of the book; it seemed as if he just wanted to include some enjoyable experiences he had even though they had little relation to the main story.
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Big Kids Climb Big Trees
Comment: Growing up, my nickname was "Monkey" for good reason. I loved climbing trees. To this day, I have trouble resisting grabbing low-hanging branches and hoisting myself into the canopy of a well-structured tree. My natural fear of heights seems to melt in the face of a good tree, no matter how high I climb. It's no surprise I was immediately excited when I discovered a book called Wild Trees, about the admirably insane people who string up ropes in ancient redwoods, "skywalking" from trunk to trunk, and take naps in canopies 300 feet above the ground.
Written by Richard Preston, noted previously for novels that combine science and suspense to weave an engaging story, this book provides a fair balance between biology, botany and adventure. In a loose chronological structure, it is mostly a narrative story that details the lives of the most prominent climbers of big trees. Preston describes climbing excursions that will cause your heart to lift into your throat as passionate individuals lift themselves far above the forest floor. Between episodes of risk and excitement, though, are explanations of tree growth cycles, forest ecology, climbing techniques and more, all in clear layman's terms.
The only downfall of this book is its somewhat monotonous litany of dimensions and statistics. You will learn more than you ever wanted to know about the heights, widths and locations of the tallest trees in the world. I listened to this in audiobook form, so I had no choice but to listen to all the details. If you read it for yourself, though, I imagine it will be easy to bypass overly specific data.
Another drawback that could be considered a negative point for this book is that it delves deeply into a very small subculture with little room for participation. It would be rather difficult to go out after reading this book, find the correct equipment, and start climbing tall trees in your area, especially if you don't live in the relatively small area where redwood trees still grow.
For an excellent opportunity to pick up some mostly-useless trivia, a basic understanding of trees and their environment, and the latest techniques for swinging through Earth's largest living things, I would highly recommend this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Needs a Ruthless Edit
Comment: This book could easily have been edited in half, so much of it was irrelevant fluff. Yes there was a story to be told, but it was padded out with the prosaic details of it's subjects personal lives. Why would we want to know their golf handicaps, or what they have for breakfast? These people are interesting for the exceptional things they do, and where some context in their wider experiences would have added power and meaning to the story, Preston simply over does this, and actually weakens the story.
The writing style is painfully uneconomical. Condensing the narrative, and increasing the complexity of its sentence structure would intensify the reading experience.
I believe the science described in this book. I think it's important and it interests me, but there just wasn't enough of it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book!!
Comment: Richard Preston has a way of making a scientific story come to life by bringing you into the lives of those who lived it. By far my favorite of all his I've read. This is now on my list of favorite books of all time. If you love trees, you'll be crazy about this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment!
Comment: I was expecting too much from this book and I was VERY disappointed. What I got was a mediocre, disjointed story of the activities and love lives of tree-climbing geeks looking for little more than the adventure of the climb and the search for the world's tallest tree.
I was expecting a book that better described what was found in their climbs. Where was the emotion? What did it look like? Where are the pictures for those of us who will never climb a redwood? Where was any sense of the majesty and awe and timelessness that one feels in presence of these ancient giants? It is unlikely that anyone who had never experienced the redwood forest would appreciate any of that majesty from this book. Are the redwoods there just to be climbed? Is that their only value? It would be easy to think so after reading this book.
The few hand drawings and the brief, inept descriptions gave me NO feeling for what was really there in the forest. And I've been there many times. What about the folks who have never seen the unbelievable magnificence of the redwood forest? What could they sense from this book of the awe one feels by just being in the presence of these timeless giants? Could there have been a few real pictures? Where are the impassioned environmental reasons for saving the forest? This book tells more of ropes and carbiners than it does of any of this.
These guys were aledged scientists, yet this book tells very little of what they found of any scientific value. Where was their scientific curiosity? What are their passions beyond just climbing the trees?
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Muddle
Comment: The Wild Trees has several different elements - some work but most don't. I generally enjoyed the parts that focused on the trees and the related ecosystems. However, I would have preferred he focus more on facts and the science and less on trying to inspire awe. I understand the trees are tall, wide and old, but his endless references to number of board feet, who was alive when the tree was young, or looking at a solid wall of tree quickly became tiresome. Most of the book focused on several characters who Preston clearly admires but I generally found them to be irresponsible, self-absorbed and annoying. Several of the characters are botany professors or scientists, but it was very unclear from the book whether they were doing worthwhile research or just wasting time climbing trees and occasionally measuring them. The book is non-fiction and the people are who they are; but its not particularly enjoyable reading page after page about the day-to-day lives of people you don't like. Final, a significant portion of the end of the book focused on Preston's experience with tree climbing, a family trip to climb some trees in Scotland and his involvement with some of the book's main characters in an expedition to Australia. This part of the book did not seem to fit with the rest of the book; it seemed as if he just wanted to include some enjoyable experiences he had even though they had little relation to the main story.
Array
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
