Hearbeat of Trees

The Weaver Reads reviewed The Heartbeat of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Goodreads Review of The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature

3 stars

First, the good: I learned a lot of different things about trees and the forest.

The bad: I couldn’t tell what this book was supposed to be about. Was it about some specific aspect of trees and/or the forest? Was it meant to draw readers in, who may want to learn more in the future? Was it an environmentalist text? A memoir? Something else? I simply couldn’t tell.

The writing here on indigenous peoples in Canada felt particularly egregious, although I think Wohlleben simply doesn’t know enough about them. Moreover, he seemed to just have a general naivety about the world in general, which was touching, but it made the book feel a bit wishy-washy.

I like Wohlleben’s writing, and I heard good things about his other books, but this one just didn’t do it for me. Better luck next time.

wzhkevin reviewed Heartbeat of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Unnecessarily sentimental?

2 stars

I did not enjoy this anywhere near as much as I did The Hidden Life of Trees. In fact, I failed to realise the two were by the same author until just before I started writing this. Now I'm wondering whether I misremembered enjoying The Hidden Life of Trees, or even reading The Hidden Life of Trees in the first place.

I empathise with the author's environmental/ecological position, but I think he asks us to anthropomorphise trees and forests to a degree that I find unreasonable and unnecessary. I don't need to believe that trees have a consciousness to understand their importance, to love them, to cherish our relationship with them. I don't need to believe that trees experience pain to understand and agree that they need to be cared for. If anything, I think it does a disservice to the environmental/ecological cause to insist that things be "like us" …

I did not enjoy this anywhere near as much as I did The Hidden Life of Trees. In fact, I failed to realise the two were by the same author until just before I started writing this. Now I'm wondering whether I misremembered enjoying The Hidden Life of Trees, or even reading The Hidden Life of Trees in the first place.

I empathise with the author's environmental/ecological position, but I think he asks us to anthropomorphise trees and forests to a degree that I find unreasonable and unnecessary. I don't need to believe that trees have a consciousness to understand their importance, to love them, to cherish our relationship with them. I don't need to believe that trees experience pain to understand and agree that they need to be cared for. If anything, I think it does a disservice to the environmental/ecological cause to insist that things be "like us" before we care about them.

I appreciate that perhaps the author prefers to relate to trees in this way, and finds meaning in relating to trees in this way, but I personally just found it deeply cloying. I couldn't get past it. Maybe others can.

wzhkevin reviewed Hearbeat of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Review of 'Hearbeat of Trees' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I did not enjoy this anywhere near as much as I did The Hidden Life of Trees. In fact, I failed to realise the two were by the same author until just before I started writing this. Now I'm wondering whether I misremembered enjoying The Hidden Life of Trees, or even reading The Hidden Life of Trees in the first place.

I empathise with the author's environmental/ecological position, but I think he asks us to anthropomorphise trees and forests to a degree that I find unreasonable and unnecessary. I don't need to believe that trees have a consciousness to understand their importance, to love them, to cherish our relationship with them. I don't need to believe that trees experience pain to understand and agree that they need to be cared for. If anything, I think it does a disservice to the environmental/ecological cause to insist that things be "like us" …

I did not enjoy this anywhere near as much as I did The Hidden Life of Trees. In fact, I failed to realise the two were by the same author until just before I started writing this. Now I'm wondering whether I misremembered enjoying The Hidden Life of Trees, or even reading The Hidden Life of Trees in the first place.

I empathise with the author's environmental/ecological position, but I think he asks us to anthropomorphise trees and forests to a degree that I find unreasonable and unnecessary. I don't need to believe that trees have a consciousness to understand their importance, to love them, to cherish our relationship with them. I don't need to believe that trees experience pain to understand and agree that they need to be cared for. If anything, I think it does a disservice to the environmental/ecological cause to insist that things be "like us" before we care about them.

I appreciate that perhaps the author prefers to relate to trees in this way, and finds meaning in relating to trees in this way, but I personally just found it deeply cloying. I couldn't get past it. Maybe others can.

Woile

rated it

June 10, 2023