Books on Nature- Mycelium Recommends
"A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors." – Charles Baudelaire
Imagine reading, stretched out on a rug, or in a hammock, curled up in an easy chair, or just sitting on a lawn. All around you are trees and plants. Your attention strays a bit and you can hear birdcall, some insects, maybe even an animal or two. You turn back to the book, and are soon lost in the words.
While the very act of reading is pleasurable, there is something about reading in nature that takes it to up a notch. And here to help you do just that are some book suggestions from us at Mycelium. This list comes from the library of Vinod Chandramouli.
The Human Age : The world shaped by us - Diane Ackerman
Written by acclaimed nature writer, Diane Ackerman, The Human Age straddles the worlds of science, nature, and society. In doing so, it asks important questions. What is the impact of human life on the world around us? How does the Anthropocene era translate into ethical decisions?
What works is the writing style, approachable, anecdotal, scientific, steeped with an insight and empathy that one has come to expect from the writer.
From the book: “The trend for rewilding our cities is growing. It’s positive, it enlightens, it’s widespread, and it helps. We need to retrofit and reimagine cities as planet-friendly citadels. They’re our hives and reefs. Sea mussels aren’t the only animals living in individual shells that are glued together.”
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben
There is a reason why this book is such a beloved read. Peter Wohlleben has written something truly remarkable in his exploratory work in the intricacy in the world of trees. How they are not unmoving, stolid beings, but deeply interconnected and complex beings. From the underground network of fungi that is their communication and nutrition system, to how relationships are built and nurtured among them, the book offers an in-depth look into the world we think we know, but don’t. It will change your perspective of trees, showing them as sentient, interactive beings.
From the book: “We have learned that mother trees recognize and talk with their kin, shaping future generations. In addition, injured trees pass their legacies on to their neighbors, affecting gene regulation, defense chemistry, and resilience in the forest community.”
Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Do we even think about moss? What do we know about it? A member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer uses her scientific experience and her Native American heritage to shed light in this often-unseen world. There is a philosophical bent in this book as Kimmer speaks of the lessons of the moss, including those of resilience and patience. How do we connect better to the world? How do we see the small details we so often miss? Read this book to know more.
From the book: “There is an ancient conversation going on between mosses and rocks, poetry to be sure. About light and shadow and the drift of continents. This is what has been called the "dialect of moss on stone - an interface of immensity and minute ness, of past and present, softness and hardness, stillness and vibrancy, yin and yan.”
What a Mushroom Lives for: Matsutake and the Worlds They Make by Michael J. Hathaway
This is an astonishing book about an astonishing species- the matsutake mushroom. Highly prized, culturally relevant, and important for commerce and cuisine, the mushroom takes centre stage in this book. There have been many attempts to cultivate it in labs, and yet, the matsutake remains firmly independent, preferring to grow in the wild. Michael J. Hathaway uses this ‘companion species’ to speak of the many-layered connections between humans, plants, mushrooms, and animals.
From the book: “The recognition that our nervous system (compared to a housefly's, for example) affects how we experience action, and therefore time, is surprising to many. It shows that we don't experience that world as it is, but only as it is experienced in our specific body. We are compelled, in turn, to recognise that there is a great diversity of bodies and thus, a great diversity of ways of reckoning the world.”
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
Renowned writer Michael Pollan uses four plants, potatoes, apples, cannabis, and tulips to offer an intriguing premise- plants have influenced human behaviour and desires, just as much as humans have chosen what to cultivate. Pollan uses culture, history and ecological changes to build his case where he states that each plant represents an aspect of human desire- namely, control, sweetness, intoxication, and beauty. The question now is- who drives this seemingly symbiotic relationship?
From the book: “Plants are nature’s alchemists, expert at transforming water, soil and sunlight into an array of precious substances, many of them beyond the ability of human beings to conceive, much less manufacture.”
Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent by Pranay Lal
There’s something fascinating in discovering your own country, your own world. Pranay Lal offers a side of India that we don’t often see. Crocodile eggs, Jellyfish in Jodhpur, mighty rivers, catastrophic lava floods, exciting plants, hippos in Kashmir- you can find it all in this book. Written in an approachable, clear style, accompanied by images, maps and illustrations, incredibly well-researched, Indica is a book unlike many others written about India- a book that explores the subcontinent’s natural history, situating it in its rightful place as a land of admirable, abiding flora and fauna.
From the book: “There is however, another, much easier, way of looking at what a Himalayan mountain in made of that does not require you to do any climbing. All you need to do is take a walk along a fast-flowing Himalayan river like the Ramganga near Corbett National Park. The rounded rocks that you will see in the riverbed are broken off bits of the face of a Himalayan mountain.”
Tell us your favourite nature books. Let’s build this collection together, shall we?
Ed Yong's 'An Immense World' is a fantastic book. Looks at the diversity of animal world through the prism of different stimulus adaptation has taken for - vision, touch, pain, surface tension, taste, etc - just mind boggling.