The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature

Perhaps I'm a bit obsessive, but this is the first book I've read in a while that I looked forward to reading day after day. It is so rich in the natural sciences combined with Buddhist like awareness that I would only read a few pages per day, wanting to savor every paragraph. The style of writing is mostly conversational in nature which allowed me to really feel what, to some degree, Mr. Haskell felt when he was there. It is a book I never wanted to end - that's what it felt like to me.I'm fortunate to have experienced similar environs in the Cumberland Plateau and southern Appalachian mountains. This book gave me a depth of understanding of the environmental symbiosis that I don't think I would have surmised otherwise. Mr. Haskell has certainly celebrated his UK literary roots combined with scientific expertise. The result is a book worth keeping in your library whether you are a nature lover or not. After reading this book, you may become a nature lover!Post addendum: my cousin lives on the same mountain as Mr. Haskell and pointed out the cove that is the focal point of the book. I didn't have time to go there but I will soon before the wildflower season ends! I was also fortunate to have met Mr. Haskell when he lectured at the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell, GA. He is quite a "regular guy", very down to earth, just like his writing!

This is a wonderful book! If you enjoy science and nature writing, this is a jewel! He truly has a gift for writing and kept me devouring page after page. I learned many things as well! It is easy to see why this was a Pulitzer prize finalist.

I've wanted to read this book for a log time as the premise was interesting to me. The intense study of a square meter of land for a year would be interesting. I did enjoy it and had some real insight. He doesn't necessarily stick to that plot of land, but he does explain the current understanding of the ecosystem surrounding that nature and it helped me understand humanity's role. I found many interesting tidbits, such as why certain Hawks have stopped migrating and how our habits caused that. I would definitely recommend to a nature lover.

As a painter of nature scenes, and nature lover myself, this book carried both my heart and mind through every page. I truly savored the time reading this one. A+++++

I'm surprised this book doesn't have thousands of reviews. It's so well written. I learned so much! It made me feel like a child fascinated with Nature. Note, it's not all rosy, the author comes back to the subject of how we, humans, impacted the nature now and then - which is needed these days. His view felt well balanced.In general, I found the book inspiring. It made me fall in love with Nature all over again.

Books about the world around us seem to come in three distinct genres; political diatribes, literary prose, and hosts of science books little more engaging than textbooks. The Forest Unseen; a year's watch in nature by David George Haskell is something different. He both paints pictures in our minds like Ann Dillard in A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and engages us with entertaining science.The forest is a magical place carefully revealed by David Haskell. "When wonder matures, it peels back experience to seek deeper layers of marvel below. This is science's highest purpose. And the firefly's story is rich in hidden wonder." Mr. Haskell takes us through a series of vignettes each one having just the right does of detail. His descriptions of the red eft, a salamander, drove me to purchase more detailed books on our local amphibians and to look for them with more wonder. I started to feel for the plight of an animal that literally drinks up whatever it walks on through its multi-functional skin organ.This is a book of perspective and how much of the world is truly unseen. "Of the billion microbes that live in the half handful of soil that I have exposed, only one percent can be cultivated and studied in the lab. The interdependencies among the other ninety-nine percent are so tight, and our ignorance about how to mimic or replicate these bonds is so deep, that the microbes die if isolated from the whole." It takes a skillful author to create empathy with a billion microbes.I especially like the way David Haskell balances his view of nature with our existence within it. "...to love nature and to hate humanity is illogical. Humanity is part of the whole. To truly love the world is also to love human ingenuity and playfulness. Nature does not need to be cleansed of human artifacts to be beautiful or coherent. Yes, we should be less greedy, untidy, wasteful, and shortsighted. But let us not turn responsibility into self-hatred."Get a copy of this book and savor The Forest Unseen

This book is a great read for people in the environment field and anyone with a passion for nature. It goes very into depth on the ecology of the Tennessee forest. It talks about relationships between organisms and does more than scratch the surface. I read this for a class and it was the greatest out of all the books I’ve read on nature.

Sehr schönes Buch feinen Wald und Natur Liebhaber. Tolle Informationen über Tiere und Pflanzen.

Vale tu tiempo!

Informative and thoughtful.

I found this book interesting and well written. I learnt a lot of things concerning biodiversity and ecology. I recommend it.

The best author to introduce poetic flavor to scientific concepts