Okay – I hope I’m done with this book but I may have to check it again for a 3rd read because that’s when I study a book – not often but it does happen – (see Pale Fire by Nabokov).

Nature’s Temples: 
A Natural History of Old Growth Forests   X2+ lol    
by Joan Maloof
Kindle 2016,  216 pages 
Rating 10 / forest conservation 

Reading print books (rather than listening to audio books) is much harder on my aging plus “dry” and allergy-prone eyes, although I love doing them together. That’s called “immersive reading” for me – lol.  Nature’s Temples is in Kindle format only and it was also for a reading group discussion with yours truly being the fearless leader – LOL – so I figure I should read the books, if possible.  And yup,  it was possible but it took a long time going a few pages per reading session. – https://mybecky.blog/2024/03/01/natures-temples-by-joan-maloof/ (my review on this site – and I don’t mention how tired I got or how long it took or how much I had to skim!) 

 So when I finished, rested and was about 1/2 way through on the second time I just had to shut the Kindle down for days (during which time I read /listened to other books  – like Doppelgänger by Naomi Klein.).    

Now, a couple weeks later, I finally finished the last half of the  second reading.  It’s really good  stuff but I had to go back and take a 3rd (!) peek at some parts because I’d forgotten – (oh no, not my brain/memory in addition to my eyes and hips (etc.)! And even after the group discussion was finished (3/31) I still wanted to get at those last chapters because I. was particularly curious about them.  

For instance, we know that trees provide us with oxygen but not, “Two trees provide enough oxygen for one person to breathe over the course of a year.” P 140 – I had to read and think about that a minute.

And/or …  

“… the highest natural oxygen levels ever recorded were in the old-growth Rockefeller Grove in northern California’s Humboldt Redwoods State Park.”    

Also – the bit about aesthetics (in the Humans chapter) was terrific as was the specificity of the benefits to our health. – Wow!  See pages 141 to 146 – 

 On this 2nd reading the first chapters had more or less stuck, but the chapters on fungi and worms were particularly interesting and enjoyable. – Why?  I was rested and I’d had a lbit of background in fungi from “Entangled Life by Mervin Sheldrake  https://mybecky.blog/2021/08/17/entangled-life-by-merlin-sheldrake/ 

 Then came chapters on Water, Fire and Carbon before hitting the final chapter on “The Largest Trees.”    

“Thank God they cannot cut down the clouds.”  Henry David Thoreau – 

I love trees – I always have. They are so big and they seem protective in some way. Kids for the last couple generations have loved dinosaurs – I think it’s because they’re big and seem like protective friends.