How to Read Nature

This book turned out to be something other than what I expected. As context, I grew up in Boy Scouts and have always been enchanted by nature, and I now study the natural world for a living. So a book called "How to Read Nature" got me excited to learn about "how to read nature".Unfortunately I don't think I was the target audience. This book is 90% motivational speech, 10% "how to read nature". The motivational speeches are great, and he is completely correct about the value of getting your head out of the sand and starting to pay attention to the natural world around you. But it became tedious to continuously read that same speech re-told in different ways over and over. I wanted more meat I could sink my teeth into, actual concrete specifics for how to read nature. General guidelines are provided which can be applied in any location all over the world, but they are fairly obvious and not that helpful to someone like me. At the very end of the book he provides a bibliography to other works with more specifics (I assume). That was probably the most valuable part of the book for me.The goal of this book is to inspire people who don't spend a lot of time observing nature. The problem is that those people aren't likely to read it. With a title like "How to Read Nature" it is attracting a different audience, one like me who already loves nature and would like to learn more about how to actually read it. That wasn't what I got.I appreciate the author and his passion for the subject. I feel a sense of kinship to him for this. I certainly couldn't have written a better book (and he is indeed a good writer). The title is simply a bit misleading, probably not on purpose though.

Felt like preaching to the choir. After reading the book I do not know ' how to read nature ' any better than before I read the book.

For those who wish to deeply commune with nature, this book is excellent. Many of Gooley's recommendations are akin to what I did while hunting some 40 years ago in Montana. Hiking is insufficient for elk, deer, and antelope; but hunting awakens latent senses. Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset said that “Man does not stalk in order to kill, he kills in order to have stalked.” It's a feeling of being more fully alive. Gooley does not send readers stalking, but his suggestions can generate the same keen sensitivities. Suffice to say that the book makes nature ever so much more exciting and delightful. I must add that my daughter bought the book and literally field tested on her two young children. The results confirmed my expectations. My only criticism is that Gooley does occasionally take too long making his case

The author says on page 141-142 that our body temperature fluctuates by 34 degrees in a circadian rhythm. It certainly does not!! We'd be deader than a door-nail. No proof-reading?

I think that the author and myself are very much alike in our vision of the world. I understand why he writes what he writes. However, he does so in a bad way. This book lacks structure, and facts. The few facts that are in this book are inaccurate or reductions of the reality. It isn't good enough to be called a book to learn reading nature. Maybe distantly a book about mindfulness? A bad one.

The natural world is full of wonder if you just look around. This book is about slowing downand finding amazing things all around you no matter where you live our travel. It is a newway to look at everything you've been missing.

Informative and instructional with a bit of entertainment. Many lessons are wrapped into this book. I only wish that I had the time to make all of the noted observations a sort of second nature for myself.Good podcast featuring Gooley at Art of Manliness which I heard several months after reading a couple of Gooley's books.

This book came highly recommended. After perusing it, I can understand why.

Super excited to read this book and collect the series for my kids, I was kinda bummed to see the cover had a bunch of marks and dings in it. Not a huge deal since my boys will probably add to the marks but disappointing when you buy it new and it comes like that.

It was OK.

Go out into the countryside, the park, the garden or even tend your windowbox.You will connect with nature more meaningfully by pursuing your activity of choice in whatever natural surroundings are available to you, than by reading this book.