2013 read #13: The Tree by Colin Tudge.

The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter by Colin Tudge
413 pages
Published 2006
Read from January 20 to January 23
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5

At one point, natural history was my favorite subject. When I was a 'tween and teen I read and reread every book on dinosaurs I could get my hands on (even a college textbook, which I found very impressive indeed at the time). E. O. Wilson's The Diversity of Life, which I first read when I was 13 or so, was long one of my favorite books. As an adult, though, I haven't been motivated to pursue that interest outside of a couple college courses. (And even then I tended to judiciously skim the reading assignments.) Over the last twelve years I've read a handful of pop-science books on geology, a couple more on Cenozoic paleontology, and that's pretty much it.

I'm not sure why I can't seem to marshal the interest. One possible reason: Every pop-science book that treats with biology or paleobiology invariably devotes space to explaining babby's first basics of evolution -- useful if you're trying to educate the general reader, tedious if you've been reading basically that same chapter in dozens of books since you were 11. (The Tree adheres to this rule to the letter.) More to the point: There just aren't that many good natural history books out there to grab my interest. With dinosaurs, my knowledge base exceeds anything I'm likely to find in a pop-science title (and in any case I've already read most of them anyway). With biology, the available books either focus on the mechanics of evolution (kind of boring) or on one tiny particular topic within the field (sea turtles, for example, or dung beetles) -- or worse, on some stupid irrelevant bullshit about Darwin's religious inclinations. With geology or non-dinosaur paleontology, there are vanishingly few pop-science books period.

So it's always a treat to discover a natural history book that covers an interesting, seldom-visited topic -- and even more of a treat when that book is well-written and engaging. The Tree has its flaws, but it's probably one of the better natural history books I've read as an adult. It's not in the same league as John McPhee's terrific (and Pulitzer Prize winning) Annals of the Former World, but what is? The point is, I enjoyed it, and came away from it feeling like some learning took place.

My main complaint about The Tree has to do with the treacly religious sentiment Tudge kneads through the book, particularly in the early chapters. As long as you accept the reality of reality, I don't give a damn what your religious views are. Which means I'd appreciate it if you leave them out of your natural history book altogether. I'm here to read about trees, not for your thoughts on God and Jesus and Moses.

Something that didn't bother me so much, but might bore you if you decide to pick it up, was the book's entire middle section, an occasionally arid list of select families and genera of notable trees. Tudge's winsome prose handily sped me through all 158 pages of this overview, but even I'll admit I bogged down a bit in the chapters on the familiar, conventional groups. I want to learn more about cycads, nipa palms, grasstrees, and araucarias, the weird stuff with funky adaptations, not read page after page of how pear wood and maple wood are employed in home furnishings and woodcuts. The book Tudge decided to write and the book I wanted to read didn't overlap entirely. Like I said, though, he kept it from getting tedious.

As with all popular science books, this one would've benefited enormously from lavish color illustrations of basically every species mentioned in the text. Googling grasstrees was an absorbing pursuit (seriously, Google grasstrees if you don't know what I'm talking about), but the book would've been better if it illustrated its subjects. Maybe bundle it with a companion coffee table book, or do the popular thing these days and re-release it as a special illustrated edition. I know it isn't economical to illustrate every book like a top-of-the-line textbook, but it would be nice. Even a dozen color plates would've helped.