The Overstory by Richard Powers - A Book Recommendation

 I really loved reading this book,The Overstory by Richard Powers. I often tell my wife, "This is the best book I have ever read" - and I said it for this one.  After reading it, I decided I had to find and read everything this author wrote. If you look him up, Richard Powers, you will get some idea of the breadth of his work. I am always amazed at how broad a background of information an author puts into a really good story. We have biology, neuroscience, psychology, politics, medicine, computers, love and life.

But the main reason to read this book is that it will fill  you with a sense of AWE. Awe is as near to a religious experience as I am ever going to get, and this book gave it to me in almost every chapter. I had to stop and think a bit for every one. I thought I had a handle on life, the universe and meaning and purpose - but this opened up a whole new dimension for me. I used to marvel at the bird that could fly to my bird feeder. Now the tree it flits from is even more amazing. The world is alive!

The book is basically about trees - and the author presents a huge number of amazing things about trees, how they operate, talk, cooperte, and affect the whole planet. He tells the story through a small group of humans, and how they interact with trees, and with each other. It has life, and love, adventure, risk, tragedy, joy and sadness. The author understands humans as well as he does trees.

The planet is in terrible shape. We are destroying it rapidly, as compared to how it slowly grew to be the amazing assemblage of life that it once was. I do my best to have as minimal a negative impact as I can. You could do worse than reading the paper pages of this book, even if it cost a small tree. Or, better, get it from the library, or buy the Kindle edition. 

Trust me - read this - you will love it, and it will change how you think about trees, humans, love, life and the planet. And, one by one, we might be able to actually work this out. If not, the trees will eventually put it back, and move it forward after we are gone.