Reviewing Llewellyn and Maloof’s "The Living Forest"

Maybe this book would technically be categorized as a “coffee table book” due to its large dimensions and high-quality photographs. Yet The Living Forest: A Visual Journey Into the Heart of the Woods also contains a lot of informational text and can serve a few purposes beyond the casual leafing-through that “coffee table books” tend to receive.

First, it’s a scientific book, describing the forest as a macro-organism. Its multitudinous components coordinate like cells in a body, from lichens and moss to trees, frogs to deer, roots to canopy. Although a little “tree hugger”-ish sometimes, and a too enamored of evolutionary theory in others, this book helps the reader rethink their perspective of a forest. Instead of a backdrop, it’s a living, growing, changing thing; hungry, thirsty, with instincts to survive and multiply.

Second, it’s a beautiful book both in imagery and in word. Again, there were times when I disagreed with authors Robert Llewellyn and Joan Maloof’s tone, but there’s no denying the poetic slant of the prose. And, coupled with the full-color, full-page photography, it made for a nice book to read before going to sleep. (Except the chapter about insects and spiders; that one I wished I’d read a little earlier in the evening.)

Third, it’s a thoughtful book. I’ve been looking into meditation a little bit, as some acquaintances have described how it benefited them. It’s hard to find instruction on the more technical ways to learn meditation, though, and I’d rather not have to try to pick and choose bits of advice from new age or eastern religion books. The Living Forest is not about meditation, really, but in spite of its evolutionary perspective I couldn’t help but connect all of the intricate, beautiful, wondrous things described about nature to their Creator.

Psalm 19 says that “The heavens declare the glory of God.”

So do the forests.