I really liked this book. Yes, I studied some mycology at university and I've always been rather fascinated by fungi ...especially by the km of mycelium that run underground, or through leaf litter ir through the trunks of trees. Sheldrake has produced a work here that makes mycology really interesting and gives some dimension to the wealth of fungal life in our world. And most people are totally oblivious to fungi and to their importance to our lives. For example, Sheldrake draws attention to the carboniferous age 290-360 million years ago, when forest proliferated across the globe ...but for tens of millions of years the plant matter didn't decompose.......... hence the vast beds of coal in various locations.........because there were no organisms around that could break down lignin...and it was the emergence of the white rot fungi that had the the ability to do this that brought the formation of coal to an end. It also changed the climate because CO2 had been pulled from the atmosphere.....the reverse of the greenhouse effect.....so the world had cooled. ( )

What a fun book to read. Sheldrake is a good writer and he knows a lot of interesting stuff. And he’s a bit of a lovable weirdo. And a good scientist! Also, fungus is very intriguing and an important part of life on earth. I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes natural science who isn’t afraid of a tiny touch of silliness. ( )

I bought this book at an exhibition in Kyoto in late 2022. It’s a lovely collection of the art of Konoshima Okoku though it focuses mainly on his paintings and sketches of animals there were other works in the exhibition (and in the book also). He was clearly influenced by Chinese painters and the work demonstrates this influence. But, I find his animal paintings just superb….. and the book has enlarged a few of the sections within the paintings to give one a closer look at the detail and the technique. There is one painting of cows in a dairy pp40-43 which I just love. I think it was a screen ….. so very long and able to capture both the farmers bringing ib the hay with the cows looking very contented in the dairy. But lovingly captured and delicate colouration. The cover illustration is also screen in the original …. With a small fox in the snow in the middle of a bamboo grove. It appears to be monochrome but apparently there is some green tea colour applied to the bamboo trunks. There is a lovely sense of balance about the whole work with a concentration of the forest and the fox towards the centre and a sparse half moon on the upper right. A lovely work.
I really enjoyed the exhibition (though it was a cold wet day in Kyoto). Also loved the sketch of three artists sketching…… apparently cold and raining? presumably this is Okoku and friends but it demonstrates the sheer hard work that went into achieving the finished paintings. I must confess that I’ve just spent a lot of time with Google translate on this book and been totally confused because it translates Okoku’s name as something completely different and I couldn’t understand who this “Sakuradani Kajima” was that they kept referring to. Assume it’s alternatives for the Kanji.
But really love the paintings and the work. Happy to give this five stars. ( )

It was interesting to hear about pervasive fungi are. And they can "think" in the sense of solving problems like optimal routine. They can also grow incredibly fast and apparently can form networks for distributing nutrients symbiotically to plants. The personal psilocybin anecdotes were a bit fanciful, however. ( )

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/EbzDcchqG9s

Enjoy! ( )