“This book can open our eyes to a world unknown to most people. It makes readers aware why even a bark beetle, mosquito, or other – as we like to say  – pests are essential elements of the ecosystem,” says Zuzanna Sendor from the University of Warsaw Library about “The Hidden Life of Trees”. In the “Read with UW” series, we present a book for holidays.

Zuzanna Sendor works at the Information Desk in the University of Warsaw Library. She provides information and helps readers find books. In her off-hours, she often reads detective stories, choosing mainly Polish and Scandinavian ones. Among Polish authors, she appreciates the prose of Wojciech Chmielarz and Jakub Żulczyk. Annually, she reads about 40-50 books, most of them, of course, during the summer holidays.

In the “Read with UW” series (#CzytajzUW), she chose a book that she had read herself while on holiday. She recommends “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate―Discoveries from A Secret World” by Peter Wohlleben, a German forester involved in nature conservation. The book helps us think of forests differently.

Wood Wide Web

“Wohlleben talks passionately about the properties and habits of trees, and at the same time draws the reader into his beloved world of the forest. We can learn, for example, that trees can communicate with each other using fragrances, electrical impulses, and even by using mycelium, which the author describes as the wood wide web,” stresses Zuzanna Sendor. “I think that, especially during summer hiking, it is worth paying more attention to the surrounding nature,” she adds.

Other books by Peter Wohlleben are also available at the University of Warsaw Library.