The Nature Instinct

August 1, 2018

Gooley (The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs) continues sharing his life's work of decoding nature's signs. Here, he differentiates between slow thinking (characterized by comparison, calculation, or deliberate choices) and fast thinking (subconsciously reading signs through experience), teaching readers how to develop their fast thinking skills. While some people still use these skills to navigate the world, most of us do not have this ability. Using examples mainly from his home in rural England, Gooley instructs how to navigate using the sun, constellations, or even plants; anticipating the actions of animal species and determining habitat types through plant species. VERDICT Gooley presents a personal, well-researched, and fascinating look at immersing oneself in nature and understanding what one sees. It serves as a nice companion to his previous work.--Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove, IL

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 23, 2018
With the promise of fostering a level of awareness so rarefied as to be a “sixth sense,” Cooley (How to Read Nature) takes readers on a journey to acquaint them with the sounds and signs of nature. Using information gleaned from a “lifelong pursuit of outdoors awareness,” Cooley shares the enriching “outdoor skills” that, like any skills, he promises, can be improved with practice. Cooley’s lessons, of course, require many quiet and attentive walks in nature, but he shows that the lessons are there for those willing to spend the time. Readers learn the “browse, bite and haven” clues left by rabbits and deer so they can see animals in places overlooked before, anticipate the next move of animals as they head for cover, or pay attention when songbirds issue an alarm. Even the patterns that a flock of sheep gather in have stories to tell. As the lessons become more challenging and signs more subtle—anticipating seasonal changes, for instance, or assessing the age of a hedge—the rewards are there for those willing to learn the lessons provided in this detailed and lovely book.

July 15, 2018
It all comes down to paying attention: Naturalist Gooley (How to Read Nature, 2017, etc.) writes affectingly of how to recapture our ability to live in the real world with senses "almost forgotten and steamrollered by our modern lifestyle."If you scare a fish, which way will it dart? That's the kind of thing you might find highly useful to know if you lived near a stream and far from any other source of provisions. It's also the kind of thing you're not likely to know unless you've logged time splashing around with startled fish, which is where wilderness guide and interpreter Gooley comes in. "I have sat with Dayak tribespeople," he writes with luminous awe, "as they explained that a deer would appear over the brow of a hill, and was amazed moments later when my eyes met those of a muntjac in the predicted spot." How would a Dayak know the exact moment when a deer would emerge? Sight, sound, smell--and perhaps the law of probability, which suggests that a deer might appear at a salt lick or creek within a certain range of times over another range of times. Other lessons the author brings back from the wild include how to know when a leopard is watching you and how to know when one of those aforementioned deer is pretty sure you're not going to catch it. Of course, even the most attentive predator is successful only a small percentage of the time, but knowing that is part of knowing the world, too. Gooley's book, which features occasional illustrations by Gower, is a useful owner's manual for anyone who likes to get outdoors and be immersed in something beyond the asphalt--whether part of an eddy in which "our scent is announcing our presence to any animal with a nose" or someone merely appreciative of the fact that vultures can discern the living from the dead from two miles away.A welcome read for the outdoor inclined.

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