A Radically Enthusiastic View of a Hidden World
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds, Change our Minds & Shape our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake. Random House. 2020
Every Friday I look forward to reading Ron Charles’s email highlighting what he and his family are reading and what book news and reviews the Washington Post as published that week.
In July 2020 he introduced this remarkable book, writing that his dad was reading it, and the author
“has tweeted the most wonderfully bizarre book promo I’ve ever seen.”
When I sampled the book, I was hooked immediately. As was clear from his video, the author, Merlin Sheldrake, is a little bit crazy!
He seems so young to be so accomplished. He has traveled and studied far and wide, and he has become an expert on every aspect of the fascinating hidden world of fungi. It is hard not to be seduced by his enthusiasm.
His charming writing is enhanced by many drawings scattered throughout and by a compact selection of historical and illustrative photographs.
The book is full of surprises. I did not know that
“Fungi make up one of life’s kingdoms — as broad and busy a category as ‘animals’ or ‘plants.’”
Most of us know much about the plant and animal kingdoms but little about fungi. This book will entertain you and teach you about these neglected creatures.
