If bonsai = (nature + art), multiplied by time, then the books listed here are truly “bonsai books”. Their subjects range from art, aesthetics, and creativity, to our relationships with trees and trees’ relationships with each other.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being, by the music producer Rick Rubin, will change the way you think about creativity; indeed we are creating our lives all of the time. Your Brain on Art: The How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, uses a neuroscience-based approach to examine how our brain is both receptive to art and also changed by art, with positive effects for all of us. The field of neuroaesthetics (or neuroarts) has the potential to improve learning, memory, health and well-being, our communities and our planet.
Richard Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Overstory, is the sole work of fiction included in this list. Powers tells the stories of multiple characters and the various roles that trees played in their lives, sometimes over decades. The stories, grounded in natural history and real events, speak to all of us.
Herman Hesse’s Trees: An Anthology of Writings and Paintings contains the great writer’s observations and poems about trees, along with his original watercolors. Hesse writes, “They struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws . . . Whoever has learned to listen to trees no longer wants to be one. He wants to be nothing except who he is.”
The next two books will help you to know trees. Better observation of trees = better bonsai. The first is The Hidden Company That Trees Keep: Life from Treetops to Root Tips, by James B. Nardi. While this subject may be familiar to many bonsai practitioners the book clearly explains these important relations and would serve as a handy resource. The book is written in an accessible style and is accompanied by excellent line drawings. Tristan Gooley’s book, How to Read a Tree: Clues and Patterns from Bark to Leaves prods us to both look more and see more when we walk in a forest or encounter a lone tree. By systematically considering each part of a tree, Gooley interprets signs that help us to understand how a particular tree came to look as it does. It’s a good exercise for a bonsai practitioner to use when it comes to styling their own trees.
The next two books on the list offer well-written explanations of recent research into the effects that trees have on humans and on other trees. Forest Bathing: How Trees can Help You Find Health and Happiness by Dr. Qing Li, an Associate Professor at the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo and Chairman of the Japanese Society for Forest Medicine, details his own and others research into the very real health benefits of “forest bathing” or “shinrin-yoku” in Japanese. Li recommends walking in a forest while using all of your senses (yes, even taste) so that you can “make the most of the forest” and take in its healing power. He also describes how it is possible to “forest bath” while at work. He includes information about cedar oil, the concept of Yugen, and discusses the Chanoyu (in tea ceremony). You will never think of forests in the same way again. Prepare to have your blood pressure lowered and your immune system boosted.
Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard. Simard is the pioneering researcher who identified the underground fungal networks that trees use to communicate with one another, to not only warn of danger but also to nourish their young. In addition, this book is a moving autobiography. The author’s TED talks have been viewed millions of times. More proof that the world is truly interconnected.
Lastly, I wanted to announce that I have collected a number of essays that first appeared online here into a book, On the Art of Bonsai: Essays about the Past, Present, and Future of the Bonsai Art Form. Just released and available as an e-book or in a paperback edition, it contains new and updated material. Sometimes it’s just nice to hold a book in your own hands.
I would appreciate hearing about your own book recommendations, or about your opinions of my recommended books. Please share your thoughts and thanks for reading this blog. Enjoy the Holidays and have a Healthy and Happy 2024!
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