Reviews
Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe by Charlotte Gill
rawlyrawl's review against another edition
3.0
Meh....Picking this book up I thought it was going to be about the experience of a tree planter instead I got a short history on the forests. Giving it a since there is no 2 1/2.
jackie_reads_314's review against another edition
emotional
informative
relaxing
slow-paced
2.5
By the end, the book just dragged on. It felt like it was trying to fill up space. It was almost a DNF for me, but perhaps it was also the narrator? Would not read again.
dangermoves's review against another edition
5.0
As a treeplanter muself (I actually read this during planting season haha) I really enjoyed this book. Some scenes sent chills up my spine, things you never want to happen while out in the bush... this book actually refers to coastal planting which is even more hardcore than what I do but made me want to push myself even more to do a season out that way eventually. It’s the funniest job - we love it and we hate it at the same time, all of us, and I think that point was really driven home in this book.
sheena_00110101's review against another edition
4.0
Gill expresses what it’s like to be a tree-planter in a way that makes you feel sympathy and envy at the same time – to feel so intertwined with nature but punished by its elements as well. A wonderful addition is the exploration of the relationships between human civilization and silviculture in different times and locations.
mooncrab's review against another edition
5.0
Soooo good. Charlotte Gill is an EXCELLENT writer. I am still so blown away at how beautiful and perfectly chosen every word is; she’s skilled at conjuring sensory scenes with each sentence. Perhaps I am biased because I am in love with Vancouver Island and the magical rainforests of the PNW, and already having this connection deepened the emotional impact her words had on me. I have driven on the logging roads and witnessed the clear cuts with a gutting intensity. I have wrapped my arms around the ancient giants, only covering a small fraction of the diameter. I’ve known and loved tree planters, and always sat with curiosity as they shared their experiences out on the block & stowed away in camps. I always knew that I’m not suited for the planting life, and am now extra confident that I couldn’t do it. It takes an extremely adventurous soul to do the job, and a surplus of physical energy is required. Gill is honest, raw and thorough with her recollections yet I am certain she omitted tons of spicy stories that are sacred to those who lived through it. This book must be necessary reading before one embarks on their first tree planting season, and for those of us who will never get to the bush, it’s a unique & special book that will transport you there. I loved reading this so much and highly recommend it.
sashagrons's review against another edition
3.0
I read this book because I wanted to learn more about tree planting life - especially the human side of it. Instead, I found myself skipping through long passages about the biology of forests and the history of tree planting back to the Romans. I suppose I wanted something different than what this book is: I wanted more of a journalistic take on tree planting (the industry, the power struggles, the relationship with logging) interwoven with some incisive personal reflections about tree planting life, including what it means to be a woman in this field. Instead, it felt more like a meditation on the act of planting trees itself, down to the smallest detail. They tell you not to write in cliches, but...perhaps this was a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. :P (Also, by the end of the book, I still have very little clue as to why people choose to plant trees for years on end. It sounds awful.)
annachronism's review against another edition
4.0
5 for evocative prose. 3 for hit and miss content.
celinereadsabook's review against another edition
2.0
This book was fine. Lots of it was well-researched and interesting from a non-fiction standpoint, however the prose is gratuitously descriptive almost as if to pad an already short book with extra length. A copy of this book is about 240 pages, however I suspect that with normal formatting (without the larger font and extra wide margins) it wouldn't be longer than 175 pages. Even this feels too long for the relatively simple narrative Gill is weaving. The value of this book is in the light shed on the silviculture and forestry industries in BC, not in Gill's storytelling abilities.