bookish freedom

Title: Entangled Life. How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures Author: Merlin Sheldrake First published: 2020 Dates read: 25.06. – 18.07.2024 Category: first-time read, own book, non-fiction, popular science, biology Rating: 3.5/5 The book in five words or less: comprehensive, informative, a bit dense

My thoughts:

As the subtitle suggests, Entangled Life is a book about fungi: about their incredibly varied ways of life, their importance for the planet’s ecosystem, and their various, often useful but sometimes also unsettling interactions with humans, plants, and animals alike. It is a book that was written by an author who clearly loves and is fascinated by his subject of study, and one that covers a broad range of topics. From edible fungi, yeast fermentation as the basis of brewing and baking, and mushrooms as the providers of psychedelic substances, to algae-fungi symbiosis in lichen, plant-fungi symbiosis in mycorrhizal networks, and animal-fungi symbiosis in, among other things, termites and leaf cutter ants, to parasitic fungi that spread through controlling insects and the potential of mycelium as building material and for breaking up various harmful substances – Merlin Sheldrake not only thoroughly investigates the various ways in which human, animal and plant life intersect with fungi, but also the often hidden but integral role fungi play for biological life on earth.

In fact, now that I’m writing this review, I’m finding it hard to summarize or even remember all the various aspects the author covers, which is perhaps also my one criticism: While Sheldrake is clearly very excited by his subject and that excitement translates to the page, structurally the book is often slow-going and dense, and the shifts from one topic to the next aren’t always easy to follow. Which is not to say that I didn’t enjoy Entangled Life, just that I wish the author spent a little more time signposting where his thoughts were headed, and how his more personal anecdotes related to the research he was introducing through them. That said, Sheldrake convincingly shows that fungi defy most categorizations and make us question what we think we know about the natural world and how it works, and that it is worth to be lead by curiosity and the will to question our collective knowledge about nature. Despite it’s (subjective, I admit) flaws, Entangled Life is definitely worth picking up, especially if you’re interested in accessible science and the interconnectedness of animal, plant, and fungal life.

25/10/25

my research paper got accepted and will be published soon! very happy about that

as a celebration i bought myself a copy of "katabasis". this polish edition is absolutely beautiful 🖤

Glimpses of April, new video out tomorrow, hope you enjoy it.

.

Raw space is a panther, feral and primal; they dream it stalking through their quarters.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

31st May '36

working on my crime mapping readings today! the topic is the criminology of place.

☕️~ tetley's tea with agave and soy milk. if caffeine didn't make me jumpy i'd have ten cups a day.

Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher