The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs, by Tristan Gooley

I cracked this book at the start of the year when I began my quest to get “back to nature.” It was a natural place to start: the title is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to explore in my reading this year.

But I had to quit.

Gooley would say things like, “It is obvious that x had happened in this situation,” and it certainly was NOT obvious to me. Not even close.

So I backtracked a bit, starting with some of Gooley’s other books, with more focused topics. I read magazines about living off the land. I read fiction books where characters are living off the land and talking about how they do so.

Then I came back.

On the return, I concluded that The Lost Art is still a book that is best suited to experienced “walkers” or natural navigators, while I am knocking at novice’s door. The information in this book is amazing, thorough, and full of Gooley’s insights and experiences. The problem is that it is simply too much information, too many topics for a beginner to absorb. For someone experienced in the outdoors, this would be a great refresher or source for next level observations. For me, it felt like a firehose. If I had the leisure and opportunity to go on an extended walking tour and just tackle one concept at a time as I went, it would be great. But from my armchair, it was too much to be able to consider looking for, though I feel better about things now than I did ten months ago.

So the problem is with me, not with the book.

My favorite parts are when Gooley describes a walk that he went on, when he breaks down what he saw when, and what that meant in the moment. It really models well how to think Natural Navigator, and it helped me to tie multiple concepts together in a context that made sense. I highly recommend any of Gooley’s books for anyone interested in the outdoors, but I would talk to them about the order to tackle the books.