A Sand County Almanac
by Aldo Leopold · first published 1964
45% recommend55% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Lyrical, story-driven nature writing that changes how the reader sees land and wildlife. Its essays are a delight to read and suit anyone interested in ecology and conservation.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
First published in 1949 and praised in The New York Times Book Review as a trenchant book, full of vigor and bite, A Sand County Almanac combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for Americas relationship to the land. Written with an unparalleled understanding of the ways of nature, the book includes a section on the monthly changes of the Wisconsin countryside; another part that gathers informal pieces written by Leopold over a forty-year period as he traveled through the woodlands of Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, Sonora, Oregon, Manitoba
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I can't recommend Leopold's A Sand County Almanac enough. I first heard of it on HN, actually, and I'm so glad to see more of his work posted here. For another great essay by him, give Good Oak a read.
on “Thinking Like a Mountain (1949)” ↗Aldo Leopold, "Sand County Almanac". In German: Josef Reichholf, "Mein Leben für die Natur".
on “I should have loved biology (2020)” ↗It's worth remebering this last phrase "In that simple fashion does the man who outwitted the cleverest of animal criminals tell his story." whilst reading Aldo Leopold famous short piece from A Sand County Almanac, Thinking Like a Mountain: https://ia600707.us.archive.org/6/items/ThinkingLikeAMountai...
on “"The Custer Wolf is Dead." (1921) [pdf]” ↗Your writing is very reminiscent of Aldo Leopold's in 'A Sand County Almanac' (which is an equal delight to read)
on “A Few of the Birds I Love” ↗…control rather than weed prevention--many times weeds are the effect of some underlying cause (land misuse, etc.). Anyway I really dig Leopold and his philosophy, if you've never heard of him give A Sand County Almanac [2] a try. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Leopold 1: https://books.google.com/books?id=-StPpe04gS8C&pg=PA306&lpg=... 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sand_County_Almanac
on “Learning to Love Dandelions (2021)” ↗Eh I think there are at least a few notable differences compared to those list items. Most powerful one is storytelling. I’ve recently been reading a few books by naturalists (e.g. A Sand County Almanac, which is incredible) and that has changed my views far, far more effectively than any of the things you listed. Other benefits video games might have even over a great story seem like they’d be notable:…
on “Can video games change people’s minds about the climate crisis?” ↗…out his days. It might be wise to prohibit at once all teaching of real botany and real history, lest some future citizen suffer qualms about the floristic price of his good life." --Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
on “Silphium” ↗…out his days. It might be wise to prohibit at once all teaching of real botany and real history, lest some future citizen suffer qualms about the floristic price of his good life." --Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
on “2,400-year-old baskets still filled with fruit found in submerged Egyptian city” ↗The top predator effect was noted by Aldo Leopold in an essay included in A Sand County Almanac, of the removal of wolves from wild lands especially through the American Southwest and West, "Thinking Like a Mountain". The collection was published after Leopold's death, in 1949, and so his observations…
on “The Ecologist Who Threw Starfish” ↗…integrated transect of a century; that our saw was biting its way, stroke by stroke, decade by decade, into the chronology of a lifetime, written in concentric annual rings of good oak." -Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
on “Burning Buried Sunshine (2003) [pdf]” ↗Somewhat off topic, but if anyone's read Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, he talks about how the American Southwest, specifically Arizona, used to be green. Apparently the familiar reddish brown resulted from human impact
on “New research reveals why and when the Sahara Desert was green” ↗…have written or co-written the leading textbook on ecology, Fundamentals of Ecology. Howard came up with an "energy circuit language" that's remarkably similar to a similar concept of Aldo Leopold's (Sand County Almanac), though both Odum and Leopold sources claim no mutual awareness at the time. 11. Smil's books, Energy and Civilization (https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-and-civilization-a-his...), an update to…
on “Galactic-Scale Energy (2011)” ↗…Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery Cosmicomics Why Quark Rhymes with Pork The Unfolding of Language A Sand County Almanac
on “Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?” ↗…wild, and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech.” - Foreword to A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, 1949
on “I've Overlayed Stays on a Light Pollution Satellite Map” ↗…by Charles C. Mann, which I’ve just started reading, hypothesizes that Indigenous peoples in the Americas actively transformed their environment to a much greater extent than previously believed. "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold since he is referenced in the article.
on “Nature’s Ghosts: The World We Lost and How to Bring it Back” ↗