11 must-read nature books like The Meaning of Birds by Simon Barnes

Cover of The Meaning of Birds by Simon Barnes

The Meaning of Birds

By: Simon Barnes

4.23

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

A gorgeously illustrated and enchanting examination of the lives of birds, illuminating their wondr…

If you liked the nature plot in The Meaning of Birds by Simon Barnes , here is a list of 11 books like this:

1. The Genius of Birds

By: Jennifer Ackerman

3.84

Format: 640 pages, Hardcover

Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. According to revolutionary new research, some birds … read more

Similar categories in Jennifer Ackerman's The Genius of Birds book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

2. A Buzz in the Meadow: The Natural History of a French Farm

By: Dave Goulson

3.00

Format: 146 pages, Hardcover

A conservationist's deeply personal and fascinating reflection on owning and revitalizing a farm in… read more

Similar categories in Dave Goulson's A Buzz in the Meadow: The Natural History of a French Farm book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

3. When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

By: Terry Tempest Williams

3.07

Format: None pages, Hardcover

The beloved author of Refugereturns with a work that explodes and startles, illuminates and celebra… read more

Similar categories in Terry Tempest Williams's When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

4. Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness

By: Lyanda Lynn Haupt

3.69

Format: 384 pages,

There are more crows now than ever. Their abundance is both an indicator of ecological imbalance an… read more

Similar categories in Lyanda Lynn Haupt's Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

Cover of Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn

5. Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape

By: Cal Flyn

4.20

Format: 376 pages, Hardcover

Investigative journalist Cal Flyn's ISLANDS OF ABANDONMENT, an exploration of the world's most deso… read more

Similar categories in Cal Flyn's Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • nature
  • ecology
  • natural history
  • nonfiction
  • environment
  • science
"But the unplanned nature preserves that have formed up in the buffer zones have come to serve as a focus for bilateral cooperation after hostilities are over."

-Cal Flyn, Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape

"Further back, cooling ponds strewn with rusted pipes were busy with teals and moorhens. An old concrete streetlight stood incongruously in the woods beyond: some ravaged Narnia. Jays catcalled overhe…"

-Cal Flyn, Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape

"This is a corrupted world, yes - one long fallen from a state of grace - but it is a world too that knows how to live. It has a great capacity for repair, for recovery, for forgiveness - of a sort - …"

-Cal Flyn, Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape

"And so for a hundred years a forest grew up across the land, tall and dark and impenetrable, whose undergrowth curled and snarled into a thicket of bramble and black thorn. This was a forbidden fores…"

-Cal Flyn, Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape

Cover of Wilding by Isabella Tree

6. Wilding

By: Isabella Tree

4.46

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

Forced to accept that intensive farming on the heavy clay of their land at Knepp in West Sussex was… read more

Similar categories in Isabella Tree's Wilding book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • ecology
  • animals
  • natural history
  • nonfiction
  • environment
  • nature
  • science
"People have a famously soft spot for pigs. Intelligent, inquisitive, imperious, myopic, sociable, gluttonous, grunting, ungainly, it is easy to recognize ourselves in them."

-Isabella Tree, Wilding

"The great concerns of our time – climate change, natural resources, food production, water control and conservation, and human health – all boil down to the condition of the soil."

-Isabella Tree, Wilding

"Over the years modern farming has reduced soil to....‘dirt’ – a sterile medium in which plants struggle to grow without artificial fertilizers. It is a self-perpetuating cycle of destruction and chem…"

-Isabella Tree, Wilding

"But the world of academia is a strange, sometimes counterproductive and often sluggish place. Where one may expect it to be open and responsive to new thinking, it can be oddly conservative and resis…"

-Isabella Tree, Wilding

Cover of A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence by Mary Pipher

7. A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

By: Mary Pipher

4.07

Format: 302 pages, Hardcover

From the bestselling author of Women Rowing North and Reviving Ophelia- a memoir in essays reflecti… read more

Similar categories in Mary Pipher's A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • nonfiction
  • essays
Cover of Youth by Tove Ditlevsen

8. Youth

By: Tove Ditlevsen

4.22

Format: 132 pages, Paperback

The second volume in The Copenhagen Trilogy, the searing portrait of a woman's journey through love… read more

Similar categories in Tove Ditlevsen's Youth book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • nonfiction
"Being young is itself temporary, fragile, and ephemeral. You have to get through it - it has no other meaning."

-Tove Ditlevsen, Youth

Cover of The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn

9. The Wild Silence

By: Raynor Winn

3.98

Format: 280 pages, Hardcover

The follow-up to The Salt Path. Nature holds the answers for Raynor and her husband Moth. After … read more

Similar categories in Raynor Winn's The Wild Silence book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • nonfiction
  • environment
  • nature
"At what point in our lives does cynicism take over from instinct? When we stop feeling the softness of rain on our face and start worrying about being wet?…When do we make that switch from being part…"

-Raynor Winn, The Wild Silence

"Wat is toch dat moment in ons leven dat cynisme de overhand krijgt over intuïtie? Wanneer maakt het voelen van de zachtheid van regendruppels in ons gezicht plaats voor de bezorgdheid dat we nat word…"

-Raynor Winn, The Wild Silence

Cover of Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees by Thor Hanson

10. Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees

By: Thor Hanson

4.21

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

- Треть нашего рациона состоит из «пчелозависимых» продуктов.- Гималайские виды шмелей способны лет… read more

Similar categories in Thor Hanson's Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • ecology
  • animals
  • natural history
  • nonfiction
  • environment
  • nature
  • science
"In the past, people around the world heard the buzzing of bees as voices of the departed, a murmured conveyance from the spirit world. This belief traces back to the cultures of Egypt and Greece, amo…"

-Thor Hanson, Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees

Cover of Silence: In the Age of Noise by Erling Kagge

11. Silence: In the Age of Noise

By: Erling Kagge

3.77

Format: 131 pages, Kindle Edition

Behind a cacophony of traffic noise, iPhone alerts and our ever-spinning thoughts, an elusive notio… read more

Similar categories in Erling Kagge's Silence: In the Age of Noise book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • nonfiction
  • nature
  • essays
"When you’ve invested a lot of time in being accessible and keeping up with what’s happening, it’s easy to conclude that it all has a certain value, even if what you have done might not be important. …"

-Erling Kagge, Silence: In the Age of Noise

"What we are experiencing is experiential poverty. Such poverty may not only be about a lack of experiences, where nothing is happening. An abundance of activities can also create a feeling of experie…"

-Erling Kagge, Silence: In the Age of Noise

Cover of The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan

12. The Fair Botanists

By: Sara Sheridan

3.91

Format: 384 pages, Paperback

It's the summer of 1822 and Edinburgh is abuzz with rumours of King George IV's impending visit. I… read more

Similar categories in Sara Sheridan's The Fair Botanists book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

Cover of Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future by Gloria Dickie

13. Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future

By: Gloria Dickie

4.25

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A New Yorker Best Book of the Year An Economist Best Book of 2023 A Scientific American Best… read more

Similar categories in Gloria Dickie's Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • nature
  • animals
  • natural history
  • nonfiction
  • environment
  • science
"Whenever people had asked me which bear was my favorite, I had dithered and hedged. "I like them all equally," I would say, diplomatically. Sun bears were cute with lolling tongues. Grizzlies were em…"

-Gloria Dickie, Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future

Cover of The Secret Life of Fungi: Discoveries From A Hidden World by Aliya Whiteley

14. The Secret Life of Fungi: Discoveries From A Hidden World

By: Aliya Whiteley

3.60

Format: 195 pages, Hardcover

Aliya Whiteley has always been in love with the wondrous and bizarre world of fungi - from a childh… read more

Similar categories in Aliya Whiteley's The Secret Life of Fungi: Discoveries From A Hidden World book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • ecology
  • natural history
  • nonfiction
  • science nature
  • environment
  • nature
  • science
"This particular orchid gets all its energy from fungi, sometimes from different kinds of fungi simultaneously. It never even begins to turn to the sun. No photosynthesis here. It relies utterly on it…"

-Aliya Whiteley, The Secret Life of Fungi: Discoveries From A Hidden World

Cover of The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole

15. The Lost Rainforests of Britain

By: Guy Shrubsole

4.30

Format: 326 pages, Hardcover

From the Sunday Times-bestselling author of Who Owns England?, a mesmerising chronicle of our forgo… read more

Similar categories in Guy Shrubsole's The Lost Rainforests of Britain book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • nature
  • ecology
  • natural history
  • nonfiction
  • environment
  • science
"This was the very heart of Wales' rainforest zone, where the oceanic climate conspires to make conditions perfect for the rich profusion of plant life that we'd spent the past week exploring. Yet her…"

-Guy Shrubsole, The Lost Rainforests of Britain

Cover of This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing: A Memoir by Jacqueline Winspear

16. This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing: A Memoir

By: Jacqueline Winspear

3.96

Format: 312 pages, Hardcover

The author of the Maisie Dobbs series offers a personal memoir of her family’s resilience in the fa… read more

Similar categories in Jacqueline Winspear's This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing: A Memoir book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • nonfiction
"Memories appear in flashes of light, in short scenes, in reflections that can make us laugh or bring us to tears."

-Jacqueline Winspear, This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing: A Memoir

Cover of The Meaning of Birds by Simon Barnes

17. The Meaning of Birds

By: Simon Barnes

4.23

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

A gorgeously illustrated and enchanting examination of the lives of birds, illuminating their wondr… read more

Similar categories in Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • ecology
  • animals
  • natural history
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • science nature
  • birds
  • environment
  • nature
  • science
Cover of The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump: Essays and Reportage, 1986-2016 by Martin Amis

18. The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump: Essays and Reportage, 1986-2016

By: Martin Amis

3.94

Format: 368 pages, Hardcover

Of all the great novelists writing today, none shows the same gift as Martin Amis for writing non-f… read more

Similar categories in Martin Amis's The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump: Essays and Reportage, 1986-2016 book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • nonfiction
  • essays
"Tennis: the most perfect combination of athleticism, artistry, power, style, and wit. a beautiful game, but one so remorselessly travestied by the passage of time."

-Martin Amis, The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump: Essays and Reportage, 1986-2016

Cover of Nightwalking: Four Journeys Into Britain After Dark by John Lewis-Stempel

19. Nightwalking: Four Journeys Into Britain After Dark

By: John Lewis-Stempel

4.02

Format: 104 pages, Hardcover

At night, the normal rules of Nature do not apply. In the night-wood I have met a badger coming the… read more

Similar categories in John Lewis-Stempel's Nightwalking: Four Journeys Into Britain After Dark book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • animals
  • natural history
  • nonfiction
  • nature
  • science
"You look at the dark and the dark looks at you."

-John Lewis-Stempel, Nightwalking: Four Journeys Into Britain After Dark

Cover of The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir by Wayétu Moore

20. The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir

By: Wayétu Moore

4.24

Format: 250 pages, Hardcover

An engrossing memoir of escaping the First Liberian Civil War and building a life in the United Sta… read more

Similar categories in Wayétu Moore's The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • nonfiction
"Barely one year in and our new country let us know, every day, that we were different."

-Wayétu Moore, The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir

"I could be beautiful in a place and still not enough, not because of who I was or anything I had done, but because of something as simple, and somehow as grand in this new place, as the color of my s…"

-Wayétu Moore, The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir

"I think, as women of color, especially women of color who come from some means, any means really, we tend to play down the unpleasant things we've experienced. To bury them ... Perfection or the desi…"

-Wayétu Moore, The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir

Cover of Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History, from Cave Art to Conservation by Tim Birkhead

21. Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History, from Cave Art to Conservation

By: Tim Birkhead

3.85

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

Award-winning writer and ornithologist Tim Birkhead takes us on an epic and dazzling journey throug… read more

Similar categories in Tim Birkhead's Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History, from Cave Art to Conservation book and Simon Barnes's The Meaning of Birds

  • animals
  • natural history
  • nonfiction
  • birds
  • nature
  • science

16 must-read nonfiction books like The Meaning of Birds by Simon Barnes

Transform Your Habits

Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape

Cal Flyn

4.20

Transform Your Habits

Wilding

Isabella Tree

4.46

Transform Your Habits

A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

Mary Pipher

4.07

Transform Your Habits

Youth

Tove Ditlevsen

4.22

View all the books

9 must-read adult books like A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence by Mary Pipher

Transform Your Habits

After Annie

Anna Quindlen

4.03

Transform Your Habits

Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out

Shannon Reed

3.71

Transform Your Habits

The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

Ross Gay

4.28

Transform Your Habits

A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

Mary Pipher

4.07

View all the books

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