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The Book of Bamboo: A Comprehensive Guide to This Remarkable Plant, Its Uses, and Its History
 
Manufacturer: Sierra Club Books
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List Price: $24.95
Sale Price: $43.38
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Product Description

Now available once again with a new preface by the author, The Book of Bamboo introduces us to the oldest, most remarkable resource on the planet. Part catalog, part history, The Book of Bamboo shows us how this versatile wood, which is both sustainable and plentiful, has been used for thousands of years to make items ranging from things needed for survival like clothing and housing to more exotic and luxurious objects like phonograph needles and children's toys, as well as dozens of others. With information both practical and wistful, David Farrelly tells us about the plant's biology and life cycle, gives tips on harvesting and planting, and lore about the ancient wood. Farrelly conveys the rich and timeless message that bamboo -- strong, flexible, and beautiful in both its natural and its finished states is an abundant resource that could beneficially replace many of the less sustainable materials now commonly used in many aspects of our daily lives and transform our culture in the process.

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Customer Reviews

All about the other grass
 
Review Date: July 21, 2008
Reviewer: S. Thyng, Anchorage, Alaska
This is a comprehensive treatise written with passion, and reminds me of "The Whole Earth Catalog" of the '60's, Mother Earth News, and various underground comics. Done in the best tradition of the good ole days. If you find info that is not in this book, you can write it on a sticky note and attach it to an inside cover.
terrific overview
 
Review Date: November 17, 2007
Reviewer: Judith Bird, Big Island, Hawaii
I bought this for information on growing, fertilizing, diseases and such about the bamboo I already have, but quickly found that there is so much more, almost an extended poem on bamboo, history, legends, uses, etc. A marvelous reference for all lovers of bamboo.
Great Beginning
 
Review Date: January 22, 2007
Reviewer: Alejandro Buendia Perez, Austin, Texas
In a World in which only three countries have doubled their forest resources while the rest of the nations are working on depleting theirs; a global crisis waiting to happen because of our irresponsible handling of our natural resources, bamboo offers a solution that could definately take us back to a healthy equilibrium. This book gives a glance of its many uses and benefits. Anybody interested in life has got to take a dive into this amazing research. This book is literally, "the top of the iceberg."
So much to learn, yet still not done with it!
 
Review Date: December 11, 2004
Reviewer: Nilremwolf, Hicksville, USA
I bought this book awhile ago. . . .and unfortunately, have enough going on that I can't just sit down and read it beginning to end, but already I know a LOT more about a plant I've always been fascinated with. Lots of definitions, and pictures, and illustrations. If there's anything that could be considered a detraction, there's maybe TOO much information on the plant and its uses.

a thoroughly great book to add to a collection for anyone into herbal knowledge or lore, interested in plants, or wants to just know more about bamboo.

Recommended reading :)
The most comprehensive book on bamboo..........
 
Review Date: February 22, 2004
Reviewer: Cactus_Joe, Coquitlam, British Columbia
Written by the one of the few people in the world qualified to produce a monograph on bamboo, it is as comprehensive as it gets. David Farrelly has spent more than a decade planting, harvesting, and building with bamboo in Mexico, Nicaragua, and the United States. If you are only interested in the growing of bamboo as an ornamental, then this book may not be exactly what you expect, but it still serves up more information on bamboo growing, propagation and care, and bamboo species and description then any other currently available books on bamboo. Don't expect grossy pictures either, but line drawings and old black and white photographs somehow seems to fit well in this book. Grossy pictures would have been out of place here. What really makes this book a must read is the other non-botanical, non-horticultural information on bamboo that the book includes - it's history, it's multiple of uses, it's interaction with mankind through the ages.

If you are into bamboo beyond it's aesthietics, this is a "must read". If you are only into ornamental bamboos, this is still a good reference, and reading it will change your respect for what must be truly the most useful of all plants on planet earth.

Read this book first if you are new to bamboo!
 
Review Date: January 6, 2003
Reviewer: jmbamboo, Dora, ALabama United States
This was the first book I read about bamboo many years ago when I first started planting bamboo. I guess the best way to describe it would be to call it "The Last Whole Earth Catalog of Bamboo". It covers all aspects of bamboo, facts and fiction, reality and myth. This book is for the true lover of bamboo.
Bamboo Science, Philosophy, Opinion and Lore
 
Review Date: August 12, 2000
Reviewer: Mark Hubbard, Eureka, CA
When I first read "The Book of Bamboo" many years ago, I thought it was brilliantly researched but simply too eccentric in organization and style to be representative of mainstream thought on the subject. Despite the wealth of information it contains, I hesitated to recommend it to people for fear its intensity would put people off rather than draw them in. However, after several years of growing bamboo in coastal northern California, I recently picked it up again and instantly recognized it for the classic it is. Fewer than 1 percent of 1 percent of all non-fiction books published are ever republished after they go out of print, especially by a prestigious national firm with major editorial capabilities. See for yourself why David Farrelly's "The Book of Bamboo" is one of those rare, wonderful books worthy of such investment and respect.
TOO much info!
 
Review Date: May 5, 2000
Reviewer: Charles O. Butts Jr., USA
If you threw half the chapters in this book away, you would have a better book...It is very comprehensive on bamboo,I am glad I purchased it but too many paragraphs on "saving the world" (ecology comments)
Use Other Books for Pictures
 
Review Date: April 4, 1999
Reviewer: Lie^n,
This is a very good reference book for studying the botony of bamboo and also for building (ideas only) and other uses for bamboo in the past and present in other countries where bamboo is in abundance. Do not expect pictures because there are none at all, just line drawings. Very good source for those wanting to learn EVERYTHING about bamboo from a scientific viewpoint with some nice personal antidotes here and there. Yes, buy it! And DO GROW BAMBOO!
Great book -- eclectic, poetic, and practical
 
Review Date: August 25, 1998
Reviewer: ,
this book is a encyclopedic idea book, full of plant descriptions, botanical characteristics including harvesting and propagating, and scores of ideas on how to use bamboo. Demanding and educational; useful and inspiring --- even if you don't buy the book, grow bamboo . . . Mark Wall

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