On Trails

A wanderer’s dream, even from an armchair

An inspired exploration of the collective wisdom of trails. The warm, sinuous line of the 
narrative is its own reward

 William Finnegan author of Barbarian Days

This marvellous debut is the fruit of miles of walking and years of research. Moor began it after tackling the Appalachian Trail between Georgia and Maine. He considers the trails made by insects, animals and man and the purposes to which they have been put, from finding food to building empires. He hikes everywhere from Canada to Morocco, considering the trail as everything from a means of recreation to a metaphor for life.

The Telegraph, The 20 best travel books of 2016

This book is about so many things: about breaking down the binary between ‘humanity’ 
and ‘nature,’ ‘civilization’ and ‘the wild.’ It’s an exploration of exploring, a philosophical-psychological-journalistic adventure in the tradition of Michael Pollan and Rebecca Solnit. … Not all who wander are lost, and Moor helps us see what they seek

Part natural history, part scientific inquiry, but most of all a deeply thoughtful human 
meditation on how we walk through life, Moor’s book is enchanting

Hanging with [Moor] you meet a host of different byways, get in (and out) of trouble and the experience is not just enlightening, it’s sweaty, hot, cold and…well, to say it plainly…fun

Robert Krulwich, “Curiously Krulwich,” National Geographic

He brilliantly synthesizes his own hiking experiences so that distinctions between history, 
science, and philosophy meld into a beautiful book

An ingeniously conceived collection... Like Tom Vanderbilt’s Traffic, Moor’s book is an appealing mix of the physical and philosophical

National Post, “The books you should be reading in July”

A beautiful thing to behold. … what a profoundly talented writer Moor is. He brings a keen essayist's eye to themes both personal and empiric; his prose is lush and lively and his analysis adroit — all making On Trails a true treat to read

Moor’s On Trails is a thoroughly researched blend of science and philosophy that offers a 
fresh perspective on the lived world

…a deeply informed study of the nature and history of trailmaking…There are revelations 
at every turn here, from the nature of shepherding, to the vast network of ancient animal 
and Native American trails that underlie modern North America, to the very qualities of the best trails - durability, efficiency, and flexibility - and how we learn from them even as we move beyond them

For a combination of adventure physical and intellectual, this book is tough to beat. ... It’s 
the perfect companion for a long hike someplace down the trail

Bill McKibben author The End of Nature and Wandering Home

Robert Moor’s primer on the history of trails is a literary gem, encompassing everything 
from insect travel to road-building in Colonial America. Addictive readers and knowledge 
junkies, however, should be careful. On Trails is a whirlpool of fact that will suck you in and 
not let go

This strange and delightful book combines the best elements of travelogue, science 
writing, and spiritual guidebook. The work of a curious, hungry, eccentric, and profoundly 
secular mind, it leaps from ants to elephants to the Internet to us in beautiful, looping 
prose. You can find something brilliant and enlightening on every page. While Moor hikes 
his trail through our world, teaching you amazing things you never imagined learning, he 
also manages to be not just entertaining but actually funny. In the end though, his goal is to 
show us that our own species, and the other species with whom we share the planet, have 
a trail-hardened wisdom that, respected properly, might just save us all from catastrophe

 Amy Wilentz, author of Farewell, Fred Voodoo

Here is an erudite meditation on the communities of creatures who roam the planet, and 
how they decide where to go. Robert Moor’s eye scans from the dirt beneath his boot to 
the wide expanse of animal movement through time and through space. He is a pilgrim 
and a philosopher, walking and wondering, talking to thinkers and thinking wisely on his 
own; and his book is a lively companion, whether for your own long walks or for 
contemplating the lines we make across fields and through snow

Ted Conover author of The Routes of Man and Rolling Nowhere

Robert Moor gets you thinking. What is the meaning of trails in human history, ecology, 
the journeys of life? Gary Snyder and dharma, E.O. Wilson and ants, the International 
Appalachian Trail? It’s a sinuous route to a robust relationship between feet and 
landscape. Walk on

David Quammen author of Spillover and The Song of the Dodo

My old professor used to say, no matter how good a book is there is always a ‘however.’ 
However, I don't have a however with On Trails. This book is a gift to those of us who like 
to let our minds and feet wander. As a guide Robert Moor is deeply knowledgeable, 
entertaining, easy-going, erudite, and funny, leading us on a trip that winds around the 
world and culminates in a profound discussion of the meaning of human wisdom. He 
shows us that connectivity didn’t start with a keyboard, but on the pathways that we 
created as those same pathways were creating us. With this inspiring book as your map, 
you can indulge in those twin passions that made us human: thinking and walking

David Gessner author of All the Wild That Remains

Profound and interesting, it dwells on big questions and brings together an engaging collection of facts and stories

Book Riot, One of the best Science/Nature books published this summer

Like Michel de Montaigne, Mr. Moor writes about one subject as a way of touching on 100 others…The thicket of information here comes to resemble a densely wooded trail itself–one that Mr. Moor expertly navigates. He’s a philosopher on foot, recording his journey through miles of wilderness and through a mind sorting out the meaning of travel itself … The only constant in On Trails is the promise of surprise

As an instrument of culture, like a text or a play, a trail, Mr. Moor suggest, is a conversation–an exchange in which the traveler, though his own use of the pathway, subtly shapes its continuing evolution

A hike becomes a classic when it takes hold of a person like a memorable story - when the journey is marked by surprises. On Trails, the first book by American journalist Robert Moor, embodies this. It is a surprising story of trails as Moor takes us on disparate journeys…As Moor walks, his bigger themes coalesce - and evolve. [His] exploration becomes a consideration of the trail/path of life, where to walk, how to live

You might think of Robert Moor as the Roger Angell of trail-walking. Just as Angell’s reports on specific baseball games segue effortlessly into reflections on the venerable sport itself, so Moor looks up from whatever trail he may be on to see the big picture. Which is often very big, indeed... Highly satisfying … On Trails is an engaging blend of travelogue, sociology, history and philosophy that might be summed up as a meditation on the centrality of trails to animal and human life.”

As for Moor, I’ll remember him…as the thoughtful stylist who turns out sentences as simple and eloquent as this: ‘As they do for ants and elephants, [sheep] trails function as a form of external memory’

Stunning … a wondrous nonfiction debut. … In each chapter, Moor explores the same phenomenon in a surprising new context, from the fossilized traces of prehistoric smudges to swaths of jungle flattened by elephants, from the paths of nomadic Native Americans to the interstates that paved them over. Along the way, Moor reaches into the history of science, religion, and philosophy to trace similar lines of refinement in the amassing of knowledge and ideas. … It’s an exhilarating journey

A wonderfully rich and human book. It is a trail all on its own, marked by the procession of internal contemplation and idea-spinning that a long solitary walk in the woods can produce. Moor is interested in everything, with a knack for communicating that curiosity to the reader … Fascinating facts fall fast and furiously … He has succeeded admirably. Thru-hikers be warned: you’ll be ditching some essentials to make room for On Trails in your pack

In the hallowed tradition of Robert Macfarlane, Moor’s beautiful travelogue is a meditation on trails: as cultural space, as history, as intimate terrain. This is just the ticket for your big summer adventure

The best outdoors book of the year… An outstanding work that should be read by anyone who has spent time following a footpath through the woods. Robert Moor’s debut book, On Trails, trips through natural history, anthropology, gonzo reporter’s adventures, and memoir in a ramble that unpacks the many meanings of the routes we humans and other animals sketch on the land. … The prologue alone is worth the price of admission: a nearly-30-page set piece about hiking the A.T. that puts Bill Bryson and Cheryl Strayed to shame. (Moor actually, you know, completed the full thru-hike.)

[An] engrossing meditation on trails in animal and human societies…Moor combines vivid 
reportage told in supple prose with lucid explorations of science and history in an 
absorbing account of how travelers shape and are shaped by the land they pass through

A sagacious walker and writer guides us on a new journey of discovery, a different kind of 
road trip about roads themselves and what they mean… this is a fine guide to places with 
better views of the world

Moor’s writing compares better with wilderness philosophers like Annie Dillard or Edward 
Abbey. Each chapter of this GQ writer’s debut work is packed with ideas, switchbacking to 
and fro. Each idea is so carefully portrayed and deeply fascinating that I had to stop and 
catch my breath often. … It’s a beautiful trek through the human and natural landscapes of 
modern life

Chockful of historical trivia, philosophical musings, and an unflagging sense of joy in 
winding one’s way through both the outdoors and the inner self, Moor’s multi-dimensional 
exploration earns him a place on the map of writers to watch. … Moor [is] an elegant 
essayist and fastidious researcher. … Whether perambulating or cogitating, if you love to 
follow a twisting path, making unexpected connections between Point A and Point B, you’ll 
love the literary adventure of nonfiction writer Robert Moor’s compelling debut

Spectacular... an example of narrative nonfiction at its finest. Those with a passion for 
walking, hiking or exploring will be naturally drawn to Moor's subject, but this is so much 
more than a subject-specific story; it is a book that poses big questions about humanity's 
place in the world (literally and figuratively) and how we've come to be here—and it's 
fascinating to its very end

Hiker and journalist Moor [is] the rare thru-hiker whose philosophical ramblings you’ll 
actually want to read. … [A] treatise on how trails—the ones we plan and the ones we 
accidentally leave behind—shape our culture

[Moor] begins as a hiker, wondering why the path he’s on veers this way but not that way, and just who might’ve authored that path’s direction, but ends up subjecting more existential paths–"'spiritual paths,’ ‘career paths,’ ‘paths to wellness’"-to this same inquiry

On Trails teems with scientific and historical anecdotes…little flowers of information bloom on the graceful canes of Moor’s prose. He’s erudite, witty, and relentlessly curious

There are revelations at every turn here, from the nature of shepherding, to the vast network of ancient animal and Native American trails that underlie modern North America, to the very qualities of the best trails—durability, efficiency, and flexibility—and how we learn from them even as we move beyond them....[A] deeply informed study of nature and history of trailmaking

[A] fascinating debut … both fun and intriguing. … Following Moor’s trails in this book opens many fascinating vistas

Robert Moor is an award-winning writer and New York Times bestselling author. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Guardian, Harper’s, the Atlantic and Granta, among others. Moor’s first book, On Trails, won the National Outdoor Book Award, the William Saroyan Prize and the Pacific Northwest Book Award. It was named one of Waterstones’ Best Travel Writing of 2016, the Telegraph’s Best Travel Books of 2016 and the Guardian Bookshop’s Best Nature Writing of 2016. He lives in British Columbia.

Robert Moor

Robert Moor's brilliant In Trees is –– like its subject –– powerfully, fascinatingly arborescent: it branches and roots, gnarls and delves. Moving from sky to earth, Robert Moor unfurls in fine-grained prose the ancient, urgent story of how trees transform us. Reading it, I felt my senses of time, life and process shift in ways I hadn't experienced before. It left me arboresced."

Widely branched and deeply rooted, In Trees is a deeply thoughtful exploration of how we unrooted humans value- and devalue- our arboreal relations. With adventurous journeys, lively storytelling and provocative reflection, Moor invites us along to know charismatic forests through the eyes of other worldviews, encouraging our own Green Revelation to guide us through these urgent times.”

Robert Moor is one of the few I'd trust to bring a fresh perspective to trees and he does not disappoint. By turns earthy and philosophical, what a captivating and exhilarating book!

Entertaining, original and inspiring... it will make you think deeply about the place of humanity in the natural world

A sage, companionable and fulgent meditation on how best to be human…The prescription is simple: live like a tree.

In In Trees, Robert Moor leads us on a luminous journey into the living forests who gather and sustain us. With deep compassion, empathy and clarity, he reveals a captivating world of intricate connection and intelligence that reshapes how we see trees - and roots our place among them. Wise, profound, and quietly transformative; this is a book I will press into the hands of loved ones

author of To Have Or To Hold: Nature's Hidden Relationships

In Trees is an abundant forest of poetry, philosophy, prose, passion and piercing dendrology. Travelling a book with Robert Moor is like paddling a river of tremendous elegance and inspiration. While devouring this genre defying book I frequently went out to climb to the crowns of the giant mother trees in the Celtic rainforest around my home and recapture the spirit of playfulness, youth and connectedness that Robert drenches his work in

Moments of high adventure segue into deeply serious and very moving explorations of the foundational relationship between people and trees. This wide-ranging and enlightening book left me even more sure that renewing this ancient connection will play an essential role in our efforts to shape a better future

author of Ancient: Reviving the Woods That Made Britain

Robert Moor is a rare and luminous talent, and In Trees is his best work to date...To read this book is to feel oneself anchored more firmly to the earth and, simultaneously, to become more open to life‘s many branching, wild possibilities.

In Trees is dazzlingly erudite, playful, profound, adventurous and, above all, eloquently, fiercely alive. Full of brilliant, mind-bending insights and wonderful surprises, this is the most life-affirming book I’ve read in a long time

Robert Moor is a writer of extraordinary sensitivity and insight and he has discovered such riches here. In Trees is a wise, moving and ever-branching book that reaches from root to leaf to heartwood, and asks what we might learn from our arboreal neighbours about living well.

author of A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings

In Trees is profound and deepening, written with flair and originality. Everyone should read it – even people who aren’t much into trees

author of Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape

Those who loved On Trails are rewarded for their patience with this new book, another in that rare category of 'classic upon publication.' I've lived out my life in places with far more trees than people, and this volume helps me understand why.

A profound and loving, shrewd and funny pilgrimage, in which trees are living things but also verbs and ways of life. Moor finds so much beauty, and so much historical rubbish to clear away, in this bold, wild search to understand how he should live.

Brilliantly written, supremely intelligent, and philosophically provocative.

Moor’s nature writing is beautiful and refreshingly original. The result is a moving testament to the power of trees.

An Exploration of Ancient Living Wisdom, From Wild Branches to Deep Roots

In Trees is a wondrous, curious journey through the wilds of nature and the gnarls of history, exploring how trees – from the mightiest sequoia to the tiniest bonsai – can teach us to grow wise. 
 
One day, on a whim, Robert Moor set out to climb a tree near his home, unwittingly embarking on what would become a decade-long, globe-spanning adventure in trees. From Darwin to Attenborough, Brecht to Wordsworth, cutting-edge scientists and Zen monks and Bonsai artists, In Trees explores the fundamental and meaningful role of trees in the natural world. 
 
From Ethiopia and Papua to the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Lake District, bestselling author Robert Moor uncovers the hidden art of 'tree-thinking', a powerful tool for approaching humanity's oldest questions: What is the secret to growing old well? How do we set down deeper roots in an increasingly chaotic world? And most importantly, how should we – as individuals, as communities, as stewards of the Earth – live? 
 
Weaving together history, ecology, philosophy, neuroscience, mythology, literature, and the abstract qualities of identity, belonging and memory, In Trees shares extraordinary stories of how trees have become embedded in our culture, lifestyle and imagination for centuries, becoming the key to almost everything on our planet. 
 
What began as an ode to the miracle of trees blossoms into a joyous, daring, fiercely hopeful endeavour that reveals . . . To truly grasp the wisdom of a tree, you need to begin thinking like one.

Robert Moor

Praise for In Trees

**Robert Moor's brilliant In Trees is –– like its subject –– powerfully, fascinatingly arborescent: it branches and roots, gnarls and delves. Moving from sky to earth, Robert Moor unfurls in fine-grai ...**

Widely branched and deeply rooted, In Trees is a deeply thoughtful exploration of how we unrooted humans value- and devalue- our arboreal relations. With adventurous journeys, lively storytelling an ...

Robert Moor is one of the few I'd trust to bring a fresh perspective to trees and he does not disappoint. By turns earthy and philosophical, what a captivating and exhilarating book!

**Robert Moor's brilliant In Trees is –– like its subject –– powerfully, fascinatingly arborescent: it branches and roots, gnarls and delves. Moving from sky to earth, Robert Moor unfurls in fine-grai ...**

Widely branched and deeply rooted, In Trees is a deeply thoughtful exploration of how we unrooted humans value- and devalue- our arboreal relations. With adventurous journeys, lively storytelling an ...

Robert Moor is one of the few I'd trust to bring a fresh perspective to trees and he does not disappoint. By turns earthy and philosophical, what a captivating and exhilarating book!

**Robert Moor's brilliant In Trees is –– like its subject –– powerfully, fascinatingly arborescent: it branches and roots, gnarls and delves. Moving from sky to earth, Robert Moor unfurls in fine-grai ...**

Widely branched and deeply rooted, In Trees is a deeply thoughtful exploration of how we unrooted humans value- and devalue- our arboreal relations. With adventurous journeys, lively storytelling an ...

Robert Moor is one of the few I'd trust to bring a fresh perspective to trees and he does not disappoint. By turns earthy and philosophical, what a captivating and exhilarating book!

Books by Robert Moor

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter