A leaf out of your book

For our next exciting installment of "Plants that changed the World" I'm going to look at trees. Pretty generic and yes, I have talked about trees a bit in the past, but today I'd like to look at the role they have played in another favourite field of mine, books.

Apart from my love of plants, I have a very strong love of books. Reading has been a hobby of mine since childhood. I have always been surrounded by the written word, be it bookshelves filled with who know's what, to relatives sitting in their arm chairs reading the daily news. What came first, the book or the tree? I think I was climbing trees before I was reading books.

For me it's not just the story inside the covers, but that does help. No, it's the feel of the book in my hands, the smell of the pages and it doesn't have to be a new book, second (or third) hand books are the bestest - they have character and additional stories to tell. It's the main reason I can't get used to my kindle. Sure, the practicality of an e-reader is immense, but give me dog ears and cover crease's any day!

OK, all this talk of books is making me hungry, for a good story that is! So, I thought we might have a look at the history of paper and what actually goes on behind the scenes to produce your favourite books. 

Prior to Paper, civilisation relied on papyrus parchment, made through fairly laborious means. First the stems of Cyperus papyrus reed would be stripped, then softened in water, they were then laid out like a mat, pummeled flat and left to dry in the sun. This practice was developed in Ancient Egypt over 5,000 years ago in 3,000 BC and was widely used throughout the ancient civilsations of Rome & Greece.

Trees have been used in the making of paper for millennia, the earliest record of paper was in Ancient China in 105 AD. Over the next few centuries the art of paper making spread west through Nepal, India and the Middle East by the 8th & 9th centuries. Paper wouldn't arrive in Europe until the 12th century, from there is spread quickly throughout the United Kingdom, then to Canada & Nth America.

It wasn't until the 15th century that paper became thought of as every day, practical items. Thanks to the work of German, Johannes Gutenberg, who introduced the mechanical movable type printing press. Johannes is credited with introducing printing to Europe. With his publication of what today is known as "The Gutenberg Bible", Johannes introduced the world to the possibilities of printed word.  

In the late 18th century, after the flurry of invention that came from the industrial revolution, the mass production of paper began. New production and printing machines revolutionised the means, the time it took and quantity of paper that could be produced. Today, globally, we produce more that 20 million tonnes of paper - that's a lot of trees! Maybe the kindle is looking the better option. 

So which trees are best for paper manufacturing? The answer is predominately fast-growing pine tree species, as they can be grown and managed in sustainable forest plantations. Along with sustainable forests plantations, paper recycling now makes up approximated 33% on all new paper made. 

The list of trees used commonly around the globe for paper production is fairly long. In general, they can be either hardwood (which have shorter fibers, better for printing & writing paper) or soft wood trees (which have longer fibers, giving paper better strength). Some examples of both are:

HARDWOOD:
Acaciaf mearnsii - Black Wattle
Acer rumbrum - Red Maple
Betula papyrifera - Paper Birch & B. pendula - Silver Birch
Eucalyptus camaldulensis - River Red Gum, E. grandis -Flooded Gum & E. saligna - Sydney Blue Gum
Liriodendron tulipifeara - Tulip Tree

Populus tremula - Northern Aspen

Quercus coccinea - Scarlet Oak 

Quercus rubra - Red Oak

SOFTWOOD:
Araucaria araucana - Monkey Puzzle Tree
Picea abies - Norway Spruce & P. glauca - White Spruce 
Pinus radiata - Radiata Pine & P. banksiana - Jack Pine
Pseudotsuga menziesii - Douglas Fir
Tsuga hetrophylla - Western Hemlock

So how many trees does it take to make a book? Or how many books can you make from a tree? All good questions, but the answer varies of course, based on the type of tree being used. The good thing is pulp from trees that goes to make paper comes from the bits of the tree not good enough for timber production.

Around 20 trees will produce a ton of paper. The best estimates seem to be that a tree with a trunk diameter of 30cm will produce approximately 260 x 100 page books, if that helps you put it into perspective.

The other inspiration for this blog happened while on my last trip to Berlin, in June 2017. Back home I had been noticing a few, what I'd call 'little street libraries'. What a fantastic idea! A communal library, without all the shooshing from the cranky librarian. Pre-loved books, in a cute little house, just waiting for a new reader to enjoy the text within, what's not to love?

"Take a book, Leave a book" not a bad motto! 

I think this is a great way to encourage reading, share stories and reuse/recycle books. This local book sharing houses, which are usually painted brightly red and blue, look like smaller versions of the famous London telephone boxes. With little windows allowing would be readers to feed their curiosity just a little more before taking the plunge and opening the door.

Back to Berlin, after doing some google searches to find the locations of local street libraries, I found the perfect one. On my second last day in Berlin I took a stroll down Sredzkistrasse in Prenzlauer Berg, looking for the famous Bücherwald or the Book Forest.

Just past the intersection of Kollwitzstrasse - a leafy, tree lined street, opposite the very pretty Cafe Anna Blume, is a tree not quite like any other I have ever seen. I stopped, looked upon this unusual structure with wide eyed wonder. I am sure many other passersby have had the same reaction to what was the first public bookcase in Berlin.

You can see the Book Forest through the trees.

The Book Forest is the brainchild of Baufachfrau Berlin eV and is a group of five tree trunks, from trees felled in the Grünewald, a 7,400-acre park approximately 10km from the city. The project started in November 2006 and was completed in June 2008. The idea was to aid conscious thought by contributing to "sustainable vocational education and deals with the chain forest-wood-book". The Book Forest received the award for the Official Project of the UN 2008/09 - Education for Sustainable Development.

Like many people before me, I did a little waltz around the collection of logs, taking in the awesomeness. Fascinated, I wasn't sure of the protocol - "Do I just take one?" I am sure the same thought goes through the minds of many who visit. So, I did what any book hound would do, I had a bloody good sticky beak!

The Book Forest also encourages visitors who leave or take a book to be part of that particular books journey by registering it on BookCrossing. Their mission is to connect people through books. This is a fantastic portal for book lovers, kind of like a modern-day message in a bottle. Readers are encouraged to release their books into the wild and see where it goes and is enjoyed, or mark a book if they have found one in the wild, a very cool idea indeed. 

I also had an ulterior motive for seeking out this particular street library, my very talented partner had recently published her first book. 'Baden Verboten" which chronicles what it's like for Germans to travel to Australia. I thought this would be a very special place to release it into the wild. Alas, it's written in German, but you are more than welcome to buy a copy.

Baden Verboten finds a nesting spot in the Book Forest.

And what book did I take with me I hear you ask? A German book about houseplants and their care - another good reason to brush up on my German!

Pflanzen in Unserer Wohnung or Plants in our Apartment

So there you have it, books and trees, just a few of my favourite things. Books give us joy in many wonderful ways, fictional stories to excite or scare and non-fiction books can teach us so many things. It's this understanding we can gain from books that can help us interact with our world.

We know the importance of trees, we need them and they need us just as much, maybe more than they know. Trees are very social beings, with each other and with us, I'll look at this topic in an upcoming blog. Books can encourage us to be social beings by gaining understanding, helping start a conversation or having the knowledge to teach others.

Next time you pick up a book, take a moment to think about what's gone into creating that work, not just the hours the author put into it but the tree that helped created the paper. When you're finished and put that book down, think of the many others that could benefit from the words within, then pay it forward and release it into the 'wild'.