The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms

Yep. Earthworms. Unsung heroes.

Amy Stewart has become one of the few authors I'd wait in line for a signature for - have I mentioned that before? She makes a great spokesperson for these unfairly maligned little earth movers. In a chatty but informative style she covers the earthworms' role in history, agriculture, backyard gardening, forestry and even sewage treatment and soil reclamation.

Did you know that Australia has an earthworm that grows over 3 feet long, and when it moves around under the earth, farmers can hear a gurgling sound? They're native to a farming area called Gippsland, here in Victoria, so of course I want to go and stand in the middle of a pasture like an idiot in hopes of hearing them gurgle along beneath me, show more while trying not to think of the movie Tremors.

There's no denying this is not a book for everyone. But gardeners, environmentalists, and armchair scientists will all find something interesting and fascinating here. show less

Absolutely fascinating!

It was interesting the reactions I got when I told friends I was reading a book about worms. They tended to include a sideeye look, a judgmental, "WHY?", and a sneer of disgust. Whatever. I read this fascinating book and learned a lot and they didn't. Neener neener neener.

This is the first Amy Stewart book I've read though I own her others. She's kind of a Mary Roach for gardeners and nature enthusiasts, and I'll definitely be breezing through the rest of her backlist. She has an informative yet informal writing style interspersed with personal anecdotes that suited me perfectly.

Before reading this, I had never really given worms much thought. They were there. I didn't really care for them because they were show more wriggly things that I tried not to step on after a rain. I had no idea there were so many types of them, or that there were multi-foot long worms that lived deep underground! (Though I do think I saw one of those once after a rain. I have a very vivid memory of a very very long worm dying on the asphalt after one truly awful rainstorm. It was at least two or three feet long, and little-kid me was both fascinated and repulsed.)

Stewart leads the reader on a merry journey, from the fact that worm scientists tend to be hobbyists because they can't get funding for their work, to the extremely helpful nature of worms to improve the health of plants and gardens, to the threat of worms as invasives in a forest, to finally the possibility of worms as the savior of our pollutant and sewage waste problem.

I adored this to bits. And now I really want a worm bin. Alas, condo living without any outdoor balcony, porch, or yard would make that very difficult. I'll stick a pin into that idea, though, for some hypothetical future living situation. show less

The author is fascinated by worms, and her enthusiasm is contagious. She describes their bodies, life cycles, and behaviour, as well as their environmental impacts, and how worms can help us on both the large and the small scales. My favourite sentence in the book was: "I am left with the troubling conclusion that the worm's survival may, in the grand scheme of things, be more important than my own." Recommended for anyone with an interest in gardening, natural history, or the environment, and worm fans everywhere. But I'm still creeped out at the thought of touching a worm.

Earthworms. Little in/out machines that mostly do good for gardens, but do serious damage to Minnesota forests where they are invasive, and where they digest and poop out the multi-seasonal 'duff layer' that is key to the forest ecosystem . Who knew. An interesting mix of stories about Darwin, Uncle Dan, filling in around earthworm trivia. Not quite so compelling as John McPhee (Oranges), not very deep, not character driven, but enough interesting anecdotes to make it worth a quick read. And choice of subject couldn't be better.

I was pulling this book off the library shelf because a patron had requested it. Though I had never given worms a second thought, I was immediately captivated by the title and cover copy. Fortunately, the library had two copies, so I was able to fill the patron's request and immediately take one home for myself.

The book came alive when the author discussed her own garden or Charles Darwin and his interactions with earthworms. The book lagged a bit as it devolved into a travelogue of sorts with the author recounting a series of field trips to places affected by or working with earthworms. Though she didn't quite live up to her title, Stewart still provides a pretty good introduction to a creature that is more fascinating than most people show more would believe. show less

A well-written account about the earth-changing nature of the common earthworm. This is not simple hyperbole as Darwin informed Victorians...earthworms create soil from compost and bury man-made structures over time with the help of microscopic denizens of the worm's underground world. I sold earthworms as a kid and the little critters have always fascinated me. As a lark, I even raised worms in a container in my kitchen more than 20 years ago to eat my vegetable waste. Now, this book stimulated my interest in seting up a worm bed. An excellent book, not difficult reading, goes in lots of interesting directions.

Readable without being overly substantial, The Earth Moved is a chatty introduction to the world of earthworms. The time I spent reading this short book probably surpassed all the time I've spent in my life before now contemplating earthworms—I'm neither biologist, gardener, nor composter—and I admit that I picked this book up in the library more out of idle curiosity than any real interest in the ecological roles of earthworms. Amy Stewart's enthusiasm for her worms is endearing, and there are some interesting facts here (there are worms in Australia that grow to more than a metre in length! earthworms hate wasabi!), but I didn't finish this book filled with a sudden enthusiasm to go out and buy a worm farm.