Book excerpt: "'Each year during the shoot season, we stand spellbound in our beautiful botanical garden, gazing in awe at the newly emerging shoots of tropical giant bamboos. They thrust the earth aside in great clods as they heave their mighty bulk from beneath the earth.'" The object of this book is to communicate a wealth of knowledge, both scientific and practical, to those with little knowledge of the fabulous clumping bamboos of the world. Few people seem to be aware of the existence of these clumping bamboos. Their experience and attitudes have been soured by the invasive running bamboos. The Western world is not yet taking clumping bamboos seriously. Most Asian countries treat this fastest growing, annually renewable resource with great reverence. Bamboo feeds them, houses them, graces and shades their environment. It is used to make their musical instruments, cooking and eating utensils, furniture, hunting weapons, and ceremonial artifacts. It even provides the reinforcement for their concrete. Bamboo provides their carrying and storage baskets, lamps and lampshades, ropes and strings, roof tiles and hats, and has hundreds of other practical and spiritual uses. "Bamboo World" distils simple practical advice on using bamboo for a wealth of applications. It draws on both traditional village technology and modern scientific research, accumulated over the author's many years of travel, practice, research, growing, and association with village communities and scientists from many countries.