Robert Macfarlane
For months, this book has been on my bedside table, and finally, last night I managed to finish it. Now, this is not the book's (or the author's fault) but mainly due to me being a slower reader than before, because of my eyesight making it difficult to read at night after a whole day spent reading and writing on a computer and on paper.
When I saw "The Old Ways" at The Little Ripon Bookshop (a "must" for my sister and I every time we are in Ripon), I remembered Yorkshire Pudding's review of it. You can find it here. In my comment to YP's review, I said that the book sounded like something I'd enjoy reading, and I did - even though it took me so long, and I did not always find it easy to "get into" each chapter. Replying to my comment, YP mentioned the book containing several words he had never encountered before. Knowing this has happened to him, who is a native speaker of English, a former English teacher and a published author, makes it less surprising for me to have also come across a number of words never read before. None of them stopped my reading flow, though, as it was always clear from the context what the author meant.
The sub-headline says "A Journey on Foot", which, strictly speaking, is not entirely true, as some of the trips described in the book are taken by boat. It all serves to show how paths exist not only in the shape of foot paths on the ground but also as invisible ones across water, or even in the air (think of the migration of birds). And of course, there are many paths across our inner landscape, so to speak.
Robert Macfarlane describes 16 different trips he made, mostly on foot, mostly in the UK, but some abroad. His trips follow some famous, ancient routes, some less well-known ones and some he read about in other walkers' descriptions. They are not set up as in a guide book, but he explains what walking (not only the particular trip described) means to him personally, what it generally means and meant throughout history, what it meant to those who walked there before him and how walking can generally affect us - actually, how walking shapes us and how we shape the places where we walk.
A lot of it I can relate to; some of what he writes is an expression of what I have been feeling/knowing in myself about walking but would not have been able to express in such clear terms. Some is rather too mystical for me. All in all, I can highly recommend "The Old Ways" to anyone who enjoys walking - no matter on what level - or did so at some stage of their lives.
If you want to know more about the author, his wikipedia entry is here.
I have this book waiting to be read,but I'm struggling to read anything except crime fiction at the moment. The bereavement process takes away concentration I've found
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean, Sue. After my husband's death, I could not concentrate very well on anything. And things like numbers (such as my own postcode, which is a 5-digit number) were "gone" from my mind, I could not remember them during those first bizarre days and weeks.
DeleteThta's interesting. After YP's (truthfully I'd forgotten that was the source) review I, too, put it on my list (which I was reviewing recently).
ReplyDeleteIs it still on your list after the review? I'd happily send it to you, if you like. It is improbable that I am going to re-read at a later stage.
DeleteSounds interesting for those dedicated British walkers/hikers - will recommend to those I have over there who still trudge over Dartmoor with their hiking groups in rain, wind and snow. Me? I'll wait in the pub by the fire with a nice glass of red!
ReplyDeleteHugs - Mary
I have never been to Dartmoor but I imagine it as pretty rough and wild terrain. A little rain does not matter if I have my waterproofs with me, but I do not like to be soaked, and in the snow, I won't go for more than a long walk, definitely no hike. I'd join you in the pub afterwards!
DeleteThis does sound interesting to me......I loved walking when I was younger and am hoping to be able to get back into it. It soothes my soul, I think. I'll look for this, though I spend most of my time reading old favorites or mystery novels of the not too suspenseful sort. I'll go read his wiki article now.
ReplyDeleteNo a wikipedia article but a very interesting review with an original poem. My husband and I had a wonderful honeymoon in the fall of 1972, in Allegheny State Park, New York. It was pretty deserted at the time and we hiked a different hike everyday, all alone except for one time we crossed paths with a Park worker who was doing a census of wild turkeys. So much of those hikes is still in my memory. This is a wonderful park not far from Chautauqua and my mother and grandparents spent time there in the 1920s when they lived in Buffalo. It's probably too crowded in the summer, but autumn is a wonderful time to visit.
ReplyDeleteWhy not revisit, Kristi, and go for a gentle hike - a literal walk down memory lane, so to speak?
DeleteI very much enjoyed our hikes last September in the Black Forest (I blogged about them) and last May near Lago Maggiore in northern Italy. It helps if you are with someone you love, and if that someone has a similar attitude to hiking and when to take breaks and photo stops, and when to move on.
Congratulations, you've done a lot better than me! It's been sitting there gathering dust most of the time. I didn't find that it's a book to read but rather pick up for the odd hour(no more). I found that stange, as it's a topic that I would normally breeze through.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I can wholeheartedly recommend his previous book 'The Wild Places'.
Rather than gathering dust this has been reread and is very well thumbed.
Hello No Roots, I don't think I have seen you here before - welcome to my Mental Library! :-)
DeleteI did not manage to read this book for a long time in one go, but I put it down mostly to my eye problems. Maybe it was also that some chapters simply did not "speak" to me as much as others.
Thank you for the recommendation of "The Wild Places". I have come across it but have not bought or read it yet myself.
I applaud your summary Meike. You have captured what the book is all about in a nutshell. Like you I think this book was well worth the effort that its reading entailed. Now let us walk on - observing the world around us, feeling the blood in our veins and remembering those who walked there before us.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Neil. Yes, we'll keep walking as long as we can - and I hope this means many more years and many more paths, old and new.
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