Kate Humble
Along with a few others, I brought this book back from Ripon last summer, but can not remember whether I got it from The Little Ripon Bookshop or at the National Trust shop up at Fountains Abbey. Anyway, it wasn't my first read by this author; in 2020, I read "Thinking On My Feet" and deemed it one of the best books I had come across that year. Click here for the review, if you are interested.
This book is subtitled "Stories of Home", and it contains exactly that - stories of home, and what home means not only to a wide variety of people with very different backgrounds and living at very different places, but every other chapter is about an animal and how this particular species goes about finding or building its home.
Each and every chapter is interesting and offers a fascinating glimpse into people's and animal life. As usual, different people take different decisions, not always in a way I can relate to - but it certainly broadens my personal horizon to know what motivates others, even though it would never be my "thing".
Kate Humble's writing makes for pleasant and easy reading, but it is by no means superficial. In fact, there are some deep thoughts to ponder over, and ponder I did.
The length of chapters made for good pacing; I usually read only one chapter at a time, during my lunch break when working from home or in bed at night before going to sleep. It was a joy every evening coming into my bedroom and seeing the book on the bedside table - not only because its colours pick up the wallpaper behind the bed!
About two thirds of it I read still in 2024, but finished it only last night.
There's a lot more I could say about the book, its author or my own thoughts about the subject of home. Kate Humble has her own website here, and an extensive wikipedia entry as well.
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