One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.
This copy of the The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane was bought from the Montague Housing Works thrift shop and had post card of a cat face in it. How did it come to me? I have no recollection.
A world traveller, Robert Macfarlane realizes one of his favorite wild places is a short walk from his house. He begins to wonder what other wild places are still in his home country or if there are any left. He takes the time to search them out in this book.
This book is divided into the different landscapes that the author visits and takes the reader on a tour of the wild and remote places in the British Isles. Full of visual and emotional observations, Macfarlane shares thoughts on travel, history, friendship, and what wildness means. This book was definitely a beautiful travelog, but also quite slow and a little bit hard to stick with. His travels have a sort of meandering style and his writing does, too, switching between historic details and his current quest. I really loved that his destinations were so varied and he took the reader to many contrasting locations, high mountaintops, fields, valleys, beaches. But I found it hard to identify with in many ways, as I have never travelled as described in the book. That these were experiences I have never had could have been inspiring and exciting, but mostly they felt a bit isolating. Sleeping in a ice drift seems like a mad idea, not a romantic revelation. There may have been some places that I would have liked to see while reading, but afterwards, I can’t remember them. They were beautifully described but the image doesn’t linger. More so, the story of Macfarlane himself is what sticks out about this book. His duel life between traveling and sleeping rough, his loyalty to his family and close friends, and discovery of his farsightedness when it comes to the wild places right outside his door. Being an anglophile, I did love learning more about the English landscape. I would recommend this book to those who want to hear more about the English terrain, people who love travel books, “ramblers” and anyone who wonders what and where the wild places are.
What is your favorite travel book? Do you like books where people travel to exotic lands or explore their own back yard?
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