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jelka's review against another edition
4.5
Makes me want to travel to All The Places and sleep outdoors without a tent. Also taught me about the Clearances, the Irish potato famine, the Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout in 1932, the dying of the elms, Walnut Tree Farm, and a thousand other things. This book was a great companion while travelling around Scotland.
ez_heath's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
katyab's review against another edition
5.0
"... I had learned to see another type of wildness, to which I had once been blind: the wildness of natural life, the sheer force of ongoing organic existence, vigorous and chaotic. This wildness was not about asperity, but about luxuriance, vitality, fun. [...] It was something most people forgot as they grew into adults."
I think Robert Macfarlane's books are the ones I've needed and benefited from the most throughout this past year. They've rekindled an absolute love of the world, despite me feeling so far or shut off from accessing it. His writing evokes such a deep and unique yearning to escape that no other book has, and makes me realise how vast and explorable this country is.
It also makes me realise, or helps to remind me in a way that's both humbling and terrifying, that the world is older than humanity. That there will come a time when we fade from dominance, and nature will reclaim what we once controlled. "... our age will pass, and our material legacy [...] will be absorbed by the land, becoming all but imperceptible." This was really emotional given the context of RM's friendship with Roger Deakin (whose books I'll be seeking out some point in the future).
There's another brilliant quote that he mentions, although he also said he'd lost the source. "Landscape was here long before we were even dreamed. It watched us arrive." The implication that "it will watch us leave" is haunting to me, in a way that I can't decide whether it's good or bad. I think it's mostly good. I remembered it when I was standing alone in the mountains last weekend. That was nothing compared to RM's experience on Ben Hope (which kept me awake after I put the book down for the night...)
It's a kind of smallness that we can lose sight of, but we shouldn't. That the natural world can be both indifferently hostile and gently passive to our existence... they're both necessary to know.
I'm gushing now, so this is a sensible place to stop.
Brilliant, as always.
I think Robert Macfarlane's books are the ones I've needed and benefited from the most throughout this past year. They've rekindled an absolute love of the world, despite me feeling so far or shut off from accessing it. His writing evokes such a deep and unique yearning to escape that no other book has, and makes me realise how vast and explorable this country is.
It also makes me realise, or helps to remind me in a way that's both humbling and terrifying, that the world is older than humanity. That there will come a time when we fade from dominance, and nature will reclaim what we once controlled. "... our age will pass, and our material legacy [...] will be absorbed by the land, becoming all but imperceptible." This was really emotional given the context of RM's friendship with Roger Deakin (whose books I'll be seeking out some point in the future).
There's another brilliant quote that he mentions, although he also said he'd lost the source. "Landscape was here long before we were even dreamed. It watched us arrive." The implication that "it will watch us leave" is haunting to me, in a way that I can't decide whether it's good or bad. I think it's mostly good. I remembered it when I was standing alone in the mountains last weekend. That was nothing compared to RM's experience on Ben Hope (which kept me awake after I put the book down for the night...)
It's a kind of smallness that we can lose sight of, but we shouldn't. That the natural world can be both indifferently hostile and gently passive to our existence... they're both necessary to know.
I'm gushing now, so this is a sensible place to stop.
Brilliant, as always.
calfon's review against another edition
5.0
Lyrical, and evocative - one for reading again and again.
bookherd's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
The author sets out to find "the wild places" in England, Ireland, and Scotland, thinking that they are isolated places that have been left alone, but comes to believe that wildness is bursting out everywhere. In the process, you visit some astonishingly beautiful places with him (and various friends of his, especially a character called Roger) and learn about their geologic and social history. This is a wonderful book.
suebrownreads's review against another edition
5.0
This book is so good! Beautiful writing! If you love nature and exploring it, you will love this book! It is a fascinating journey through the wild places of Wales, Ireland and England.
grahammcgrew's review against another edition
3.0
Kind of a poor man's British Craig Childs? I enjoyed vicariously visiting the moors, holloways and woods he describes. And he quotes some hot passages from other sources, like the monks of remote isles. But he seems a bit precious, a bit 'Look at me, I can climb a peak, sleep on an ice floe, go to the library, AND write about it!' In short, a pale shadow of Childs' effortless blend of knowledge, lyrical yet accurate evocation of landscape and peoples, and the occasional compelling personal reflection -- but, a not bad travelogue of some wildernesses of the UK.
amandatamsin's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5