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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
This is actually a beautifully written and thoughtful book which I would recommend to many. I'm only giving it three stars because as it is travel writing and does not follow characters, it is something that didn't reach me the same way as many books.
Just lovely. If you read it, take the time to read long portions aloud to yourself.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
This was a really beautiful meditation on living for a year on top of a dune on Cape Cod. If you don't like birds, or the Cape, or the constant sound of the surf, pounding Nauset Beach's (or any beach's, I suppose) shores, you probably shouldn't read this book.
If you *love* birds you'll probably own a copy or two of this book and will have stayed at Henry Beston's now long-destroyed Fo'castle, which perished in the Blizzard of '78, which apparently hated birds.
If you *love* birds you'll probably own a copy or two of this book and will have stayed at Henry Beston's now long-destroyed Fo'castle, which perished in the Blizzard of '78, which apparently hated birds.
Reviewed here: http://www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/2014/10/05/bookshelf-the-outermost-house/
Written back in the 1920s when the author stayed in a little cottage right on Cape Cod. He wrote down his observations and reflections of life on the beach for an entire year. The book starts slow but by the middle I was hooked. I especially enjoyed his descriptions of the beach and the birds in winter.
Rachel Carson said that this book was the only one that influenced her writing and it is considered one of the classics of American nature writing.
"Winter is no negation, no mere absence of summer; it is another and a positive presence."
"Our fantastic civilization has fallen out of touch with many aspects of nature, and with none more completely than with night...We of the age of the machines, having delivered ourselves of nocturnal enemies, now have a dislike of night itself. With lights and ever more lights, we drive the holiness and beauty of night back to the forests and the sea...Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it, for, with the banishment of night from the experience of man, there vanishes as well a religious emotion, a poetic mood, which gives depth to the adventure of humanity."
"Do no dishonor to the earth lest you dishonor the spirit of man. Hold your hands out over the earth as over a flame. To all who love her, who open to her the doors of their veins, she gives of her strength, sustaining them with her own measureless tremor of dark life. Touch the earth, love the earth, honor the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth's and they are given to all..."
Rachel Carson said that this book was the only one that influenced her writing and it is considered one of the classics of American nature writing.
"Winter is no negation, no mere absence of summer; it is another and a positive presence."
"Our fantastic civilization has fallen out of touch with many aspects of nature, and with none more completely than with night...We of the age of the machines, having delivered ourselves of nocturnal enemies, now have a dislike of night itself. With lights and ever more lights, we drive the holiness and beauty of night back to the forests and the sea...Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it, for, with the banishment of night from the experience of man, there vanishes as well a religious emotion, a poetic mood, which gives depth to the adventure of humanity."
"Do no dishonor to the earth lest you dishonor the spirit of man. Hold your hands out over the earth as over a flame. To all who love her, who open to her the doors of their veins, she gives of her strength, sustaining them with her own measureless tremor of dark life. Touch the earth, love the earth, honor the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth's and they are given to all..."