130 reviews for:

The Songlines

Bruce Chatwin

3.74 AVERAGE


Filled with three-to-four-star moments but the entire back half felt like an absolute slog. Was very excited to read this and very disappointed how much I had to force myself to finish it.
adventurous medium-paced
informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

Super interesting read. Felt like I learnt a lot. Didn’t enjoy the journal entries of Chatwin’s other travels though. 

A slow and thoughtful read. It's about aborigines and much more. Some great quotes from his notebooks and about notebooks.

I had the same problem as a few other commenters - the Excerpts from Notebook sections were too long and disruptive and could've added the same narratives with just one or two notes rather than pages and pages of them.
adventurous informative reflective slow-paced
adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

This book turned out to be so much more than I expected.

A compelling read, but it did feel a bit meandering in parts, particularly in regards to the notebook extracts. The ideas about the human compulsion to travel and nomadism were interesting, but the argument did feel a little contrived. The stuff about the Australian desert and people, also at times felt a little contrived, or at least, not quite trustworthy, but, nevertheless, a very good read. One of those books I meant to read years ago, but never quite got around too it.
zuzana_be's profile picture

zuzana_be's review

4.0

zaujímavé čítanie o kultúre Aborigincov a pocta všetkým nomádom.

v prvej časti sa Chatwin venuje tzv. songlines, mytológii austrálskych Aborigincov. každý Aboriginec má svoju cestu predkov, udržovanú vo forme piesní. cesty sa tiahnu z jedného konca Austrálie na druhý, pričom po ceste sú rôzne body v príbehu, kde sa predok zastavil a niečo sa udialo. zastavenie môže byť aj že pri tejto hore odbočil doľava. predkovia nie sú praotcovia, ale úplne prví predkovia klanu, čiže kengura, koala, varan, dingo, atď.
druhá časť je obhajoba nomádov. Chatwinove poznámky zozbierané rokmi cestovania, úryvky z kníh, citáty, rozhovory. nomádstvo Chatwina fascinuje, čo je aj poznať, a celkovo je právom považovaný za jedného z najlepších autorov cestopisov.