A review by posobin
Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places by John R. Stilgoe

4.0

A beautiful meandering book, it really makes you appreciate the secondary roads, the back alleys, the mundane and unnoticeable parts of our built environment that your eyes glide over but that reveal a lot if you pause and pay attention. Now I want to get on a bike and ride across the US from one coast to the other, following the right-of-ways under electric lines, along abandoned railroads, finding similarities among the Main streets and Second streets of small towns I pass along the way, noticing patterns in locations of the inns and motels. For now I'll just be more attentive and maybe less focused when I am outside: I've found that a small discovery can make my day. It does make the world a bit more magical indeed.