A review by famkez
Landlines by Raynor Winn

1.0

I may be the first to give this book a single star rating.. I did finish because I wanted to know what would happen, but just like the reading of this book felt like hard work, the walk also did and the reading of the walk.... Well you get it. Moors, rain, midges, mud, blistered feet, walkers that were just going the distance vs walkers "that got it", unfriendly Scots, covid, failing equipment: it was hard work to read about it. And it was repetitive to make the whole thing a proper ordeal.

The infusion of some chapters with pages that seem heavily inspired Wikipedia pages and the forever going on about biodiversity, the climate etc made it even worse. I agree with Raynor that humanity has a problem regarding climate, biodiversity and sustainability, but I don't need anyone preaching about it at random moments in a book that I didn't pick up to constantly be confronted with the authors opinion on the matter. It is tiresome, unnecessary, boring and just unwelcome, as far as I am concerned. Winn's 50 cents to the matter subtract rather than add to the book.

This book just didn't do it for me. At all. However, without giving too much away, I was glad about what I read in the final chapter!