Its difficult to label a genre, but the literature I’m interested in right now touches upon themes, concepts and fields like: nature writing, biology, ecology, travel writing, solitude, mindfulness & art … visual art – and the art of writing.
Space has a spiritual equivalent and can heal what is divided and burdensome in us … Space represent sanity, not a life purified, dull, or “spaced out” but one that might accommodate intelligently any idea or situation
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Yesterday I asked for some suggestions of what to read – here is what I have been recommended so far:
- Simon Schama: Landscape and Memory
- Robert Macfarlane: The Old Ways – A Journey on Foot
- Robert Macfarlane: The Wild Places
- Roger Deakin: Wildwood
- Richard Mabey …
Any additions? Any books you wouldn’t have lived your life without having read …?
Patrick Leigh Fermor’s writing would also fit. ‘A Time of Gifts’ and ‘Between the Woods and the Water’ are both brilliant.
Thank you!
J.A. Baker’s The Peregrineis a terrific, unsentimental look at the bird (a “vandrefalk” in case you’re wondering)
I first heard of this through Patrick Kurp’s terrific blog Anecdotal Evidence, which is another fine source of writing about nature, although it’s not limited to it, being a “blog about the intersection of books and life.”
A good way to sample both is to read some of Kurp’s posts on The Peregrine:
Glowing Still
Hill of Summer
I hid in my own stillness
Of course, Kurp has a point in his recent post By Apprenticeship and Collecting as well: “You can always find good prose in a good field guide.”
(hoping this post comes through well-formatted — I cannot find a preview function)
Thank you Øystein!
Listen to this from Kathleen Jamie:
“J. A baker says, if you can’t see the falcon, look up, and though I scan the sky I see nothing but grey clouds, and I wonder instead about J. A. Baker. Who was this man who could spend ten years following peregrines? Had he no job?” (43)
http://www.sortof.co.uk/books/findings/
(the last sentence i quoted made me suspect Jamie for being West-Coast-Norwegian …)
Some American-centric suggestions: definitely anything by Annie Dillard (already mentioned, I believe), Jill Fredston (Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic’s Edge), Edward Abbey (Desert Solitaire, in particular), John Hay, Aldo Leopold, John Haines (particularly his poetry), Ellen Meloy (Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild), Kathleen Dean Moore (Riverwalking: Reflections on Moving Water).
Thank you! I know none of these writers except for Dillard, who – to be stupidly honest – changed my life.
She had a deep effect on me, as well. I frequently find her words close at hand in my mind.
I am following this post with interest because these themes/subjects engage me, too. By the way, I love your photo today. I’d love to go there someday.
Keep up the good work. You are pursuing some interesting threads.
Thank you, I will, and thank you for coming along.
A little over twenty years ago, I read Deepak Chopra’s Ageless Body, Timeless Mind. It changed my life and to this day, I remember it. However, cannot remember if I have mentioned to you Thomas Moore’s The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Living (recommended to me by a reader), which is wonderful for myth and enchantment. The Tao, just about any translation is enough to start, compels me as do the writings of Pema Chodron. Wayne Dyer’s Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life is a good introduction to the Tao, if a little heavy on interpretation.
Love these lists of titles; thanks for them!
Karen
You are taking us over in a different terrain – which is GREAT! I am a complete novice here, but look forward to gain new insight. Thank you so much Karen!