Ian
my favourite Alastair Humphrey’s book I think. Not because of the scale of the adventure, but because it’s the most personal. The passages about combining adventure with family life and the frustrations that brings really hit home. Thanks Al.
An excellent tale of a hobby reborn. Some great one-liners and a lovely combination of ornithological geekery and memories of family and music.
Parikian seems to make progress from beginner to twitecher (in denial) quicker than the average person who might be attempting the same feat, but for someone who wants to, it is both an inspirational and aspirational text.
The conclusion felt inevitable.
I’ve never been to (Orford) Ness, but through this text, and the couple of Wikipedia searches I did to help me through it, I feel like In know the place; like I was there this morning as I read.
I don’t read poetry or fiction very often, but I do read natural history. Ness felt ‚adjacent’. A natural(!) next step. I’ll reread the descriptions of it, he, she, they, as many times I expect…
I guess only map addicts, like me, will read this book, and so it should always score highly. I was perhaps less interested in the historical aspects of the story, and more interested in the personal connections.
The chapter ‘Going Off Map’ was fantastic and sums up exactly how I feel whenever I go ‘home’ to the UK
An excellent practical guide, but more than that; an insight into Scandinavian history and approach to life.
A beautiful, thoughtful analysis of mankind and us individuals that make up the whole.
The book’s construction is fascinating in that pretty much all plot has been removed to give space to this contemplation of the planet and its place in the universe. The use of repetition is also really striking - putting us in the position of the astronauts and their 16 sunrises each day.
I’d have preferred more a storyline I think, but maybe that’s just out of habit…
It took me a while to warm to Mr Ferguson. The book has some fascinating insights and ‚leads’ to follow up on, but the way it bounces around, almost in a ‚stream of consciousness, can be wearing.
Not much I can add here - you know the score on this book already. It still feels fresh and prescient, even decades after its publication. The pages of Goldstein’s book could have been someone reading the current news.
I started with the physical book, but switched to the audiobook version on Spotify. This was the first time I ever listened to an audiobook as I was doing a lot of driving. It won’t be my last (although I guess it might depend on how one likes the narrator). BTW, 1984 is free on Spotify because the copyright has expired.
It felt a little bit like a list at times. A list of English seaside villages where usually there were too many people, many of whom were objectionable; few places to camp and all the time being threatened by angry gulls. While it’s an emotional and at times beautiful story, it certainly didn’t inspire me to walk the path.
I felt that the writing developed through the pages, with the text being far more descriptive by the end. I bought her next two books so will see if that development continues…