Rebecca Solnit's Wanderlust: A Reflection on the History of Walking

Eve Waites: If you aim to read about walking - considered historically, culturally, philosophically - start here. The biographical elements were, to my thinking, the weaker elements of the text; but overall I enjoyed the paths the author guided me along. Have recommended, and will dip back into it for sure in months and years to come. This is a book you keep, and revisit, and mine for references.

United States on Oct 19, 2023

Sandra: Lo he recibido en perfecto estado pero la sorpresa desagradable ha sido el tamaño de la letra. Ha sido abrirlo y darme cuenta que ni de broma voy a leerme un libraco de casi 300 páginas con la letra tan pequeña. Es incomodísimo. No creo que pueda devolverlo porque tengo que pagar el envío, lo revenderé por otro lado. Una lástima.

Spain on Jul 04, 2023

Alphonso Sara: Livre arrivé rapidement et en parfait état.

France on Nov 09, 2020

Suzy: Very interesting book, beautifully written.

Australia on Oct 19, 2020

Ruhi E. Tuzlak: Excellent book about something we all --and always-- do and never think about it.

Canada on Jul 11, 2020

Jeff: The title drew my attention. I’m a wanderlust. I've done a lot of walking and hiking--from the Appalachian Trail to cities around the world-- and this book was a delight. I don’t really know how to categorize it. The book is a kaleidoscope of many parts: anthropology, science, history, adventure, exploration, philosophy and poetry. There is a little of something for everyone, which may make the book overwhelming for some. But I found it a delight.

Solnit begins by taking us on a walk near her home in the San Francisco Bay area. Soon, she is exploring philosophers who think while walking and then she’s off discussing how we began to walk and how it helps us see the world. She discusses the idea of the garden and the British walking tradition, especially as it was experienced by poets like Wadsworth and Keats. There are pages devoted to private property and the battles, especially in the UK, over the battle of the right to walk across private property. As she expands walking, she focuses on the French Revolution and the role mass “walking” has played in protests. From France, she explores walking in the Civil Rights movement to the Tiananmen Square revolts in China...

United States on May 22, 2019

Don J. Gagnon: Rebecca Solnit’s “Wanderlust A History of Walking” is an entertaining read, an erudite guide for pilgrims, promenaders, and wanderers, for all those who walk for travel and leisure, health and pleasure. In a series of well written essays, the author explored the contemplative, practical, and literary experiences of many who have contributed to the rich history of a universal pastime. Whether one has enjoyed hiking, meandering, parading, promenading, rambling, roaming, skulking, strolling, traversing a landscape or trekking across the countryside, wandering the streets, paths, and walkways of a small town or a big city, wandering to and fro, here and there, farther and farther, through gardens, in a forest, in the mountains, or over the heath, this book will deepen and expand the readers enjoyment of walking.

United States on Apr 03, 2018

Karen Lee Price: Reading some of the reviews by other readers, I wonder if they understood that, as is stated on the cover, this is a History of Walking. I find it funny that some people complain about getting MORE than they asked for. Solnit discusses walking from many perspectives: anthropological, social, political, literary, and more. Her accounts are deeply thought out, well sourced, and enlightening. This has immediately become one of my absolutely favorite books.

I would advise future readers to ignore to the quotations running along the bottom of the pages until they have finished the actual text, OR to read them before reading the text. Otherwise they are too distracting and take the reader away from the page currently being read. It's delightful to read them in one go.

Germany on Mar 30, 2017

John P. Jones III: …of all places. Nevada is a state one does not normally associate with a “good walk,” spoilt or otherwise. Rebecca Solnit covers a lot of territory, mental as well as geographical, in between her Nevada “bookends.” I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and give credit to Amazon, for suggesting it based on my “search history.”

Solnit lives in San Francisco, apparently not far from my daughter, near Golden Gate Park. Both enjoy walking in the most European of American cities. She commences by describing a familiar walk around a headland just north of Golden Gate Bridge, quipping on Heraclitus’s dictum on rivers: you never step onto the same trail twice. On the headland’s walk she relates her work in the ‘80’s, in Nevada, as an anti-nuclear activist, walking near test sites. Such statements as: “… a certain kind of wanderlust can only be assuaged by the acts of the body itself in motion, not the motion of the car, boat or plane,” helped “draw me in.”

As the subtitle indicates, it is the “history of walking,” and she does commence at the beginning, when our ancestors came down from the trees, stood upright, perhaps to see better, as they...

United States on Aug 29, 2016