The Driveway Diaries: A Dirt Road Almanac

by Tim Brookes

While working on a doomed book about commuting, Tim Brookes developed an odd affection for dirt roads. This led him to study his own driveway, a tiny dirt road, a masterpiece of inconvenience, a many-mooded borderlands in the balance of power between order and chaos. The The Driveway Diaries , a well-balanced mix of poignant and humorous observations about nature, the seasons and family life. Tim Brookes is the author of A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow , which was selected as one of the top travel books of the year by The New York Times and Booklist . He has lived for two decades in Vermont, where he teaches and writes.

Genres: Essays, Nature

236 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

About the author

I was born in England to parents who were poor, honest, and loved nothing more than going for long walks, preferably in the rain. My education consisted of being forced to take written exams every five or six weeks, and eat school lunches of liver and onions-until I got to Oxford, where we had written exams every eight weeks and had lunches of pickled onions and Guinness.
This was quite enough to make me flee the country and seek gainful employment in Vermont, where I have lived for 24 years, writing a great deal, playing the guitar, carving endangered alphabets, and trying to grow good raspberries.

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have finally figured it out – I love essays! I loved Emerson’s when I was a teenager. I always pick up those books where somebody picks a task (cook through Julia Child’s French recipes, give up something different every month for a year, read the world’s great books) and writes about it as they go. This one, by Tim Brookes, a Vermonter transplanted from England, uses his ungainly driveway as the starting place for his thoughts on family, owning a home, weather (especially Vermont snow and ice), and a host of other topics, which in turn are often just the physical manifestations of love, fear, and wonder. The best essays remind me of the kind of conversations I have with my closest friends, in person, and through writing emails and letters. These are some of the best essays. I’ll keep this book and read it again.

[Odoublegood · Rating 3 out of 5]

semirural Vermont through the seasons; physically a very handsome book; tiny pieces for small bits of reading time; especially liked the meditation on motor vehicles and the human relationship with streets occasioned by consideration of every driveway (or lack thereof) at every address where the author has lived

[Florence Buchholz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A witty little book that reminds you why it is a bad idea to live in a house in Vermont with a steep downward driveway. Winter is hell there. Mr. Brookes comments poetically on his troubles with wiring, gardening, pruning grapevines, shoveling snow and other joys of country living. It is fun to read in the warmth of spring and the comfort of an easy chair.