While Wandering: A Walking Companion

by Duncan Minshull (Editor), Robert Macfarlane (Foreword)

A collection of literary walks -- from Austen, Woolf & Bronte to Colm Toibin, Bruce Chatwin & Werner Herzog -- this is the ultimate companion for readers & walkers looking to take inspiration from poems, novels, plays & journals.
     "It is good to collect things, but better to go on walks." --Anatole France
     A fundamental act, often taken for granted, yet through the centuries it has inspired a fascinating literature. 
     This, the first comprehensive anthology on the subject, delves into why we walk and how we walk; the differences between the country hike and the city stroll; walking and wooing; walking into trouble and marching out.
     A mix of fiction and non-fiction, poetry and drama provides the reader with over two hundred booted authors. Xenophone and Baudelaire, Flora Thompson and Julian Barnes, Mark Twain and Roberto Calasso tramp the pages of this fascinating collection.

Previously published with the title The Vintage Book of Walking.

Genres: Walking, Nature, Nonfiction

432 pages, Hardcover

First published April 3, 2014

Reviews

[uma]

I want a copy of this book. A very good anthology, although I read it in such a hurry all in a gulp that all the different voices jumbled together in one's mind. The pleasure of any good anthology is to find texts which one immediately recognises (Austen) and texts unfamiliar or less to one (Kierkegaard's letters).

[Catherine Letendre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ce sont de courts extraits de livres, romans, poésie, etc. qui parle de marche. Bien qu'ils soient diversifiés dans le temps, les styles sont semblables et les mêmes auteurs reviennent souvent.

Ils sont très bien catégorisés poir faire des chapitres avec des thèmatiques différentes, mais on passe d'un extrait à l'autre sans arrêt et à la longue ça devient fatiguant. Pour moi, il manque un fil conducteur plus fort que juste le titre du chapitre.

[Virginprune · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some real nuggets here.
If you feel the need to bring a compendium of poetry, and snippets of prose, on a range of topics loosely related to pedestrian travel, with you in your backpack - well, this book is small and light.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I would enjoy this more, since going for walks is one of my favorite past-times, but sadly, I just didn't find mamy passages that interested me.

Maybe, instead of reading about walks, one is better off just walking.