What do you think?
Rate this book
The Snow Tourist
In this unique book, part eulogy, part history, part travelogue, Charlie English goes in search of the best snow on the planet. Along the way he explains the extraordinary hold this commonplace phenomenon has over us, and reveals the ongoing drama of our relationship with it. Combining on-the-slopes experience with off-piste research, Charlie English's journey begins with the magical moment when his two-year-old son sees snow for the first time, before setting off in the footsteps of the Romantic poets over the Alps, following the sled-tracks of the Inuit across Greenland, and meeting up with a flurry of fellow enthusiasts, from snow-making scientists in Japan and global warming experts in California to plough drivers in Alaska.This is a book for anyone who reaches for their mittens at the sight of the first flake.
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
9 people are currently reading
246 people want to read
About the author
Charlie English
5 books89 followersCharlie English is a British non-fiction author and former head of international news at the Guardian. He has written four critically-acclaimed books: The Snow Tourist (2008); The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu (2017, published in the US as The Storied City); and The Gallery of Miracles and Madness (2021). His latest, The CIA Book Club, has just been published. He lives in London with his family and a rather talented sheepdog named Enzo. You can reach Charlie through his website, or via X or Instagram at @charlieenglish1.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
March 13, 2020
“A Search for the World’s Purest, Deepest Snowfall” reads the subtitle on the cover. English set out from his home in London for two years of off-and-on travel in snowy places, everywhere from Greenland to Washington State. In Jericho, Vermont, he learns about Wilson Bentley, an amateur scientist who was the first to document snowflake shapes through microscope photographs. In upstate New York, he’s nearly stranded during the Blizzard of 2006. He goes skiing in France and learns about the deadliest avalanches – Britain’s worst was in Lewes in 1836. In Scotland’s Cairngorms, he learns how those who work in the ski industry are preparing for the 60–80% reduction of snow predicted for this century. An appendix dubbed “A Snow Handbook” gives some technical information on how snow forms, what the different crystal shapes are called, and how to build an igloo, along with whimsical lists of 10 snow stories (I’ve read six), 10 snowy films, etc.
I found all of the science and history interesting, but especially liked a chapter on depictions of snow in art, such as Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Hunters in the Snow. The author also subtly threads in his own story, noting that this quest probably began with the 1960s photograph of himself on skis at a snowy Austrian resort that his father gave him a few weeks before he committed suicide. Twelve years later, it feels like this book doesn’t go far enough in cautioning about all that will be lost with climate change. I was left with the sense that nature is majestic and unpredictable, and we pay the price for not respecting it.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
I found all of the science and history interesting, but especially liked a chapter on depictions of snow in art, such as Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Hunters in the Snow. The author also subtly threads in his own story, noting that this quest probably began with the 1960s photograph of himself on skis at a snowy Austrian resort that his father gave him a few weeks before he committed suicide. Twelve years later, it feels like this book doesn’t go far enough in cautioning about all that will be lost with climate change. I was left with the sense that nature is majestic and unpredictable, and we pay the price for not respecting it.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
November 10, 2017
I had been itching to read The Snow Tourist: A Search for the World's Purest, Deepest Snowfall by Charlie English since I purchased it back in August. I felt that it would be best saved until late Autumn as a seasonal read, and it proved the perfect tome to settle down with in the fading afternoon light of November.
Metro calls The Snow Tourist a 'wonder and a delight', and Joanna Kavenna deems it 'an enchanting tale of one man's search for snow, a report on the precarious state of our extreme climates, an evocative poem to lost childhood winters...'. Robert Macfarlane says that The Snow Tourist is 'a finely written and many-sided account of the fascination - both fearful and loving - that we have for snow.' Wanderlust compares English's 'easy-going narrative style' to Bill Bryson's, which endeared me to it even further.
In The Snow Tourist, Charlie English has travelled all over the world, over a period of a few years, to find snow. He begins in his home city of London, and journeys to such places as Vermont, Austria, and the Inuit-inhabited lands of northern Canada. English certainly has part of an old-fashioned explorer within him; he seems fascinated with everything he sees, and everyone he meets, despite the odd wobbles he encounters due to the extreme cold.
Of his choice to undertake the journeys detailed in The Snow Tourist, he writes: 'every autumn now my thoughts return to snow. Snow is something I identify myself with. Like my father, I am a snow person.' This inheritance, passed down from his father, is all the more important to English, as his father committed suicide when he was just ten years old. English goes on to detail his hopes for his travels: 'The expedition I decided upon one grey day in London consisted of a series of journeys linked by a single natural form - snow. I would travel to the best snow in the world, discover how people lived with snow, and what they did with it. As on previous expeditions, the principal objective would be the journey itself, the knowledge and experiences I would gather, and the people I would meet along the way.'
The Snow Tourist is filled with startling facts and conjectures. English writes, for instance, that 'someone once estimated that a million billion snow crystals were created around the earth every second, in a jumble of shapes and sizes, from simple hexagonal prisms to flat plates and many-footed stars.' English also explores such things as the history of skiing.
English intersperses his travels, and writing about those whom he encounters, with memories of snow from his own childhood. He remembers the following, rather touching moment: 'A Super-8 film shows me and my brother being towed on the back of a sledge to a famous local hill, Granny's Bump. My father is in his wellington boots, red weekend trousers and Norwegian fisherman's jumper. My mother is wrapped in a long padded coat, with a woollen hat. My brother and I wobble about on the sledge and fall off as they haul us along by a rope. Watching it again now, these three flickering minutes give me a sense of warmth and loss, of nostalgie de la neige.' Throughout, there is a near-perfect balance struck between facts and personal experience.
The Snow Tourist is engaging and fascinating from the outset, and English's chatty yet informative prose style makes his book accessible to all. The travelogue is reflective yet up to the minute, detailing the effects which climate change has had upon some of the snowiest places on earth, and how rapidly the snowfall which some of us live with for many months of the year is beginning to melt way ahead of expected time. There is an awareness throughout of ways in which snow is changing, and how this affects different cultures which rely upon it. A lot of historical detail has also been included - for instance, the history of Western snow science. The 'Dictionary of Snow' included as an appendix is a lovely touch, and provides a lot of interesting facts to retain, as well as a slew of different words for different kinds of snow.
Metro calls The Snow Tourist a 'wonder and a delight', and Joanna Kavenna deems it 'an enchanting tale of one man's search for snow, a report on the precarious state of our extreme climates, an evocative poem to lost childhood winters...'. Robert Macfarlane says that The Snow Tourist is 'a finely written and many-sided account of the fascination - both fearful and loving - that we have for snow.' Wanderlust compares English's 'easy-going narrative style' to Bill Bryson's, which endeared me to it even further.
In The Snow Tourist, Charlie English has travelled all over the world, over a period of a few years, to find snow. He begins in his home city of London, and journeys to such places as Vermont, Austria, and the Inuit-inhabited lands of northern Canada. English certainly has part of an old-fashioned explorer within him; he seems fascinated with everything he sees, and everyone he meets, despite the odd wobbles he encounters due to the extreme cold.
Of his choice to undertake the journeys detailed in The Snow Tourist, he writes: 'every autumn now my thoughts return to snow. Snow is something I identify myself with. Like my father, I am a snow person.' This inheritance, passed down from his father, is all the more important to English, as his father committed suicide when he was just ten years old. English goes on to detail his hopes for his travels: 'The expedition I decided upon one grey day in London consisted of a series of journeys linked by a single natural form - snow. I would travel to the best snow in the world, discover how people lived with snow, and what they did with it. As on previous expeditions, the principal objective would be the journey itself, the knowledge and experiences I would gather, and the people I would meet along the way.'
The Snow Tourist is filled with startling facts and conjectures. English writes, for instance, that 'someone once estimated that a million billion snow crystals were created around the earth every second, in a jumble of shapes and sizes, from simple hexagonal prisms to flat plates and many-footed stars.' English also explores such things as the history of skiing.
English intersperses his travels, and writing about those whom he encounters, with memories of snow from his own childhood. He remembers the following, rather touching moment: 'A Super-8 film shows me and my brother being towed on the back of a sledge to a famous local hill, Granny's Bump. My father is in his wellington boots, red weekend trousers and Norwegian fisherman's jumper. My mother is wrapped in a long padded coat, with a woollen hat. My brother and I wobble about on the sledge and fall off as they haul us along by a rope. Watching it again now, these three flickering minutes give me a sense of warmth and loss, of nostalgie de la neige.' Throughout, there is a near-perfect balance struck between facts and personal experience.
The Snow Tourist is engaging and fascinating from the outset, and English's chatty yet informative prose style makes his book accessible to all. The travelogue is reflective yet up to the minute, detailing the effects which climate change has had upon some of the snowiest places on earth, and how rapidly the snowfall which some of us live with for many months of the year is beginning to melt way ahead of expected time. There is an awareness throughout of ways in which snow is changing, and how this affects different cultures which rely upon it. A lot of historical detail has also been included - for instance, the history of Western snow science. The 'Dictionary of Snow' included as an appendix is a lovely touch, and provides a lot of interesting facts to retain, as well as a slew of different words for different kinds of snow.
December 21, 2021
Lost this book for some years in my home, hence the long reading period! Such an outstanding collection of winter adventures, scientific reporting and a deep appreciation for that magical substance, snow. The book is very well written and packed with art, history, science and even a snow handbook appendix. If you are like me and nearly worship snow, you must read it!
August 15, 2014
Essentially Charlie English's book is a travel book, in which he aims to find the deepest and softest snow around the world and investigates the extremes of snowy weather. Consequently there are plenty of stories of avalanches and ski-ing accidents. More interesting for me were the chapters on gow the Inuits survive in extreme snowy conditions and on the shapes of snowflakes and the occasional nature observations.
The first chapter of the book focuses on the Inuit lifestyle, including details on how to build a perfect igloo (with accompanying illustrations in the appendix), A well made igloo shouldn't collapse under the weight of a polar bear.
The second chapter offers a brief overview of the history of scientific investigations into the shapes of snowflakes and concludes that there is much still to be learnt about the growth of snow crystals.
When researching the Scottish chapter of the book, the author found out from Adam Watson, a biologist, that ptarmigans "could fly straight into a snowdrift, kicking snow behind them so that they filled the entrance of the hole and were sheltered from the wind, and how they stayed near enough to the snow's surface that they didn't become buried, but could see when the morning light appeared and when to leave their burrows."
Throughout the book, English catalogues the changes in snowfall over the years, both during the historical periods (such as the Little Ice Age from 1520-1560 or in the current period of climate change.
The first chapter of the book focuses on the Inuit lifestyle, including details on how to build a perfect igloo (with accompanying illustrations in the appendix), A well made igloo shouldn't collapse under the weight of a polar bear.
The second chapter offers a brief overview of the history of scientific investigations into the shapes of snowflakes and concludes that there is much still to be learnt about the growth of snow crystals.
When researching the Scottish chapter of the book, the author found out from Adam Watson, a biologist, that ptarmigans "could fly straight into a snowdrift, kicking snow behind them so that they filled the entrance of the hole and were sheltered from the wind, and how they stayed near enough to the snow's surface that they didn't become buried, but could see when the morning light appeared and when to leave their burrows."
Throughout the book, English catalogues the changes in snowfall over the years, both during the historical periods (such as the Little Ice Age from 1520-1560 or in the current period of climate change.
October 31, 2024
This book’s subtitle is ‘One man’s bracing quest to find the world’s purest, deepest snowfall.’ I’m not sure it came across like that as I was reading it, but it is certainly a quest to discover as much interesting about snow as possible. It was only about six weeks since I’d returned from the arctic, and do love the odd snowy waste, even if I gave up skiing many years ago. My love for televised winter sports continues, especially more arcane ones like ski jumping, and the author’s research into the history of skiiing, and the science of snow, really hit the spot for me.
Charlie English takes multiple journeys, often back-to-back, to find out all he can about snow – which is really interesting! He starts in northern Canada, at the wrong time of year, really, and hits the Alps, where he discovers he’s not quite the explorer he maybe used to be. He tries multiple places in the USA that claim to have heavy snowfalls, sometimes the deepest, sometimes the most in a year, and so on. It seems to be a competitive sport between towns. He placated the family by taking them on one of those trips, although it didn’t seem too successful a ploy. I found it interesting that his wife still tolerated his travels even when he was away for the birth of their third child. Or maybe he was such a wuss about the first two she preferred it that way.
Charlie English takes multiple journeys, often back-to-back, to find out all he can about snow – which is really interesting! He starts in northern Canada, at the wrong time of year, really, and hits the Alps, where he discovers he’s not quite the explorer he maybe used to be. He tries multiple places in the USA that claim to have heavy snowfalls, sometimes the deepest, sometimes the most in a year, and so on. It seems to be a competitive sport between towns. He placated the family by taking them on one of those trips, although it didn’t seem too successful a ploy. I found it interesting that his wife still tolerated his travels even when he was away for the birth of their third child. Or maybe he was such a wuss about the first two she preferred it that way.
March 5, 2011
A very interesting book about the author's fascination with snow. There is history, science, culture, tradition and travel in this book which is divided into chapters based around each trip made by the author in pursuit of the perfect experience of snow. The topics range from the molecular makeup of a snowflake and how that was discovered to igloo building, skiing and mountaineering.
February 15, 2024
I grew up in a city where snow days were rare and magical. One of those places where the city shuts down over 2 inches since it only happens at most once a year. In my adult life I moved around to places that received more snow before finally ending up back in my hometown. I miss snow - winter just does not feel the same without it.
It wasn't until I read this book that I realized that I am fascinated by snow disaster stories (this shouldn't be a surprise since I am also fascinated by all other disaster stories. This book is at its best when it describes catastrophic snow events: the Great Blizzard of 1888 on the East Coast (Chapter 4) and the avalanche that buried villagers in Lewes, England in 1836 (Chapter 6). I had never heard of either event before. I had heard about the deadly Children's Blizzard which occurred a few months before the Great Blizzard in 1888. English doesn't mention this blizzard in his book. 1888 was a terribly deadly year of snow in the United States. English does an excellent job with the history, telling it in a compelling, narrative format. I was also deeply interested in English's adventures learning about and building an igloo in Nunavut, Canada and about his discussions with the Inuit who lived there (Chapter 2).
Unfortunately, I was less interested in the rest of the book. This is somewhat of a travelogue/memoir and it felt at times that English spends a chapter on a location simply because he wanted to travel there anyway. In one sense, good for him, get those business expense write-offs. On the other hand, chapters like the one about snow in art based in Vienna, Austria (Chapter 8) felt shoehorned in. Where English travels and the topics he addresses feel scattered, making the book feel disjointed. It is also notable that English only travels to North American and Western Europe. What about the snow in Russia, Korea, Nepal? Snow is a huge topic and it would be impossible to fit everything into a reasonably sized book. But I would have personally loved much less about English's personal life and about skiing and more about myths, legends, and folktales about snow (i.e., the Yeti), more tales of snow disasters, the view of snow outside of North America/Western Europe, and interviews with snow carvers/attendees at snow festivals (which occur in China and Japan, among other places).
It wasn't until I read this book that I realized that I am fascinated by snow disaster stories (this shouldn't be a surprise since I am also fascinated by all other disaster stories. This book is at its best when it describes catastrophic snow events: the Great Blizzard of 1888 on the East Coast (Chapter 4) and the avalanche that buried villagers in Lewes, England in 1836 (Chapter 6). I had never heard of either event before. I had heard about the deadly Children's Blizzard which occurred a few months before the Great Blizzard in 1888. English doesn't mention this blizzard in his book. 1888 was a terribly deadly year of snow in the United States. English does an excellent job with the history, telling it in a compelling, narrative format. I was also deeply interested in English's adventures learning about and building an igloo in Nunavut, Canada and about his discussions with the Inuit who lived there (Chapter 2).
Unfortunately, I was less interested in the rest of the book. This is somewhat of a travelogue/memoir and it felt at times that English spends a chapter on a location simply because he wanted to travel there anyway. In one sense, good for him, get those business expense write-offs. On the other hand, chapters like the one about snow in art based in Vienna, Austria (Chapter 8) felt shoehorned in. Where English travels and the topics he addresses feel scattered, making the book feel disjointed. It is also notable that English only travels to North American and Western Europe. What about the snow in Russia, Korea, Nepal? Snow is a huge topic and it would be impossible to fit everything into a reasonably sized book. But I would have personally loved much less about English's personal life and about skiing and more about myths, legends, and folktales about snow (i.e., the Yeti), more tales of snow disasters, the view of snow outside of North America/Western Europe, and interviews with snow carvers/attendees at snow festivals (which occur in China and Japan, among other places).
March 4, 2018
The heaviest snowfall for some years seems like a good moment to read this. Charlie English has been in love with snow since childhood and sharing the joy of his son's first experience of it in a London park takes him back to his own childhood and the happiness and excitement that a sudden snowfall created. Inspired by his memories he sets off in search of some of the world's snowiest places - and some that the snow has now largely forsaken. There are plenty of fascinating stories and anecdotes and some interesting diversions into the role snow has played in the visual arts and literature. The hardback edition of this book has a beautifully designed cover featuring many of the key locations in the text arranged on a classic six-pronged snowflake. The Snow Tourist was an engaging and interesting read, but lacked the poetry of Marcus Sedgwick's Snow, which I read at the beginning of the winter.
January 14, 2019
Well this was a lovely little surprise of a book for me. I have to admit, I bought this on a whim when high on book shopping in Hay on Wye!! I was attracted to the pristine cover (I'm never normally this shallow when choosing books!!) and reading the blurb, thought it sounded interesting. It was a fascinating book with a mix of facts, figures and personal experience stories of the journalist Charlie English, whose interest in snow stems from his own father. Part meteorology, part geology, part travelogue, part everything really! I had a lovely old time sliding down the slopes of English's words (eh, do you see what I did there?!!!)
February 28, 2019
Fascinating, if you like snow. This book was less of a technical treatise and much more of one man's personal mission to find and understand snow and meet the people who have made their lives in and around snow. Living near Aviemore for 30 years I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Aviemore, Cairngorms and Scotland. The chapter on the history of snow in art something I know nothing about and found absorbing. The details of how his family enjoyed (put up with) his snow quest are also added interest. All in all an enjoyable and fun book to read.
November 24, 2024
Upon picking this up storm burt crossed the UK bringing with it the first snow I’ve seen for 5 years - admittedly it only lasted less then a day and probably couldn’t even measure an inch but reading this felt really warming.
English’s journey around the world was exciting and informative packed with insight and personal reflection so was pleased to read this. With a hot chocolate and the heating on it was a stark contrast to what he experienced but it only added to the warm wintry feeling that snow brings to my.
English’s journey around the world was exciting and informative packed with insight and personal reflection so was pleased to read this. With a hot chocolate and the heating on it was a stark contrast to what he experienced but it only added to the warm wintry feeling that snow brings to my.
December 28, 2022
I like snow! Although we see very little, it always has!
This is a book about snow and snowy places. I enjoyed it and there was a lot of (fairly unconnected) information.
The author is quite elf indulgent and a bit chaotic in his portrayal & descriptions, but this only detracted from the book a little. He is never less than enthusiastic.
I enjoyed it, but others may be less gratified. You do have to love the subject!!)
This is a book about snow and snowy places. I enjoyed it and there was a lot of (fairly unconnected) information.
The author is quite elf indulgent and a bit chaotic in his portrayal & descriptions, but this only detracted from the book a little. He is never less than enthusiastic.
I enjoyed it, but others may be less gratified. You do have to love the subject!!)
March 14, 2020
Very dull account of a year researching snow. Not many interesting stories
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2020
The history / science bits were good, the family bits boring and the travel bits somewhere between the two.
June 15, 2023
a stunning exploration about how snow, a natural phenomenon that leaves no physical trace, still has the ability to leave its mark emotionally.
December 23, 2024
Fueled by climate change in 2009, Charlie English set out on the adventure of a lifetime to document the world’s snowiest places. His discoveries are still relevant as we witness vital snowpacks and glaciers shrinking at alarming rates. This is another tome that adds to the conversation surrounding the challenges facing the outdoor industry.
December 5, 2025
I expected to find this interesting, but was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It's an informative, fascinating book. I'm off to look at the 'snow artworks' listed on page 258.
June 26, 2024
All about snow!
Read
January 7, 2011It is snowing again, so it seems appropriate to write this review now. This was another of the snow-themed books I read during Britain’s “Big Freeze.” I enjoyed it, and as a compendium of many disparate snow-related themes it’s quite fascinating—Charlie English’s rather crazed (and somewhat ill-prepared) snow-seeking trips set him up to discuss igloo-building, classical European paintings and modern snow crystal photography, climate change and ice age history, and the science of snowflakes and avalanches, in addition to his own childhood memories. I adore the appendix, “A Snow Handbook”—a random selection of snow-crystal types, poems about snow, lists including “10 Snowy Places,” “10 snow stories” and “10 strange snowfalls” (mostly in color), as well as “How to Build an Igloo” and “How to Survive an Avalanche.”
The prose very occasionally suffers from Travel Writers’ Whine (that’s a bit mean, as it was mostly enjoyable), but it is English’s first book. I found his use of the term “snow machine” for “snow mobile” bizarre. For the longest time it led me to think that his Inuit guide was for some reason going to make his own snow for igloo-building! Maybe I am an ignorant Pennsylvanian.
-----------------------
I wanted to add that this paperback is SO POORLY BOUND that the first 20 pages fell out one by one as I turned them. The upside of this is that you can simulate a snowstorm by giving the book a good shake!
The prose very occasionally suffers from Travel Writers’ Whine (that’s a bit mean, as it was mostly enjoyable), but it is English’s first book. I found his use of the term “snow machine” for “snow mobile” bizarre. For the longest time it led me to think that his Inuit guide was for some reason going to make his own snow for igloo-building! Maybe I am an ignorant Pennsylvanian.
-----------------------
I wanted to add that this paperback is SO POORLY BOUND that the first 20 pages fell out one by one as I turned them. The upside of this is that you can simulate a snowstorm by giving the book a good shake!
February 10, 2014
Charlie English has a think about snow, so much so that he decides to visit places all around the world to see which has the most perfect snow.
His travels take him from Alaska to Scotland, Vienna to Vermont. Some times he takes his family, other time he travels alone. He visits the place with the greatest snowfall, Rainier near Seattle, which has had 93 feet of snow in one season. He also looks at famous paintings with snow scenes, and is mesmerised by some of the great works. He goes to Scotland to see how the winter tourist industry is coping with the reduced amount of snow that they are getting now, and goes to New York where he learns about the worst storms that they have had there.
In all it is a 2.5 star book, interesting to read, but not truly exceptional. It is stuffed full of facts, and he has obviously done a lot of research for the book.
His travels take him from Alaska to Scotland, Vienna to Vermont. Some times he takes his family, other time he travels alone. He visits the place with the greatest snowfall, Rainier near Seattle, which has had 93 feet of snow in one season. He also looks at famous paintings with snow scenes, and is mesmerised by some of the great works. He goes to Scotland to see how the winter tourist industry is coping with the reduced amount of snow that they are getting now, and goes to New York where he learns about the worst storms that they have had there.
In all it is a 2.5 star book, interesting to read, but not truly exceptional. It is stuffed full of facts, and he has obviously done a lot of research for the book.
October 15, 2016
I thought this was a brilliant book. Not only does Mr. English cover sites of snowfall, but he covers history, art, and economic change due to snow. At first, I thought this would be a travel book, but it's much more than that. I loved reading about the artwork he studied in Vienna when he went to Vienna in the summer--the opposite time of year for snowfall. I also thought the history component like how Japanese artwork depicting snow was a result of it being opened to trade. I just read a book about that whole point in history, so it's a great connection.
I thoroughly enjoyed this encompassing and complete look at snow and how it affects us much more than just a few months out of the year. Brilliant work, Mr. English. I look forward to more books from you.
I thoroughly enjoyed this encompassing and complete look at snow and how it affects us much more than just a few months out of the year. Brilliant work, Mr. English. I look forward to more books from you.
January 16, 2010
This book is great!
I grabbed this book at random from the library shelf and I love it!
It's everything a nature experience on paper should be. The descriptions are well crafted, exciting and well written. I get caught up in the author's travel story and then suddenly realize that I just learned how to survive a blizzard, the history of the Inuit and how snowflakes are made.
Normally, as I read this type of travel-story book, I skip around and get bored after a couple chapters. I read this book from start to finish. (Actually I started at the back section which gave fun and random snow information. Very fun!)
Highly recommend this book! I would love to see it more widely circulated.
I grabbed this book at random from the library shelf and I love it!
It's everything a nature experience on paper should be. The descriptions are well crafted, exciting and well written. I get caught up in the author's travel story and then suddenly realize that I just learned how to survive a blizzard, the history of the Inuit and how snowflakes are made.
Normally, as I read this type of travel-story book, I skip around and get bored after a couple chapters. I read this book from start to finish. (Actually I started at the back section which gave fun and random snow information. Very fun!)
Highly recommend this book! I would love to see it more widely circulated.
December 29, 2014
I really liked how the author kept his personal story integrated with the informative aspects of the book. Too much factual data and it becomes textbook-like and boring, too much personal introspection and it becomes self-indulgent; the author kept the perfect balance. I also liked the final chapter, "A Snow Handbook", which is simply a collection of interesting bits and pieces about snow that didn't fit anywhere. For example, there are lists of books and movies that are snow-related, quotes from poetry, random factoids about snow, and illustrated instructions on how to build an igloo. I highly recommend this book.
April 22, 2012
I love snow so this was a natural for me. Mr. English takes his personal love of everything snow and goes on a journey across the Northern Hemisphere to discover it. He meets lots of interesting people along the way and learns how they interact with the snow. I liked this book a great deal because it was personal for the author. The book contained tons and tons of interesting facts/tidbits about snow - scientific, recreational, culture, mythology, art, history, militarily - a more than a few of them I plan to use in my own personal experiences with snow. Thanks Mr. English - this was a good one!!
January 11, 2010
Such apt reading. I started this on the day the snow fell, and assumed it would have melted long before I finished the book - I was wrong.
Glad I got to read it with the white stuff surrounding me. It helped to feel less resentful towards it while reading of someone's genuine passion for it. Although it felt a little odd when he talked about the lack of recent UK snow!
Nicely written throughout, and broken down into decent sections that didn't dwell to long on any one thing. Engaging prose that gently slipped the facts past the reader.
Glad I got to read it with the white stuff surrounding me. It helped to feel less resentful towards it while reading of someone's genuine passion for it. Although it felt a little odd when he talked about the lack of recent UK snow!
Nicely written throughout, and broken down into decent sections that didn't dwell to long on any one thing. Engaging prose that gently slipped the facts past the reader.
December 30, 2017
I learned more about snow over the course of this book than I ever thought I would in a lifetime. Whilst the informative chapters about, for example, some of the largest snowfalls in history and the geography involved, the personal insights are what set the book apart. I admire Charlie English for his ability to examine and dissect life through his fascination. English's passion for snow is the impetus for his journeys, on which, he gives the reader a highly personable and reflective viewpoint. Amazing book!
August 19, 2018
I really enjoyed this book, a travel book with a theme of snow! I love snow! I don't ski/snowboard but love walking in snow and how the world looks covered in snow. This book will however lead you through one man's obsession to find and experience different types of snow and snow experiences. As well as descriptions of the beautiful and solitude that you can almost visualise, he also covers the dangers of things such as avalanches and not-so-solid snow-ground. It's a beautifully written journey with interesting characters and facts.
April 13, 2013
An interesting book which looks at the phenomenon of snow from many different perspectives. English juxtaposes his discussions of art, culture, and the science and history of snow with his own adventures of climbing snowy mountains in Switzerland, building igloos in North Canada etc This does seem forced and by the numbers at times, but his writing is clear and honest and you emerge with a renewed sense of wonder of snow and its history, characteristics and influence on so many of our cultures.
July 19, 2012
Written by someone who loves snow, this book helped me appreciate snow a little more (something I need help with). The author travels to snow-significant places and intersperses his travelogue with facts and histories.
April 20, 2020
An interesting book covering many aspects of snow including the science of snowflakes and avalanches, snow sports, snow in art and how to thrive living in a snowy climate.
The authors voice is slightly urbane and irritating but not enough to prevent enjoyment of the book itself!
The authors voice is slightly urbane and irritating but not enough to prevent enjoyment of the book itself!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews