Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Reading this book is like getting swept up in the mental zone that you only find on a long walk. Poetical connections draw together disparate events and phenomena, from the history of humans standing on two legs, El Camino de Santiago, Jane Austin, Wordsworth, mountaineers and walking clubs, the gender politics of walking, flaneurs, quests, marches through the desert... We're so dependent on cars and the Internet, so busy and flustered, these days, that it's easy to lose sight of our basic humanity. Walking means thinking, it defines time, and it stitches together our experience as human beings. Rebecca Solnit's books are always good, but this one gets at something especially universal. 

(This book may contain a small, black sharpie mark on the bottom edge, so that it can't be returned to a different wholesaler.)