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Product Description
Walking was once the only way to get around but now we just walk to the bus stop, station or car. Or we walk as a lifestyle choice - trekking holidays, charity walks, urban explorations. Geoff Nicholson's The Lost Art of Walking brings pedestrianism back to the centre of life by musing on his own walks, reflecting on writers, artists, musicians and film makers who take walking as a subject, and by looking at some of the great walkers in history the competitive, the adventurous, the philosophical, the merely eccentric.
The book takes us far further than most would consider walking distance, from the Oxford Street of de Quincey's London to the mean streets of Los
Angeles, from the concrete canyons of New York City to the seven hills of Sheffield, by way of the British seaside and the deserts of America, Egypt and Australia. Along the way it describes encounters with nude walkers, labyrinth walkers, psychogeographers, among many others. The Lost Art of Walking is discursive, imaginative, full of insight and sometimes downright hilarious.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Geoff Nicholson is best known as a writer of fiction who occasionally forays into writing non-fiction books about subjects which interest him - The Lost Art of Walking being one of the latter. This book is both an anthology of walking and walkers, while also being a set of personal stories aobut Geoff's walking life.
Geoff isn't one of those serious walkers who kit themselves up with serious equipment and attempt record-breaking distances or timings. But walking is a vital part of his life, even though it often he has "strolled, wandered, pottered, mooched, sauntered and meandered". He's certainly done some serious stuff too - a chapter on desert walking describes a more committed type of walking than many of us would attempt, but on the whole, there is more in this book about walking around cities than in the great outdoors.
Geoff is interested in psychogeography which Joseph Hart describes as "a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities...just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape". And I think that's quite a good description of this book too - the range is vast but certainly focuses on urban walking, the deliberate launching out on a walk through a city with no other purpose than to see something new and to be open to any new insights that come at you along the way.
The book covers a vast range of walking topics. There are chapters on particular cities - London, Los Angeles, New York, in which he describes his own urban walks. He includes more thematic chapters such as "Eccentrics, Obsessives, Artists", and "Music, Movement and Movies". I particularly enjoyed Geoff's chapter "Walking Home" which describes his return to his home town of Sheffield where he walks the streets and routes he used to take as a child, and also walks the hill that contributed to his mother's death from heart failure.
I particularly liked his in-depth exploration of Oxford Street during which he made six transits of Oxford Street from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch and back again over the course of a single day. I certainly had various routes which I walked repetitively and over the course of several traverses over them you definitely absorb the distinctive atmosphere, perhaps something to do with the history of the places you pass through.
This is a book which would be of great interest to walkers of all descriptions and I found it inventive and varied, well worth spending a few days with. It will probably inspire you to think a little more carefully about the everyday act of walking and how you canmake more of it.
Geoff isn't one of those serious walkers who kit themselves up with serious equipment and attempt record-breaking distances or timings. But walking is a vital part of his life, even though it often he has "strolled, wandered, pottered, mooched, sauntered and meandered". He's certainly done some serious stuff too - a chapter on desert walking describes a more committed type of walking than many of us would attempt, but on the whole, there is more in this book about walking around cities than in the great outdoors.
Geoff is interested in psychogeography which Joseph Hart describes as "a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities...just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape". And I think that's quite a good description of this book too - the range is vast but certainly focuses on urban walking, the deliberate launching out on a walk through a city with no other purpose than to see something new and to be open to any new insights that come at you along the way.
The book covers a vast range of walking topics. There are chapters on particular cities - London, Los Angeles, New York, in which he describes his own urban walks. He includes more thematic chapters such as "Eccentrics, Obsessives, Artists", and "Music, Movement and Movies". I particularly enjoyed Geoff's chapter "Walking Home" which describes his return to his home town of Sheffield where he walks the streets and routes he used to take as a child, and also walks the hill that contributed to his mother's death from heart failure.
I particularly liked his in-depth exploration of Oxford Street during which he made six transits of Oxford Street from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch and back again over the course of a single day. I certainly had various routes which I walked repetitively and over the course of several traverses over them you definitely absorb the distinctive atmosphere, perhaps something to do with the history of the places you pass through.
This is a book which would be of great interest to walkers of all descriptions and I found it inventive and varied, well worth spending a few days with. It will probably inspire you to think a little more carefully about the everyday act of walking and how you canmake more of it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book starts with, what I thought, was a very interesting introduction. It hooked me in and made me want to keep reading.
I found myself becoming involved in the theories of why we walk on two legs and the way we view walking. I've always liked things like this - studies show this and that and then someone else has a counter-theory or there are new findings. I think it would be a good topic to debate! There's even a brief dip into the environment argument and health benefits.
I have to confess that I never realised how many words are associated with walking or thought about my own style. My favourites have to be strolled; mooched; sauntered; shambled, hiked and marched. What do the first four say about my style do you think?
I also have to admit that I've never noticed all the walking written into novels but on reflection in my recent meanderings I've walked through many fields and alongside ditches/riverbanks - I've sauntered along dusty roads in India and along High Streets.
I am intrigued by the thought of letting the environment guide you - to let your feet take you where they will with no destination in mind and by the label psychogeography. I can understand having different walks to solve different problems (as Ian Sinclair does) as when my husband and myself walk (or should that be stroll) we choose places for how they make us feel.
The walks themselves are connected with popular people ie Richard Long, Captain Barclay, Guy Debord, to name a few. The author intersperses these walks with his own experimental challenges that parallel these and also with his own personal anecdotes. At the end is a mini biography, which Geoff Nicholson also relates to walking. There is a bibliography and online resources.
I disagree with how the author feels about the label `walking in nature' - not that it is `managed' nature but how it has the power to affect on a spiritual level. I believe in the spirit of place having experienced it for myself. I don't `walk in nature' to assert morals or a spiritual superiority but for my own personal reasons. I certainly don't feel smug or superior! Having said that, Geoff Nicholson does go on to note that he `lacks the spiritual gene' ...
One thing really did intrigue me, the long pedestrian races that were popular in the 19th century. I can imagine the crowds gathering for these (and some of them are bizarre to us today) and punters making their bets.
There is a lot of interesting information contained in these pages. It's written in a humorous style. The writing flows and content keeps you entertained whether you are a serious walker or if like me, you just want to expand your horizons.
I found myself becoming involved in the theories of why we walk on two legs and the way we view walking. I've always liked things like this - studies show this and that and then someone else has a counter-theory or there are new findings. I think it would be a good topic to debate! There's even a brief dip into the environment argument and health benefits.
I have to confess that I never realised how many words are associated with walking or thought about my own style. My favourites have to be strolled; mooched; sauntered; shambled, hiked and marched. What do the first four say about my style do you think?
I also have to admit that I've never noticed all the walking written into novels but on reflection in my recent meanderings I've walked through many fields and alongside ditches/riverbanks - I've sauntered along dusty roads in India and along High Streets.
I am intrigued by the thought of letting the environment guide you - to let your feet take you where they will with no destination in mind and by the label psychogeography. I can understand having different walks to solve different problems (as Ian Sinclair does) as when my husband and myself walk (or should that be stroll) we choose places for how they make us feel.
The walks themselves are connected with popular people ie Richard Long, Captain Barclay, Guy Debord, to name a few. The author intersperses these walks with his own experimental challenges that parallel these and also with his own personal anecdotes. At the end is a mini biography, which Geoff Nicholson also relates to walking. There is a bibliography and online resources.
I disagree with how the author feels about the label `walking in nature' - not that it is `managed' nature but how it has the power to affect on a spiritual level. I believe in the spirit of place having experienced it for myself. I don't `walk in nature' to assert morals or a spiritual superiority but for my own personal reasons. I certainly don't feel smug or superior! Having said that, Geoff Nicholson does go on to note that he `lacks the spiritual gene' ...
One thing really did intrigue me, the long pedestrian races that were popular in the 19th century. I can imagine the crowds gathering for these (and some of them are bizarre to us today) and punters making their bets.
There is a lot of interesting information contained in these pages. It's written in a humorous style. The writing flows and content keeps you entertained whether you are a serious walker or if like me, you just want to expand your horizons.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a stimulating and thought provoking book about a subject that is familiar to just about everyone. What is particularly interesting is the means of approach taken by the author; rather than putting walking into the extreme sports category he examines the everyday, in some cases seemingly mundane trips that he takes on foot. Location plays a big part in the text, almost making where the walking is taking place as important as what is being done. References and explanations are clearly explained and thoroughly elucidated and the author provides the inspiration for more wide ranging reading on the subject. I've yet to replicate his walking experiments (or feats of endurance) and I probably never will, that said it is good to have had the opportunity to learn from a patient and good humoured teacher. Having read this book my daily steps have taken on a different resonance. Highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Doesn't meet its potential.
While it is a VERY thorough piece of research it misses so many opportunities of being a good read. I'm comming at this as an avid reader and enthusiastic walker. Read more
Published 3 months ago by paintkaz
Geoff Nicholson walks the walk (and the talk is great too)
One of my favourite ever books is Charles Sprawson's The Haunts of the Black Masseur. It's a book about swimming - the whys, hows and wheres and whens, swimming as a pastime, as a... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Niko Nezna
Great read even if you are a couch potato
I was given this and thought "huhhh" but having taken the plunge I was hooked. It's an easy,gentle and full of interest. Read more
Published 4 months ago by tipperary
Walking, better than drugs
If there's one thing this book leaves you with, it's a sense of permanence which our psychographic trails will leave behind, long after we have passed, through the beautiful art of... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Medicine Fiend
Interesting and enthusing
This book is fun to read and also has some serious points to make.
Published 18 months ago by Dr Beat
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