Written by
Theo Adeyemi
Filed under
Reading List
From
Issue 12
The best walking books share two qualities: they fit in a pocket, and they can be opened at any page. These are the ones that have come with me on coastal paths and city loops this year.
Pocket-sized companions
A classic essay on the art of wandering.
A slim book of haiku about the seasons.
A naturalist’s notebook from the 1930s.
A good walk and a good book have the same shape: a beginning, a middle where you get a little lost, and an end that sends you home changed.
How to read on a walk
Stop when something catches your eye. Read a page. Look up. Read another. The book and the landscape will start to annotate each other, which is the whole point.
Bring a pencil. Some of my favourite margin notes were written on a bench, in the rain, with cold fingers.
About the author
Theo Adeyemi
Theo walks cities for a living, more or less. His dispatches from Lisbon, Kanazawa and Lagos have been collected in two small books.
