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To The River
To The River: A Journey Beneath the Surface | Olivia Laing
17 posts | 11 read | 20 to read
To the River is the story of the Ouse, the Sussex river in which Virginia Woolf drowned in 1941. One idyllic, midsummer week over sixty years later, Olivia Laing walked Woolf's river from source to sea. The result is a passionate investigation into how history resides in a landscape - and how ghosts never quite leave the places they love.
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AnneCecilie
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#StorySettings #River

Laing‘s walk down the River Ouse, looking at the roles the river has had through history. This is also the river that Virginia Wolf drowned herself in

BarbaraJean This sounds fascinating! I lived just up the street from the Ouse when I was a child (we lived on “Waterside” and the Ouse was at the end of our street). I‘ll have to check this book out. 7mo
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Perfect 📚 7mo
Eggs Excellent 👌🏼 7mo
sarahbarnes 🩵🩵 7mo
52 likes1 stack add4 comments
review
AnneCecilie
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Pickpick

Laing decided to take a walk along the River Ouse, the river where Virginia Woolf was found drowned. As she walks she describes the landscape she is walking in, but also looks at what have happened in the past along this river.

I enjoyed this, but must confess that I excepted more Woolf than what I got based on the blurb.

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AnneCecilie
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#BookReport

I finished To the River

I read Flush, Jane and Prudence, and volumes 2 and 3 of Orange.

I‘ve just started Islands of Abandonment

Cinfhen Wonderful week!!! 1y
Balibee146 I have To The River buy am. On the fence a bit - did you enjoy it? 1y
AnneCecilie @Cinfhen Thank you 😊 1y
AnneCecilie @Balibee146 I enjoyed it, but it was less about Virginia Woolf than what I excepted from the blurb, but more about the history of the River and historical things that have happened near the river. 1y
58 likes1 stack add4 comments
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AnneCecilie
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#WeeklyForecast

Continue reading To the River

I want to finish Flames. I want to read August Blue and hopefully start From the Wreck. This might be a little too ambitious since I have plans this week.

I also want to continue with my audio, but I have seems to have trouble with that.

There also seems to be a blue cover theme at the moment.

Cinfhen All your titles have peaked my interest 🤩 1y
Tineke You can make a nice little poem with the titles: August blue: To the river. Flames, from the wreck 1y
Books_et_al Great choices #ozfiction 😊 1y
sarahbarnes Great looking stack! I hadn‘t heard of this book by Laing but I love Woolf and am now very intrigued! I‘m going to investigate a few of these! 1y
57 likes5 comments
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AnneCecilie
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#BookReport

I finished Fire Rush and Dinner in Rome. And I read The Dead in the Vaulted Arches.

I‘m currently reading To the River and Flames

I relatively early report from me today since I‘m off to meet some colleagues for lunch.

Cinfhen Hope you had a lovely day 😁 1y
51 likes1 comment
review
Paperback.Propensity
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Mehso-so

Such high expectations and such a letdown. Some pretty sentences, and interesting history, but such tedious descriptions of every plant and bug along her walk. She even writes about how many steps a bird took before flying off, and conversations she overhears that had nothing to do with anything. I wonder how she could even remember such trivial things word for word.

I did appreciate the history, and found some value, but otherwise, meh.

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Paperback.Propensity
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Currently reading

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WanderingBookaneer
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Pickpick

Finally got around to reading this book. Like the River Ouse itself, this travelogue meanders through the British countryside allowing its dual narratives to unfold. The first and briefest one recounts Laing‘s own adventures in the river. The second supplies us with a variety of historical events that are linked to the river itself. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

85 likes3 stack adds
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amyrohn
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Pickpick

Finally finished my first nonfiction read of the year! I haven‘t been feeling super motivated to read lately so this one took me much longer than it normally would, but I really enjoyed it. Laing‘s writing is beautiful and her nature descriptions are so vivid. I liked all the history of the landscape that was interwoven with her journey.

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amyrohn
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The language of this book is so breathtakingly beautiful. I love landscapes and nature and the way Laing describes them makes them seem otherworldly. Really enjoying this so far.

41 likes1 stack add
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amyrohn
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One of my big 2019 reading goals is to read more nonfiction, because I currently read none, so I‘m starting with this one! This one called to me because I‘m drawn to anything relating to water (I‘m a Pisces so duh) and because I wrote my thesis on Virginia Woolf. Excited for this new adventure!

54 likes2 stack adds
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WanderingBookaneer
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TheBookDream I see single quotation marks! I'm interested 👍👍 7y
quietlycuriouskate I love this one (I've read it twice). ❤ 7y
69 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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quietlycuriouskate
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Pickpick

At a painful juncture in her life, Olivia Laing took it upon herself to walk the Sussex Ouse from source to sea. The resulting book is a powerful meditation on how the past dwells in landscape and is part memoir, part biography (Virginia Woolf is a recurring presence) and part natural history. She definitely doesn't take the Roman road approach: she meanders, to her own and her reader's advantage. She has a fine turn of phrase, too. #reread

Balibee146 This book was one of my first posts on Litsy.... Will read it before the year is out 😀 7y
46 likes4 stack adds1 comment
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quietlycuriouskate
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I'm really enjoying this re-read! Though now seems like a good moment to switch to Serial Reader for a while to catch up with Ulysses. (I've fallen behind with it as it's not exactly my favourite book.) #readathon

Balibee146 I have this book waiting for the right mood to take me 😃 7y
25 likes1 comment
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Balibee146
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This looks good! #TBRsomeday

quietlycuriouskate That's one I want to re-read ('cause a huge heap of books I haven't yet read isn't enough: I have a TR-R stack, too). 7y
Balibee146 @River_Voice lol me too. 7y
19 likes2 comments
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librarydebster
Pickpick

Great book about the author's journey along an English river. #bookinvolvingtravel #popsugarchallenge

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Balibee146
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TBR addition