Timely question. Like so many others, I am in a season of life with a flurry of mental & physical Post-it notes.
“We are gentle with the toads. They are soft as a great-grandmother you can hold in your hand.”
pickQuintessential nature writing and my favourite nonfiction of 2024 so far. I‘m so glad I finally got around to reading Nan Shepherd‘s classic about the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. Her exquisite prose is so evocative that I was frequently transported off into reveries of my own encounters with the natural world.
To one who loves the hills at every season, the blossoming is not the best of the heather. The best of it is simply its being there—is the feel of it under the feet. To feel heather under the feet after long abstinence is one of the dearest joys I know.
Touch is the most intimate sense of all. The whole sensitive skin is played upon, the whole body, braced, resistant, poised, relaxed, answers to the thrust of forces incomparably stronger than itself. Cold water stings the palate, the throat tingles unbearably; cold air smacks the back of the mouth, lungs crackle.
“How could we imagine flavour or perfume without the senses of taste and smell? They are completely unimaginable. There must be many exciting properties of matter that we cannot know because we have no way to know them.”
[This passage reminded me of Ed Yong‘s wonderful book on animals‘ perceptions.]
Friday Reads May 17: Asian Heritage Month; mythology; nature writing; art; picture book biography; Indigenous authors and more in this week‘s YouTube episode:
https://youtu.be/Zo93j5HoVKo
This might be the most “me” combination of books I‘ve ever been reading at the same time. 😅
#IndependentBookstoreDay #BookHaul
The middle two are mine and the other four are my husband‘s . He‘s not even a reader! I‘ll have to leave him home next time 😆😜
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