Ken's Reviews > Wanderlust: A History of Walking

In the last two lines of this book, Solnit writes, "Constellations are not natural phenomena but cultural impositions, the lines drawn between stars are like paths worn by the imaginations of those who have gone before. The constellation called walking has a history, the history trod out by all those poets and philosophers and insurrectionaries, by jaywalkers, streetwalkers, pilgrims, tourists, hikers, mountaineers, but whether it has a future depends on whether those connecting paths are traveled still."

It kind of reminded me of our schooling days when our teachers told us to write "concluding sentences" to our essays. Nutshell, meet thy meat, in other words, and if you want a broad hint of what this book's about, you can't do better than this finish. In it, you will indeed meet an interesting mix of all the characters Solnit lists (though she fails to include herself in cameo spots).

With these peoples and the places walking leads them (for a wide variety of reasons -- vocational, sexual, practical, inspirational, recreational, political, etc.), Solnit builds a solid history of mankind's relationship with its unique upstanding legs. Some countries and cities and cultures are better built for (and more accepting of) walking, you'll find, and men have an easier time of it than women -- especially in cities (one only read about recent goings-on in New York as yet another example), but overall, there are commonalities despite the differences.

Overall, not as compelling as other Solnits (my favorite being her book on Orwell), but still, yeoman work. I hit patches I much enjoyed and dry stretches. Kind of like scenery on a walk, which I do most every day, only sometimes I have to drive to get to new places to explore (unlike denizens of cities).