The most recommended books about walking

As a latecomer to long-distance hiking, this book is now one of my all-time favourites. It explores regrets and life's lessons, going beyond Alzheimer's.

One morning, Harold receives a letter from a long-lost woman, informing him of her impending death and wanting to bid farewell. Believing that walking the entire 600-mile journey and answering her in person could save her life, he embarks on this quest wearing only the clothes on his back.

With each step, Harold's past is peeled back, revealing deep wounds and losses that shaped his life and bringing him closer to healing. Along the way, he opens himself to the world, embracing not only others' vulnerabilities but also coming to terms with his own.

Driven by regret and the search for redemption, Harold's journey, both physically and emotionally, turns out to be a heartening one, narrated with a perfect blend of humour and pathos.

I followed Nick’s adventures from a young age, and he’s partially responsible for my wanderlust. I learned I didn’t have to conform to society’s expectations, that is was OK to follow my dreams, and to pursue what I wanted from life, not what others wanted for me. Nick’s book takes him on an epic hike across Europe, including walking through winter. He is a master storyteller. 

I have chosen this book because of the idea behind it.

After recovering from a blackout, author Torbjørn Ekelund was told he had developed epilepsy and would not be allowed to drive. As a consequence, Ekelund decided not to be held back by this and instead began to walk everywhere – through urban areas and countryside – looking for any path however obvious or hidden.

In the book that resulted from this new approach to life, Ekelund has not only written about his own experiences but tied them in to a wider meditation on pathways, from the physical to the metaphorical to the spiritual. 

A mix of history, philosophy and travelogue, what I liked about all this is the author’s choice to turn the trauma of an epileptic fit into an opportunity to walk, think, observe and feel more than ever.

“For the beauty that remains in spite of everything.” (p 205.)

Two Lights is James Roberts’ illustrated offering of thanksgiving for both the transience and permanence of the natural world; for the grace of a glimpse of a wolf on a lonely highway; for dusk falling over a river; for the unchanging stars. Written at a time of great personal uncertainty and possible loss, Roberts writes about finding meaning in his relationship with wild things and places.

Two Lights speaks to me; I share Roberts’ experience with finding solace and hope in the natural world; in finding joy even in dark days in the minutiae of nature, the persistence of life in edgelands, the reclaiming of human-ravished places, and in the vastness of geological and astronomical time.

Two Lights is not blinded by optimism; it acknowledges and mourns the destruction of lives both human and not, but asks us—by example,… show more.

Wanderers is not a memoir. Andrews, who is a professor of literature in the UK, presents ten chapters on ten famous women writers who also walked.

I found it interesting to learn how some of the women left town before dawn to walk so that they would not be seen. Society at that time felt it was not safe for a woman to walk by herself. I was amazed at some of the distances that they walked; for example, in the early 1800s Ellen Weeton walked 35 miles in a day. 

I found the interconnection of walking to help writing and writing about walking fascinating. I will return to read this again and again. 

At first glance, this appears to be a picture book about a baby learning to walk...but oh no...it is much more than that! It is a book about learning how to do anything - and a great book for adult learners (an excellent graduation gift as well). In this book, the baby has to face the following as they are learning to walk: support (sometimes what you think will support you, won’t), looking out for things that are fragile, pulling yourself up, and being ok if your knees buckle. Grip and pull yourself up, then find your balance. Remember to breathe, feel the sway, and let go. It’s common to fall down, are your socks bunching up? Shoes too tight? Diaper weighing you down? (Fix things before you start.) Make sure your path is clear of obstacles and expect some rough patches. Look toward where you want to… show more.

I grew up hearing curlews calling. Their evocative, haunting call is the sound of the countryside of my childhood. With curlews in steep decline, that call is rarely heard these days.

Coldwell is a beacon of curlew conservation in the UK and I absolutely adored her book. She takes us on a physical journey around the British Isles and a temporal journey through the curlew year.

Conjuring up a sense of place, culture, history, and landscape, Coldwell also weaves in a love of nature in both its grandest and most intimate sense. I found it a deeply affecting read.  

An incredibly ambitious walk along the south coast of England led this author to some startling, validating revelations about herself.

I loved going along on this journey to see and feel the world through the eyes of a person recognizing that she has lived her entire life with autism but not understood what that truly meant or how it affected her.

As someone who has a loved one with autism, I found this account to be incredibly beautiful, insightful, and instructive. But this account could be heart-opening and instill understanding and acceptance in anyone. Her attention to detail in nature is highly enjoyable, too, if you’re a science lover, as I am.

This is one of the best books I have read about a long walk – in this case, the poet laureate Simon Armitage’s account of the 19 days he spent walking the Pennine Way, beginning at its northern extremity and ending up near his home in West Yorkshire. This is not a precious, solipsistic memoir of the sort favoured by many of our celebrated New Nature Writers, but a wonderfully droll account of what was often a hard slog, where at the end of each day Armitage, who set off without any money, sings for his supper, reading poetry in village halls, pubs, barns, and other venues, and takes pot luck with whatever accommodation he is offered for the night. Walking Home provides a vivid portrait of one of our great landscapes, and the quirks of character and acts of kindness he encounters on the way.

I had fun learning more about Denver by walking. I decided to take 32 different friends or family members on the 32 different walks outlined in the book. It was a great way to spend time outdoors in conversation and exploration. It is fabulous if you are new to Denver or if you want to rediscover the city where you have lived for a long time.