Explore Everything

October 15, 2013

Part adventure story, part ethnographic study, this work is a report on urban exploration: Is it a movement, a hobby, a lifestyle, a culture, a mode of self-expression for thrill-seekers, or a victimless crime? Apparently there are as many answers as there are underground tunnels, tall buildings, abandoned hospitals, or derelict mills to explore. Writer, photographer, and researcher Garrett (Sch. of Geography, Univ. of Oxford) recounts several of his more harrowing exploits with fellow explorers, including climbing Scotland's Firth of Forth bridge, delving into Parisian sewer tunnels, and trespassing in an airplane "boneyard" in the Mojave Desert. He also calls out the need for sensitivity in exploring in decaying but still occupied areas in Detroit or near Chernobyl. VERDICT An absorbing read, although some repetitive sections would have benefited from tighter editing, and image captions would have been welcome. In this book that is more academic in tone than a casual reader might expect, significant research is evident, and it is amusing to read quotes from Jean-Paul Sartre, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche interspersed with those from urban exploration community members with pseudonyms such as Winch, Guts, and Ninjalicious. Recommended for travel and modern history readers.--Megan H. Fraser, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, Libs.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2013
Dr. Garrett? asked the British police officer who boarded the plane as soon as it landed at Heathrow. The American-expat Oxford researcher was about to be arrested for his trespassing exploits. He meant no harm. Quite the opposite. Garrett and his fellow urban explorers celebrate forgotten places and protest limits on access. In this unique and electrifying travelogue, Garrett, a scholar with a background in anthropology and archeology, thoughtfully explicates their dangerous, exhilarating, and illegal explorations. We picture hackers as loners slouched anemically in the sickly light of a computer screen, but Garrett and his fellow travelers are as fit, agile, and fearless as ninja. Sharing an ethos with street artists, their mission is to exploit fractures in the architecture of the city in an effort to find deeper meaning in the spaces we pass through every day. Garrett recounts death-defying adventures in the UK, Europe, and the U.S. and shares his astonishingly dramatic photographs. Not only do place-hackers explore and document such urban ruins as abandoned factories, hospitals, and power stations; they also breach security systems to stand on the roofs of skyscrapers and tramp through sewer and subway systems. Each journey involves deep research, high risk, and profound intent. And wherever they go, they leave a sticker that reads, Explore everything. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)