Walking

March 1, 2019
An homage to walking by a man who believes it to be more beneficial to human health than any medicine or drug.Norwegian explorer and publisher Kagge (Silence: In the Age of Noise, 2017, etc.) knows his subject matter intimately: He has walked to the North and South Poles and to the top of Mount Everest (he was the first person to complete the "Three Poles Challenge"), through the tunnels under New York City ("the architecture wilderness of subterranean tunnels is a living organism...the underground train is constantly in flux"), and along the sidewalks of Los Angeles, and he has traced the footsteps of characters in James Joyce's Ulysses (Dublin) and Knut Hamsun's Hunger (Oslo). Besides his own walking experiences, Kagge draws on thinkers and writers from ancient times to the present--Herodotus, Montaigne, Thoreau, Kierkegaard, Steve Jobs--and on scientists currently studying walking in cockroaches and penguins. Throughout this brief but eloquent meditation, the author makes a convincing case for the importance of walking. For him, walking is not simply taking a series of steps; it is something thrilling and amazing, "a combination of movement, humility, balance, curiosity, smell, sound, light and--if you walk long enough--longing....It can be the thought of something joyful that disturbs you, or something disturbing that brings you plenitude." In addition to expressing his love for walking, he clearly conveys his sorrow about its disappearance in the modern world. Bipedalism, he writes, enabled Homo sapiens to become who we are; now that we sit more often, including driving, what will be the effect on our evolution as a species? Possibly, he speculates, as we nonpedestrians give up experiencing the tangible world around us, we will become more open to intangibles, such as emotion and spirituality. Kagge also offers a too-short but fascinating section on Nan Madol, "a forgotten city in the Western Pacific Ocean that is reminiscent of Venice."A thoughtful book-length essay on a taken-for-granted human activity.

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Starred review from April 1, 2019

Oslo-based explorer and publisher Kagge (Silence: In the Age of Noise) offers his thoughts about an activity that many may take for granted. For thousands of years, humans have moved along, mostly forward, on a journey that is life itself. Kagge contemplates what motivates people to walk--what are their destinations, what happens during these walks, and what might cause some to avoid walking altogether with the intent of hurrying to a destination. Relating adventures that took him to Mount Everest and both Poles, to explorations of cities along with natural areas where his senses expand to see and feel all, Kagge believes life is "one single, long walk." This translation by Crook draws upon works by numerous writers, combining their insights with Kagge's own questions to create a work that challenges readers to take steps toward a better understanding of one's self and finding a peaceful place in the scheme of life. VERDICT Recommended for all libraries, especially collections on the environment. The poetic and inspirational words will remind readers of Henry David Thoreau's work by the same name--Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community Coll., Mt. Carmel

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