Download or read book In Praise of Paths written by Torbjørn Ekelund and published by Greystone Books Ltd. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “What [Ekelund is] addressing is the intention to walk one’s way to meaning: the walk as spiritual exercise, a kind of vision quest... A key strategy for finding ourselves, then, is to first get lost.”—The New York Times Book Review An ode to paths and the journeys we take through nature, as told by a gifted writer who stopped driving and rediscovered the joys of traveling by foot. Torbjørn Ekelund started to walk—everywhere—after an epilepsy diagnosis affected his ability to drive. The more he ventured out, the more he came to love the act of walking, and an interest in paths emerged. In this poignant, meandering book, Ekelund interweaves the literature and history of paths with his own stories from the trail. As he walks with shoes on and barefoot, through forest creeks and across urban streets, he contemplates the early tracks made by ancient snails and traces the wanderings of Romantic poets, amongst other musings. If we still “understand ourselves in relation to the landscape,” Ekelund asks, then what do we lose in an era of car travel and navigation apps? And what will we gain from taking to paths once again? “A charming read, celebrating the relationship between humans and their bodies, their landscapes, and one another.” —The Washington Post This book was made possible in part thanks to generous support from NORLA.
Download or read book A Year in the Woods written by Torbjørn Ekelund and published by Greystone Books Ltd. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author of In Praise of Paths comes a humorous and modest Walden for modern times. As nature becomes ever more precious, we all want to spend more time appreciating it. But time is often hard to come by. And how do we appreciate nature without disruption? In this sensitively-written book, Torbjørn Ekelund, an acclaimed Norwegian nature writer, shares a creative and non-intrusive method for immersing oneself in nature. And the result is nothing short of transformative. Evoking Henry David Thoreau and the four-season structure of Walden, Ekelund writes about communing with nature by repeating a small, simple ritual and engaging in quiet reflection. At the start of the book, he hatches a plan: to leave the city after work one day per month, camp near the same tiny pond in the forest, and return to work the next day. He keeps this up for a year. His ritual is far from rigorous and it is never perfect. One evening, he grows so cold in his tent that he hikes out before daybreak. But as Ekelund inevitably greets the same trees and boulders each month, he appreciates the banality of their sameness alongside their quiet beauty. He wonders how long they have stood silently in this place—and reflects on his own short existence among them. A Year in the Woods asks us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world. Are we anxious wanderers or mindful observers? Do we honor the seasons or let them pass us by? At once beautifully written, accessible, and engaging, A Year in the Woods is the perfect book for anyone who longs for a deeper connection with their environment, but is realistic about time and ambition.
Download or read book On Trails written by Robert Moor and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-07-04 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In 2009, while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, Robert Moor began to wonder about the paths that lie beneath our feet: How do they form? Why do some improve over time while others fade? What makes us follow or strike off on our own? Over the course of the next seven years, Moor traveled the globe, exploring trails of all kinds, from the miniscule to the massive. He learned the tricks of master trail-builders, hunted down long-lost Cherokee trails, and traced the origins of our road networks and the Internet. In each chapter, Moor interweaves his adventures with findings from science, history, philosophy, and nature writing--combining the nomadic joys of Peter Matthiessen with the eclectic wisdom of Lewis Hyde's The Gift. Throughout, Moor reveals how this single topic--the oft-overlooked trail--sheds new light on a wealth of age-old questions: How does order emerge out of chaos? How did animals first crawl forth from the seas and spread across continents? How has humanity's relationship with nature and technology shaped the world around us? And, ultimately, how does each of us pick a path through life? With a breathtaking arc that spans from the dawn of animal life to the digital era, On Trails is a book that makes us see our world, our history, our species, and our ways of life anew"--Book jacket flap.
Download or read book On the Wandering Paths written by Sylvain Tesson and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2022-08-02 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A walking journey through France’s vast interior becomes a meditation on both personal recovery and the role of history in the present—more than 425,000 copies sold in France After a free-climbing accident lands him in a coma and a hospital for four months, the French writer Sylvain Tesson makes a promise to himself: if he’s ever able to walk again, he will traverse the entire country of France on foot. Part literary adventure, part philosophical reflection on our contemporary consumer culture, On the Wandering Paths takes us deep into the heart of what Tesson terms France’s “hyperrural” zones. Tracing the obscure paths peasants once followed throughout the countryside, Tesson embarks on a three-month journey of solitude and personal contemplation as he walks along vast stretches of mountain ranges and rivers, encountering ancient Roman stone bridges and walkways, the French Foreign Legion, pagan prayer sites, Provençal villages, and the majestic Mont-Saint-Michel. Connecting deeply with the places he visits, his experiences inspire reflection on the essential need to disengage from the digital and immerse oneself in natural beauty. Rich with humor, historical insight, and literary power, On the Wandering Paths is both a meditation on the act of recovery and a potent recognition of the traces of our past in the present. Asking us to reassess our values and our relationship to the land, Tesson’s exquisite chronicle through landscapes that continue to resist urbanization and technology is a thoughtful—and thought-provoking—glimpse into a poet’s adventurous life. Les Chemins de Pierre, a film based on the book starring Jean Dujardin, is due to release in 2022.
Download or read book The Principle of the Path written by Andy Stanley and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2011-03-28 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Join bestselling author Andy Stanley as he gives you the tools you need to find your path in life and avoid the detours, obstacles, and potholes along the way. Not where you want to be? Wondering how to get there? What if you knew the answer to those questions? What if there was one simple idea that explained why so many people stray from their destiny? Stanley believes there is, and it's called the principle of the path. And not only does it explain the disappointment and regret that characterize the lives of so many, it gives you the tools you need to be the exception. In The Principle of the Path, Stanley addresses the key questions that so many of us have asked ourselves: Why do our expectations about our future often go unmet? Why is it that smart people with admirable life goals often end up far from where they intended to be? Why do so many people start out with a clear picture of where they want to be relationally, financially, and professionally and yet years later find themselves far from their desired destination? Praise for The Principle of the Path: "As Billy Graham's son, and a preacher myself, I have seen firsthand the devastating consequences of choosing the wrong path in life. Andy Stanley writes about the importance of following the path that is set before us as stated in the Bible. May all who read these words be obedient in their daily walk with the Savior." --Franklin Graham President & CEO, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse "As a young man, I did a lot of stupid things. Those dumb decisions and bad behaviors led me straight into bankruptcy and heartache. But once I changed directions and started doing smart things with my life and money, I started winning. It's really that simple. If you don't want to learn this life-changing principle like I did—the hard way—then you need to read Andy Stanley’s The Principle of the Path. I just wish I had a copy of it twenty years ago!" --Dave Ramsey, host of The Dave Ramsey Show and best-selling author of Total Money Makeover
Download or read book The Path to Serendipity written by Allyson Apsey and published by . This book was released on 2018-03-24 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this funny, genuine, and clever book, Allyson Apsey shares relatable stories and practical strategies for living a meaningful life regardless of the craziness happening around you. You'll discover that you really do have the power to choose the kind of life you live-every day.
Download or read book The Path written by Bob Staake and published by Astra Publishing House. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perfect for a new generation of path-forgers, this buoyant picture book from an award-winning author and New Yorker cover artist is a hip new take on the graduation book. With an exclusive bonus print from Bob Staake inside the jacket. On this playfully illustrated journey with Bob Staake, children and adults alike will discover an encouraging truth: our path through life is not only challenging and beautiful—it is all our own to discover and invent. "You will walk. You will walk along a well-worn path that many people have taken—and long before you." So begins this inspirational journey over gentle, grassy hills, through fields of wildflowers, over raging rivers, up steep mountains, and even through a dark, chilly cave. When it splits in two, you will have to decide what to do next—and you'll create a path that's unique to you.
Download or read book Black Paths written by David B. and published by SelfMadeHero. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An historical/political thriller/romance comic book set in the port city of Fiume that was separated from Italy and given to the newly formed nation of Czechoslovakia after World War 1.
Download or read book Walking the Twilight Path written by Michelle Belanger and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2008 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduces a spiritual path of personal transformation and rebirth. This book draws on the wisdom of shamans, Tibetan Buddhists, and ancient Egyptians, Michelle Belanger and illuminates death as a beautiful gateway to change and regeneration.--Worldcat.
Download or read book Find Your Path written by Daniel Goodman and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientists offer personal accounts of the challenges, struggles, successes, U-turns, and satisfactions encountered in their careers in industry, academia, and government. This insightful book offers essential life and career lessons for newly minted STEM graduates and those seeking a career change. Thirty-six leading scientists and engineers (including two Nobel Prize winners) describe the challenges, struggles, successes, satisfactions, and U-turns encountered as they established their careers. Readers learn that there are professional possibilities beyond academia, as contributors describe the paths that took them into private industry and government as well as to college and university campuses. They discuss their varying preferences for solitary research or collaborative teamwork; their attempts to achieve work-life balance; and unplanned changes in direction that resulted in a more satisfying career. Women describe confronting overt sexism and institutional gender bias; scientists of color describe the experience of being outsiders in their field. One scientist moves from startup to startup, enjoying a career of serial challenges; another spends decades at one university; another has worked in academia, industry, and government. Some followed in the footsteps of parents; others were the first in their family to go to college. Many have changed fields, switched subjects, or left established organizations for something new. Taken together, these essays make it clear that there is not one path to a profession in science, but many. Contributors Stephon Alexander, Norman Augustine, Wanda Austin, Kimberly Budil, Wendy Cieslak, Jay Davis, Tamara Doering, Stephen D. Fantone, Kathleen Fisher, David Galas, Kathy Gisser, Sandra Glucksmann, Daniel Goodman, Renee Horton, Richard Lethin, Christopher Loose, John Mather, Richard Miles, Paul Nielsen, Michael O'Hanlon, Deirdre Olynick, Jennifer Park, Ellen Pawlikowski, Ethan Perlstein, Richard Post, William Press, Beth Reid, Jennifer Roberts, Jessica Seeliger, David Spergel, Ellen Stofan, Daniel Theobald, Shirley Tilghman, Jami Valentine, Z. Jane Wang, Rainer Weiss
Download or read book The Ancient Paths written by Craig Hill and published by Harvest Books. This book was released on 1992-01-01 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Paths written by Brynne Asher and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-04-23 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maya Augustine needed to disappear-her life depended on it. When her path led her to the middle-of-nowhere Virginia, she found the perfect place to hide. A woman on the run, Maya had no business befriending anyone, let alone allowing herself to become involved with a man ... especially after her last experience. Even so, she couldn't help but become obsessed with the bruised, battered, and beautiful killer who walked into her life. Grady Cain reached rock bottom. His past finally caught up with him, causing him to lose his edge at work and in life. Spiraling down a desperate path of remorse and guilt, Grady wasn't expecting his refuge to come in the form of a woman. Day in-day out, she was the only thing he'd allowed himself to think about. To focus on. To consume him. One was running. The other had nothing to run to. Until these troubled souls crossed paths... And two paths became one. Warning: This author is a mom who runs a PG-13 home. This book is not PG-13. She would literally keel over and die if anyone under the age of 18 read this book. If you're not of age, save this author from her untimely death, and go read about teenage wizards. They're awesome.
Download or read book Path to the Stars written by Sylvia Acevedo and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiring memoir for young readers about a Latina rocket scientist whose early life was transformed by joining the Girl Scouts and who currently serves as CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA. A meningitis outbreak in their underprivileged neighborhood left Sylvia Acevedo’s family forever altered. As she struggled in the aftermath of loss, young Sylvia’s life transformed when she joined the Brownies. The Girl Scouts taught her how to take control of her world and nourished her love of numbers and science. With new confidence, Sylvia navigated shifting cultural expectations at school and at home, forging her own trail to become one of the first Latinx to graduate with a master's in engineering from Stanford University and going on to become a rocket scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Simultaneously available in Spanish!
Download or read book In Praise of Walking A New Scientific Exploration written by Shane O'Mara and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A surprisingly fascinating scientific consideration of humanity’s most ordinary activity.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post In this “wonderful” (John Brandon, Forbes) book, neuroscientist Shane O’Mara invites us to marvel at the benefits walking confers on our bodies and brains, and to appreciate the advantages of this uniquely human skill. From walking’s evolutionary origins, traced back millions of years to life forms on the ocean floor, to new findings from cutting-edge research, he reveals how the brain and nervous system give us the ability to balance, weave through a crowded city, and run our “inner GPS” system. Walking is good for our muscles and posture;?it helps to protect and repair organs, and can slow or turn back the aging of our brains. With our minds in motion we think more creatively, our mood improves, and stress levels fall. Walking together to achieve a shared purpose is also a social glue that has contributed to our survival as a species. As our lives become increasingly sedentary, O’Mara makes the case that we must start walking again—whether it’s up a mountain, down to the park,?or simply to school and work. In Praise of Walking?illuminates the joys, health benefits, and mechanics of walking, and reminds us to get out of our chairs and discover a happier, healthier, more creative self.
Download or read book In Praise of Good Bookstores written by Jeff Deutsch and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-09-24 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a devoted reader and lifelong bookseller, an eloquent and charming reflection on the singular importance of bookstores Do we need bookstores in the twenty-first century? If so, what makes a good one? In this beautifully written book, Jeff Deutsch—the former director of Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores, one of the finest bookstores in the world—pays loving tribute to one of our most important and endangered civic institutions. He considers how qualities like space, time, abundance, and community find expression in a good bookstore. Along the way, he also predicts—perhaps audaciously—a future in which the bookstore not only endures, but realizes its highest aspirations. In exploring why good bookstores matter, Deutsch draws on his lifelong experience as a bookseller, but also his upbringing as an Orthodox Jew. This spiritual and cultural heritage instilled in him a reverence for reading, not as a means to a living, but as an essential part of a meaningful life. Central among Deutsch’s arguments for the necessity of bookstores is the incalculable value of browsing—since, when we are deep in the act of looking at the shelves, we move through space as though we are inside the mind itself, immersed in self-reflection. In the age of one-click shopping, this is no ordinary defense of bookstores, but rather an urgent account of why they are essential places of discovery, refuge, and fulfillment that enrich the communities that are lucky enough to have them.
Download or read book Paths Along the Way written by Paul Kenney and published by . This book was released on 2013-05-15 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bromley Court Housing Project is a prison without bars where the poor struggle for survival. It is 1967 and the City of Boston is beginning to come apart at the seams. Racial hostility and a preoccupation with the war in Vietnam have brought about the beginnings of dramatic change throughout America. Despite the adversity of the times and their surroundings, a friendship holds fast in Bromley Court. Christopher Conley and Michael McLean are project kids, each attempting to cope with life and its unfairness. Christopher is in his senior year of high school. While on his way to school he sees Lorna, a stunningly beautiful black girl, waiting for the train. After months of observing her from across the expanse of a Boston subway station he summons the courage to speak to her and finally arranges a rendezvous after she gets out of work. Christopher tells Michael of his plans to take Lorna out and to accompany her home. Michael's superior street sense and genuine concern for his best friend cause him to discourage Chris from attempting to take Lorna home, a home located in the heart of Boston's seething black neighborhood. Chris's desire for Lorna outweighs any concerns for personal safety. He is determined to overcome the racial hostility that surrounds them. He has fallen in love with her. Recognizing that Christopher is resolute, Michael insists that he at least take some protection on his venture into a part of the city enclosed by invisible walls of hate and fear. Michael supplies his unwilling friend with a .45 caliber pistol. That night, the lovers meet. A cobblestone street leads the way downward toward the dilapidated brownstone where Lorna lives. Suddenly, Lorna and Chris are attacked by three predators bent upon Christopher's murder and Lorna's rape. During the attack, Christopher retrieves the pistol from his school bag, lying near him in the gutter. With two blasts from the pistol he wounds one of the attackers, saving Lorna and dramatically altering the course of his life. After a tear-filled recitation of the circumstances of the shooting to his devastated mother, and a touching farewell with Michael, Christopher seeks a refuge with his movie actor brother, Jack Conley, amid "the experimental excesses of Hollywood, California." "Paths Along the Way" traces the lives of Christopher and Michael as they unfold against the backdrop of a turbulent yet captivating America. Christopher's path will lead him back to Boston, where he will grow and prosper and ultimately become a prominent trial lawyer, while Michael is bent upon a darker course. He will enlist in the 101st Airborne and become the bravest of the brave as an Army Ranger enduring the horror of the Vietnam War. When he returns home, he becomes a state police detective, wrestling with his demons. Demons that force him to the brink of taking his own life and that of Christopher. On the night of November 2nd, 1991 a Boston Police Detective is brutally murdered during a botched drug raid. A corrupt, Boston Police Detective thereafter orchestrates the elaborate framing of a young black male by the name of Booker Webb as the murderer. Booker is a despised drug addict and the nephew of Lorna, Christopher's long lost love. Lorna then reappears in Christopher's life and implores him to undertake the defense of her flesh and blood. Michael is enlisted as Christopher's investigator. His familiarity with the street leads him to believe in Booker's case. He realizes that Christopher's defense of Booker is his last chance to do something right. In a dramatic confrontation in an Irish neighborhood bar, he brings Christopher back from his wealth and privilege to the window of the hell that he and Booker have known. Christopher's love for Michael and for Lorna cause him to undertake the defense of Booker Webb, while risking all that he has built and hoped for. All the while his only reassurance is to never underestimate the power of the truth.
Download or read book Desert Notebooks written by Ben Ehrenreich and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Layering climate science, mythologies, nature writing, and personal experiences, this New York Times Notable Book presents a stunning reckoning with our current moment and with the literal and figurative end of time. Desert Notebooks examines how the unprecedented pace of destruction to our environment and an increasingly unstable geopolitical landscape have led us to the brink of a calamity greater than any humankind has confronted before. As inhabitants of the Anthropocene, what might some of our own histories tell us about how to confront apocalypse? And how might the geologies and ecologies of desert spaces inform how we see and act toward time—the pasts we have erased and paved over, this anxious present, the future we have no choice but to build? Ehrenreich draws on the stark grandeur of the desert to ask how we might reckon with the uncertainty that surrounds us and fight off the crises that have already begun. In the canyons and oases of the Mojave and in Las Vegas’s neon apocalypse, Ehrenreich finds beauty, and even hope, surging up in the most unlikely places, from the most barren rocks, and the apparent emptiness of the sky. Desert Notebooks is a vital and necessary chronicle of our past and our present—unflinching, urgent—yet timeless and profound.
