I had been thinking about writing something on the passing of 2020. Not the simple family recap which precedes this blog but something about the places we intended to visit in 2020 and some of the places we had visited in the past. It was probably going to end up a morbid mess with some sad reflections on COVID and all the damage it had wreaked upon us poor unsuspecting humans.
Luckily, reading the New York Times this morning, I happened upon "The Best American Travel (2020) Writing" with an introduction by Robert Macfarlane which has saved me from writing about anything ever again! Seriously, the Introduction to this book, freely available on Amazon, is an amazing piece of writing in itself and on the various travel tales which were published in 2020.
Robert Macfarlane is a British writer. He has written a number of profound books which might fall into the category of "travel" books but are as much about the mind and the landscapes it records as the actual act of traveling--in his case by the oldest method known to humankind--WALKING!
His most beautiful book in my opinion is "The Old Ways" which I have read a number of times and is unlike any other "travel" book you will read. He sets out from his home in Cambridgeshire, England, and follows ancient tracks, paths, sheep trails and other almost vanished routes which record landscapes, their component parts (water, chalk, peat, silt etc) and connections with other parts the world. "The Old Ways" and one of his other books, "The Wild Places," are classics.
If you have 10 minutes to spare, please read Macfarlane's Introduction to "The Best American Travel (2020) Writing." A truly remarkable meditation on what most of us have not been able to do during 2020--TRAVEL! And just to repeat, the Introduction is freely available on Amazon and, if it prompts you to buy the Best Travel book, then I am just acting as the marketing arm of Amazon! Find it at:
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