"When you really walk, farewell follows farewell all day long" p109

Başucu eseri diyebileceğim bir kitap. Bir kere okumakla bitmez. Hayatınızın hangi devresinde elinize alsanız farklı bir yeri dikkatinizi çekecektir.

Bölümlerden oluşan yapısıyla tarihe mal olmuş önemli düşünür ve kalemşörlerin hayatında yürüyüşün etkisini okumak çok öğreticiydi.

Okusanız seversiniz bence. :)

I never thought I’d pick up a book that ponders the experience of walking, but at a recommendation, I thought, “Why not?” Like walking, this book has moments of grandeur, and then other moments, it drags on for what felt like endless monotony sprinkled in between the best parts. However, I still highly recommend it. The opening chapter is amazing, and the book overall, puts into words what I’ve felt internally about what the walking experience is like - no matter the type of walk one endeavors. It’s a great book for those into evening strolls and/or hardcore hikers.

“Walking means living a life scoured bare (social varnish burned off) unburdened, divested of social skills, purged of futility and masks” (190).

The book shares the walking habits of philosophers, with some prosaic reflections around the services of what walking provides. With all that's happening right now (2020), the book felt far too trite.

A wistful, thoughtful read on the meaning of walking, whether it's serious hiking or strolling through the city Gros covers a wide range and writers and thinkers for whom walking has played an important part in their lives, including Nietzsche, Thoreau, Rimbaud. Thoroughly enjoyable.

This is a "vibes" kind of book. If you go into it expecting theory and structure - understandable, given the book title - you will be disappointed.

As someone who regularly goes on 10, 20 minute strolls by myself for no actual reason other than to get out and move my legs a bit, this book really resonated with me. I really liked it; loved it, even. Frederic Gros paints an amazing picture of walking in all its forms; as escape, as travel, as rebellion, as discipline. Walking serves to calm the mind and dull anguishing thoughts through the repetitive movement of our feet, as much as it serves to excite it and allow new ideas to spring forth.

Most of the chapters are used to discuss the act of walking in two forms: either in a historical/cultural context or through a more empirical analysis of the act and the feelings involved in it.

When discussing the history and culture of walking, Frederic brings up "famous" walkings, such as the peregrinations of Christian to Rome, Jerusalem or Santiago de Compostela, or cultures where walking serves an important purpose, for example in the rituals of the Huichol people of Mexico. There are very interesting because they show how walking, as simple and mundane as it can be, can act as a symbol of much greater concepts of rebirth and renewal, for example.

The chapters about the experience of walking are just as interesting, though. They almost read like poetry; walking as metaphor for happiness, walking as a way to be one with nature instead of a simple spectator, etc. In this book, walking is just as much the subject as it is the mean through topics such as pleasure, happiness and gratitude are discussed. The main idea that I feel is emphasized throughout all these chapters is that walking is monotonous, dull, repetitive, unproductive - and that is precisely why is it valuable and important to our lives as human beings.

The third "type" of chapter in this book are the ones dedicated to famous people who were known for their walking - in the one about Nietzsche, he brings the philosopher's (very topical) eulogy of the foot: "we write only with the hand; we write well only with our feet". I really liked these chapters in particular, mostly because the author emphasizes well how such a simple habit - of walking - was fundamental to each of their lives and creations. There are chapters about Gandhi, Kierkegaard, Kant, etc. All very interesting and all depicting different relationships and views towards the act of walking - the biggest outlier is Kant, who didn't really see much pleasure in walking as the other famous names mentioned in the book, but his use of walking as a means of discipline is instructive nonetheless.

I recommend this book to anyone, really. Particularly if you enjoy walking around. But it's a discussion of life as much as it is of walking, and you surely will learn something anyway even if you find the more poetic (still prose, just more poetic in feel) parts boring.

Some citation highlights:

"The magic of walking lies in the unproductive repetition of putting one foot in the front of the other: of rediscovering a reasonless reason for carrying on. (...) When I'm exhausted, and have had my fill of sun and wind, I will stop. But in the meantime, I don't even think about it - I simply walk, and life goes on."

"Walking renders our dreams palpable. When we're lying down and motionless, our daydreams can be depressing. When we walk, they assume a certain reality: impressive ghosts dancing in the dust kicked up by our shoes."

"All your former narratives, and those tiring murmrs, drowned by the beat of your tread on the road. (...) You always know why you are walking: to advance, to leave, to reach, to leave again. 'Let's go, route! I'm a pedestrian, nothing more.'"