Landmarks (Landscapes)

This is a magical book. It is both a collection of landscape words from the British Isles and a meditation on writing, mountains and landscapes. It is not a quick read but something that satiates after a few pages, requiring digestion, or rereading. The place words are from a vanishing time when we knew our land like we now know how to get about town. The words shimmer with beauty even though I suspect I am making a poor job of the Gaelic pronunciations.I thought I was a pretty good writer but reading this is humbling in a happy way, taking pleasure in his writing and glad that there are people who can write like this.If you love nature, if you love words, if you think there is more than one way to climb a mountain (p. 63), this is a book that will give you pleasure.

MacFarlane knows how to write about nature, and our relationship to nature, without getting all "woo-woo" or straying off into politics. His prose is absolutely a delight to read. Great fun.

The vocabulary list the author has compiled is exceptional. He has delved into our loss of specific expression and identification words and pulled them out of obscurity: words that that are largely no longer in use in this age of erasable text messages and instagrams. It's a gem for writers and lovers of nature.

This is a luscious book! It helps you to return to sensual living in relationship to nature. I gave it one demerit for format. The clickable footnotes and references eject one straight to the bibliography, which is not a tidy one. The resulting need for direction and the intellectual search toss one out of the euphoric and into the mildly anxious. Time to buy the actual book.

This is a very interesting approach to nature and to language. Anything that R. Macfarlane writes is going to make me think, and probably point me in the direction of several other books to add to my list. After only 2 or 3 chapters of this book, I already have 2 other books to find and read. I wasn't sure what to expect. Much of this is about other writers and their approach to nature and outdoors. Each chapter has a lengthy glossary, probably 70% of which contains words new to me. The book is definitely British-centric, but don't let that put you off. Rather, let it start you on an exploration of how regional writers in the US relate to and reflect their chosen environments.

This author composes sentences and paragraphs that never falter in their beauty and honesty. This book and his others are inspirational reads for those, like me, who love to linger in the artistry of great writing coupled with deep insight.

This is a book from a man in love with Earth. Wonderfully written. I absolutely loved it! I bought it for Kindle, but now I'll buy it on paper so I can easily write my own memories, experiences, go back and forth, draw, paste images of birds and plants and rocks and landscapes Macfarlane talks about. He certainly offers us an amazing lens focused on our partners - other Nature’s beings - inciting us to respect them and meet them in person.A book every professional working with landscape and education should read.

This is a book to read slowly and savor every word and every page. I read it over the course of a year, packing it with me on numerous wilderness expeditions. It has impacted the way I see, experience, and talk about the natural world.