The Gifts of Reading

Author(s): Robert Macfarlane

Essays & Letters

From the acclaimed author of The Old Ways and Landmarks -- an essay on the beauty and joy of reading, for anyone who has ever loved a book Every book is a kind of gift to its reader, and the act of giving books is charged with a special emotional resonance. It is a meeting of three minds (the giver, the author, the recipient), an exchange of intellectual and psychological currency, that leaves both participants the richer. Here Robert Macfarlane recounts the story of a book he was given as a young man, and how he managed eventually to return the favour, though never repay the debt. From one of the most lyrical writers of our time comes a perfectly formed gem, a lyrical celebration of the power and preciousness of the given book.


Product Information

I'll read anything Macfarlane writes -- David Mitchell, author of 'Cloud Atlas' [Macfarlane] can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler, a writer whose ideas transcend the physical region he explores New York Times Book Review [Macfarlane] is a godfather of a cultural moment Sunday Times on Landmarks

Robert Macfarlane is the author of Mountains of the Mind, The Wild Places, The Old Ways and Landmarks. Mountains of the Mind won the Guardian First Book Award and the Somerset Maugham Award and The Wild Places won the Boardman-Tasker Award. Both books have been adapted for television by the BBC. He is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and writes on environmentalism, literature and travel for publications including the Guardian, the Sunday Times and The New York Times. He is currently working on an illustrated children's book about the natural world in collaboration with illustrator Jackie Morris.

General Fields

  • : 9780241978313
  • : Penguin Books, Limited
  • : Penguin Books, Limited
  • : 0.368
  • : February 2017
  • : 181mm X 111mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Robert Macfarlane
  • : Paperback
  • : 617
  • : en
  • : 028.9
  • : 32