Learning to Walk Richard Shade Gardner 9780615558202 Books
Download As PDF : Learning to Walk Richard Shade Gardner 9780615558202 Books
I collect lakes.
I have for years.
I can't bring a lake home,
like a butterly or baseball card
and put it in a display case or album.
So, I walk around each lake in one fell
swoop.
This way I can best capture and form an uninterrupted connection
with the spirit of the water, the land, the people, and my inner self.
Learning to Walk is a refreshingly original approach to the memoir. The author keeps a journal while walking, reflecting insightfully on both the present and the past. In the present he walks as far as seventy-eight miles in three days around Seneca Lake, and as little as one lap around the local reservoir. The intoxicating rhythm of walking leads to inner exploration and reflection. Whatever the external or internal distance covered, the author treats all with a singular respect and unassuming sensitivity. It may be present-day delights such as watching the aerial acrobatics of a red-tailed hawk, the satisfaction of covering thirty-nine miles in one day, or the confusion of a delinquent boyhood and struggling in boot camp. The author exemplifies the TS Eliot quote “We must not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.” In Richard Shade Gardner’s walking and journaling, the "place" is physical and conceptual. Gardner has a finely-tuned finesse with episodic storytelling and dialogue, recounting observations and describing characters he meets. The book’s 125 vignettes flow from present-to-past and back, keeping the reader in constant motion, much the same as a good long walk, and result in a book that is almost impossible to put down.
Learning to Walk Richard Shade Gardner 9780615558202 Books
LEARNING TO WALK, is the meticulous history of the man who starts walking on all fours and then spends years on two legs exploring the world the old fashioned way. Slowly with a naturalists keen eye for everything in the natural world around him, or her. When the author and I were children and at an age where we were brought to the parks by newly married young WWII Veterans we fell in love with the enormously spacious park around Rochester, N.Y.'s Cobbs hill Reservoir. The history of the park there that now looks tiny to an adult from the bottom and has been encroached on by an ever enlarging city would make a book in itself-of memories for the generation next in line to leave the world with their memories. Richard Shade Gardner has expanded my memories of learning to explore with my young WWII Medic Veteran Uncle Joe re-discoverring America after rapidly attaining Master Sgt. in two years of WWII, To a lifetime of Freshwater beachcombing. If you have ever been a beachcomber you know it goes way beyond the ancient parts of ships or boats and trees that find themselves beached but also the other people you meet there, at peace in a stormy world. And the living Flora and fauna that is in the sand, rocks, and air. When I first went out on the finger lakes half the shore of Canandaigua was wild and natural, and we didn't nee wells on the eastern shore of Ontario, the water was clean enough to drink.Upstate N.Y.'s shorelines-where what I first thought was petrified bees nests was ancient corral from a saltwater sea.Product details
|
Tags : Learning to Walk [Richard Shade Gardner] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. I collect lakes. I have for years. I can't bring a lake home, like a butterly or baseball card and put it in a display case or album. So,Richard Shade Gardner,Learning to Walk,Richard Shade Gardner,0615558208,Biography & Autobiography Personal Memoirs,Biography Autobiography,Memoirs,Personal Memoirs
People also read other books :
- Bible Characters Vol 2 Gideon to Absalom edition by Alexander Whyte Religion Spirituality eBooks
- Adam Perfect World edition by Shari Sakurai Literature Fiction eBooks
- Weekend Write Your First Book This Weekend! eBook Lina Trivedi
- The Pipe Dreamers edition by Sandra Gurvis Literature Fiction eBooks
- Combustion The Del Mar Sequence Book 1 edition by Karen SpurgeonHatfield InstinctImages Literature Fiction eBooks
Learning to Walk Richard Shade Gardner 9780615558202 Books Reviews
So much more than just a book on walking. The back stories about jail, the navy, and Mardi Gras were funny, personal, and interesting. I couldn't wait to read what happened next, and actually finished the book in a few days. He details the smallest miracles in nature, making sure to appreciate the beauty, when those around him were unaware. Can't wait for the next installment to come out!
There's something about walking that is present tense. For Gardner for sure! A state of mind. Things cross his path applying for notice (an earthworm with a shadow as big as a man's boot print),and sometimes do the observing themselves (a group of 100 geese on the road at night parting to give the man the right of way). Comical, surreal, dramatic, but always neighborly (the neighborhood being various lakes in Upstate NY). As an adjunct to the total present tense of walking, another present tense from out of the past joins stride, kind of. So that episodes from a hitch-hiking trip to New Orleans from the 60's, or a stint at boot camp, or jail(!), take over for a while. Very cool.
This is a captivating true story; it is not just about collecting lakes. The short entries touch on a wide range of ideas and the book ends on the high notes of satisfaction and anticipation, for author and reader.
Looking forward to Books 2 & 3.
I picked this book up because I live in Rochester and thought it sounded interesting. Well, it is. I loved the way the Author writes, his prespective on things and insight. I look forward to his next 2 books. You don't have to be a Rochestarian to enjoy this but, if you are, you might just start walking the Reservoir.
What inspires someone to start hiking, or in Richard Gardner's term, begin "learning to walk?" What compels one person to run marathons, another to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, and yet another to circumnavigate lakes?
This memoir provides a window into the motivation from Richard's perspective, using flashbacks to formative events from his life. Richard began a habit of walking in two places in Rochester, NY - around a reservoir high on a glacial hilltop and on a beach along the shore of Lake Ontario. Walking allowed him to slow down and notice the small things. He shares these astute observations with his readers.
For example, one day while walking around the reservoir he tries, unsuccessfully, to correct the erroneous geography of some tourists by explaining that Toronto is west of Rochester, not to the north. He closes the chapter with the poetic words "These visitors find the city panorama an interesting view. I find the viewers interesting. They provide a view into the cultures of the world, further than the horizon, true north."
As he walked, Richard learned to cope with life's challenges and find joy in the natural world. Walking can do that to a person - re-root them - and inspire them to greater adventures. For Richard, these small walks led to a passion to hike around lakes. It also opened up a passion for writing. "Learning to Walk" is the first of a trilogy of books. In the next two books (available late 2012) he'll be sharing his insights from hiking around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. I'm hooked.
By Sue Freeman, thru-hiker of the Appalachian Trail, author & publisher of 14 outdoor recreation guidebooks to central & western New York State through Footprint Press, Inc.
Reading learning to walk is like taking a trip through a fantastic art gallery only now you have the details behind the paintings. Gardner is a master artist with words,painting pictures in such vivid detail the reader is carried along with him, sharing his life experiences.Eagerly awaiting "part II and III".Learning to Walk
The book let me travel through my own life again with some new insight. We are all getting older and learning, though few of us take enough time to reflect. I'm not a avid reader, but this was easy and entertaining. Can't wait for the next 2 books, gotta see if Richard makes it around the last of the Great Lakes. As times change, so does the difficulty of travel no matter what the mode of transport.
LEARNING TO WALK, is the meticulous history of the man who starts walking on all fours and then spends years on two legs exploring the world the old fashioned way. Slowly with a naturalists keen eye for everything in the natural world around him, or her. When the author and I were children and at an age where we were brought to the parks by newly married young WWII Veterans we fell in love with the enormously spacious park around Rochester, N.Y.'s Cobbs hill Reservoir. The history of the park there that now looks tiny to an adult from the bottom and has been encroached on by an ever enlarging city would make a book in itself-of memories for the generation next in line to leave the world with their memories. Richard Shade Gardner has expanded my memories of learning to explore with my young WWII Medic Veteran Uncle Joe re-discoverring America after rapidly attaining Master Sgt. in two years of WWII, To a lifetime of Freshwater beachcombing. If you have ever been a beachcomber you know it goes way beyond the ancient parts of ships or boats and trees that find themselves beached but also the other people you meet there, at peace in a stormy world. And the living Flora and fauna that is in the sand, rocks, and air. When I first went out on the finger lakes half the shore of Canandaigua was wild and natural, and we didn't nee wells on the eastern shore of Ontario, the water was clean enough to drink.Upstate N.Y.'s shorelines-where what I first thought was petrified bees nests was ancient corral from a saltwater sea.
0 Response to "∎ Read Free Learning to Walk Richard Shade Gardner 9780615558202 Books"
Post a Comment