Fieldnote #17: What To Read
Books on Walking
The Old Ways. A Journey on Foot by Robert Macfarlane
In The Old Ways, Robert Macfarlane traces ancient paths across landscapes in Britain and beyond, weaving together history, memory, and personal journey. Walking becomes a form of storytelling — a way to read the land and leave marks upon it. The book is both lyrical and deeply grounded, a meditation on how the paths we walk shape our inner lives. Macfarlane invites us to consider walking not just as movement, but as an act of attention and inheritance.
“Paths are the habits of a landscape. They are a record of those who have gone before, and a promise to those who will follow.” — Robert Macfarlane, The Old Ways
Macfarlane, Robert. The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot. Penguin Books, 2012.
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Thank you for walking with me.
See you next Friday,
xx
Jana
📕Out now: Walk Her Way New York City. A Walking Guide to Women’s History. (Hardie Grant, 2025) | the book on amazon