Running with the Pack by Mark Rowlands Granta PB/EB Out March
In this original book,
philosopher and amateur runner Mark Rowlands
explores why he runs. Interspersed with his ruminations on significant runs is a dialectical investigation into how the theories of various philosophers can be applied to running. Rowlands cogently argues that running returns us to something we have lost as we are caught up in seeking career-based and materialistic ‘goals’. We intuitively understand the
importance of play for its own sake during childhood, and during ‘the beating heart of the run’ we are returned to what we once were, and seem to have forgotten.
BP
Play it Again by Alan Rusbridger Jonathan Cape HB/EB Out now When Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger set himself the challenge of learning to play
the exceptionally difficult Chopin’s ‘Ballade No 1’ in a year, he had no idea that it would be a most extraordinary period for news. Play it Again is his diary of Wikileaks, phone hacking, the press and the
digital revolution, buying pianos, overseeing home improvements, giving concerts, meeting musicians – all the while shoehorning piano practice into a 14-hour working day. The book is daunting in size and initially appears dense and technical, but it soon becomes a fascinating, compelling read.
Field Notes from a Hidden City by Esther Woolfson Granta HB/EB Out February In Field Notes from a Hidden City Esther Woolfson records her observations of
urban nature in Aberdeen. IN DEPTH
The World until Yesterday by Jared Diamond Allen Lane HB/EB Out now
In his fascinating new book about pre-modern communities, Jared Diamond poses a simple question: ‘What can we learn from traditional societies?’ What could the inhabitants of
hunter-gatherer and tribal societies that somehow managed to survive into the late 20th and early 21st centuries possibly have to teach those of us who live in the complex, technologically sophisticated world of today? Drawing on his own experiences of fieldwork over many decades, and on the work of anthropologists studying people ranging from the Inuits of the Arctic to the Yanomamo people of the South American rainforest, Diamond shows just how much could be learnt. As he points out, societies have
been traditional for far longer than any society has been modern. We lived as they still do for tens of thousands of years before the advent of agriculture and, later, of the organisation of state governments and institutions. It would be very odd indeed if traditional societies didn’t have important things to tell us.
In one sense, Jared Diamond’s book is simply an engrossing study of the different ways older societies have dealt with the fundamental challenges of being human. He shows us New Guineans working to dissipate tensions between rival clans after an accidental death; Amazonians adopting a laissez-faire approach to parenting that would horrify Westerners; and Pacific Islanders cherishing the oldest woman in their community because of her useful
“An engrossing study of the ways older societies have dealt with the fundamental challenges of being human”
memories of how natural disasters in the past were endured. Diamond is no romantic in love with a modern version of the 18th-century ideal of the ‘noble savage’. He acknowledges that there are plenty of aspects of traditional life (cycles of violence, risk of starvation, susceptibility to communicable diseases) that we very definitely do not want to endure. However, his book
provides plenty of welcome reminders
that today’s industrial nations do not necessarily have all the answers to life’s problems. We can always learn how to better run a human society from people around the world who have been unconsciously experimenting for thousands of years.
Nick Rennison is a regular reviewer for the Sunday Times
CL
Written in the form of diary entries which cover one year of her life, the book unfolds the natural cycle of a busy city. The result is fascinating, a book filled with detail – including some interesting information on city rats that might make you rethink any prejudices you have against them. As well as the habits of birds and other wildlife, we also learn about the weather. Woolfson has a particularly effective way of explaining the science behind why the earth rotates and its relation to climate and the seasons. Her engaging writing style flows nicely on the page, making this is the perfect book for the dark winter evenings.