I really like walking.

For me walking is the ultimate freedom. I long for a time in my life when I walked more, when I had time to stroll. In the hustle of bustle of life with a job and family time margins are shorter and I mostly find myself grabbing the bike (which I love, but on other terms). Somehow in the stream of everyday life I find myself forgetting about how to walk, how easy it is and the pleasure of walking without a destination, something to do during the walk or headphones with a podcast or music.

I have read this book before. I liked it very much then, and I liked it a lot this time. It goes through how walking has been looked upon by philosophers, in writing and art; in different parts of the world and at different times. It has a very good chapter on how walking has been (and is) constrained in different ways for men and women. I love that the book ends with a visit to Las Vegas, a pedestrian island in a sea of car culture.

This is really a book about space and time. As Solnit writes in the end of the book: walking is freedom, but a freedom which is dependent on both that space and time is carved out for it.