This week I decided to buy some books that I had read in the past, both to do with nature and wildness. I see that I have written about Roger Deakin's book and probably about Jay Griffiths. I suspect it is getting back to my roots, the old 'green' thread of my nature. The other books that I have lost along the way are Eliot's Middlemarch, Thomas Hardy books, I mean to read them all again, their misery capturing so much of what is England in the fold of their tales. Tess's turbulent life and of course Jude the Obscure, plus 'Under the Greenwood Tree', which for some strange reason is probably my favourite, and Eustacia Vye and the Reddle man, the title of which I've forgotten.
What next, Bill Mckibben - Eaarth, and Wendell Berry of course, though I do own two of his books, one of which is called The Unsettling of America. Then there is Robert Macfarlane's book about the wild places of England and Ireland......
The other book I sent of for this week is about Chernobyl, and the reason is obvious, looking at some of the photos on the web, after the disaster, and the town is drowning in trees and greenery, very much like one of those lost Mayan civilisations in the jungle. There is also the added fact that wildlife has returned to the area in greater numbers; more of everything, lynxs, deer, brown bears (almost extinct from that area) and I think also leopards.
http://northstoke.blogspot.com/2009/02/sacred-groves.html
http://northstoke.blogspot.com/2009/02/stories.html
What an interesting collection of books. I love your common thread that links them. I look forward to reading your views on them when you've finished reading them again.
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