The Footpath Book

On By Mick CanningIn books, footpaths, walking, writing

Once, I thought I’d write a footpath book, a guidebook for an area I walked frequently and knew well. As well as the practicalities of walking the paths – pointing out turnings that were easy to miss, alternative routes, the geography of the paths – I would also discuss the history and geology of the area, the wildlife and architecture, the folklore…

I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of examples of these books.

But that, naturally, would require me to walk each path carefully noting every point at which I would need to remark on these details. But I know me. I would be coming up to a point where I knew I needed to take note of the vagaries of the route, or points of special interest, and then a mile or two later I’d realise I’d been working on a poem in my head and had forgotten all about the task in hand….I would just find it impossible to keep my focus on the technicalities while walking. And I don’t really do technicalities very well, anyway.

And to have to do this for every step of every part of these routes, well, it’s not what I do. While walking, I’m inclined to drift along, my mind wandering, my focus flitting from one thing to another – whatever catches my eye at the time.

It will just have to go down as another of my discarded projects. The footpath book is for someone else to write.

28 thoughts on “The Footpath Book”

  1. The book may have been set aside, but that photo is terrific: very inviting, and humorous as well. There’s a series here called Roadside Geology that’s related to what you’d proposed, although its focus obviously is different. I’ve used the one for Kansas, and by golly — at every mile marker and even places in between, you can find out what that rock’s made of, how and when it formed, etc. I can’t imagine the amount of work those books or your footpath book would require, but I know that it’s not for me. I’ll just read and appreciate others’ work.

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    2. Having been a geology student at university very many years ago (although I dropped out!) I certainly appreciate the many great books on the subject available (although I know very little about US geology) and it is certainly possible to travel pretty well any route with the appropriate book and learn about the rocks beneath your feet virtually every step of the way. I certainly wouldn’t have put in anything like that amount of detail, just an overview of the general geological structures present.

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  13. Understand. I am most creative in my head, it’s just difficult to extract into form.

    Ran across this, by Ingmar Bergman, and it seems a hand excuse.

    “There are poets who never write, because they shape their lives as poems; actors who never perform, but who act out their lives as high drama. There are painters who never paint, because they close their eyes and conjure up the most superb works of art on the back of their eye-lids. There are film-makers who live their films and would never abuse their gift by materializing them in reality.”

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