The Gifts of Reading

<b>Robert Macfarlane</b> is the bestselling author of <i>Mountains of the Mind The Wild Places The Old Ways </i><i>Landmarks </i>and <i>Underland</i> and<i> </i>co-creator of <i>The Lost Words </i>and <i>The Lost Spells</i><i>.</i> <i>Mountains of the Mind</i> won the Guardian First Book Award and the Somerset Maugham Award and <i>The Wild Places</i> won the Boardman-Tasker Award. Both books have been adapted for television by the BBC. <i>The Lost Words</i> won the Books Are My Bag Beautiful Book Award and the Hay Festival Book of the Year. Robert Macfarlane is a Fellow of Emmanuel College Cambridge and writes on environmentalism literature and travel for publications including the <i>Guardian</i> the <i>Sunday Times</i> and <i>The New York Times</i>. He is now working on his third book with long-time collaborator Jackie Morris: <i>The Book of Birds</i>. I'll read anything Macfarlane writes [Macfarlane] can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler a writer whose ideas transcend the physical region he explores [Macfarlane] is a godfather of a cultural moment <p><b>From the bestselling author of <i>UNDERLAND THE OLD WAYS </i>and<i> THE LOST WORDS</i> - an essay on the joy of reading for anyone who has ever loved a book</b><br><br>Every book is a kind of gift to its reader and the act of giving books is charged with a special emotional resonance. It is a meeting of three minds (the giver the author the recipient) an exchange of intellectual and psychological currency that leaves each participant enriched. Here Robert Macfarlane recounts the story of a book he was given as a young man and how he managed eventually to return the favour though never repay the debt.<br><br>From one of the most lyrical writers of our time comes a perfectly formed gem a lyrical celebration of the transcendent power and humanity of the given book.</p> <p><b>From the bestselling author of <i>UNDERLAND THE OLD WAYS </i>and<i> THE LOST WORDS</i> - an essay on the joy of reading for anyone who has ever loved a book</b><br><br>Every book is a kind of gift to its reader and the act of giving books is charged with a special emotional resonance. It is a meeting of three minds (the giver the author the recipient) an exchange of intellectual and psychological currency that leaves each participant enriched. Here Robert Macfarlane recounts the story of a book he was given as a young man and how he managed eventually to return the favour though never repay the debt.<br><br>From one of the most lyrical writers of our time comes a perfectly formed gem a lyrical celebration of the transcendent power and humanity of the given book.</p>