I love to be led along the trail where books lead me – not the story trail – but the book-to-book trail.
Do these books know about each other and what they do to us? They lead us on a treasure hunt, one clue to the next. With books, there are many treasures along the way but never a final one.
OK, I am anthropomorphizing books, I can hardly spell the word and doing so is, I understand, a childish and academic sin. Luckily, I am far from being an academic and cherish the child within. But when I think of all the energy that authors, editors, agents, publishers, designers and readers put into books – books could spring to life!
The starting point for my latest book trail is a work by Wade Davis. He is a geographer who has recently written about the country of Columbia and centers on the river Magdalena that runs the length of the country. Wade Davis is a deep dive author. I love his writing, research, scholarship and stories.
‘Magdalena, River of Dreams’ talks of many historical figures, but a recurring one is Alexander von Humboldt. Born in 1769, he was a renowned naturalist, geographer, explorer and scientist. He was a rock star of his age, wildly popular, he influenced many, many movers and shakers including Simon Bolivar.
Mountain ranges are named after Humboldt; he has, apparently, more places named after him than anyone else on the planet! How come I know so little about him? Today, his breakthrough discoveries and theories on the connectivity of nature are accepted truth so we don’t think of them as remarkable, but in his day, it was a revelation and he is called the ‘first environmentalist’. So, I am doing catch-up and reading a book recommended in the bibliography of Wade Davis’ book: ‘The invention of nature – Alexander von Humboldt’s new World’ by Andrea Wulf. And I am loving it.
Will Ms. Wulf’s lead me to other books, most probably. I am also lured by her previous books, among them, the influence on science and society of English gardeners. But if I don’t go down that path, still from Columbia, I want to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez whom I have never read. Which opens up the whole dark secret of the books I have never read ….dare I say War and Peace among a stack of others. So many gaps in my knowledge, so much still to learn!