A Philosophy of Walking

This book is easily digested in one sitting. At once scholarly and popular, and at once comprehensive and shallow, it fails in being anything in particular. Each of the 20 or so short chapters focuses, in no particular theoretical or historical order, on a particular characteristic, disposition, or expression of walking (e.g. "eternities," "solitudes"). Some chapters, in so doing, are light summaries of particular figures' walks and/or walking theories/practices (Rousseau, Nietzsche, Rimbaud), while others are surveys of historical or cultural practices (pilgrimage, flanerie). I found the ease of reading the book edifying as a sort of ramble through various categories and characteristics of walking, but I found that its references were useless (no footnotes for quotes; only books are cited by chapter in a bibliography), and that its readings and citations of various figures and practices attempted a profound correlation by simply stating their sources and precedents, but without any complication, synthesis, or unifying theorization. As a researcher of phenomenology, narrativity, and walking, I found this book to be particularly problematic in its easy categorization (or repetition of categorization from others) without any obvious scheme, methodology, or inter-disciplinary focus. Finally, and perhaps most problematically, Gros chooses to read nearly every account of walking as one of autonomy and even privilege (with the slight nod to Rimbaud and Nerval). He pays little attention to the history of fugues, dissociated walkers, and colonized exiles--and in so doing, he perpetuates certain assumptions about the mind/body relation in walking and its representations: for Gros, a capable mind observes, needs, benefits from, and enjoys the walks of the body, and very little narrative/cognition/memory take place through the embedded and embodied site of walking. Most walks in this book, also, are walks of leisure, initiated by the walker, in other words, and not initiated by others' colonial forces. It's almost as if he's ignored the whole history of phenomenology and cognitive studies, as well as biopolitics and post-colonial space theory, in writing a book about minds' narratives of walking--and generating (from nothing, really) his own "philosophy," which is not a philosophy at all.

You probably need to already have a lot of miles behind you to really enjoy this book. I do, and I relished the subtle depth and breadth of Gros' meditations on this most mundane of activities. It's uneven, chapter to chapter, sure, but we all are.Take a minute or two to appreciate the fine illustrations by Clifford Harper, they'll reorient how you think about paths.

I cannot say enough good things about this book! There is usually a book I go wild for each year and this is this year's book. It will be given to friends who will appreciate and wind up adoring this book. Granted, this is not a book for everyone though.This is truly a philosophy book and it says it right in the title. This is a book about the essence of walking, the experience of walking, the disdain of walking, and famous walking philosophers. Due to this, it is not a mass market book.I am a contemplative who enjoys thinking while walking or running. I resonated with many of the points the author made about slowing down, enjoying the essence of life, and breathing it all in. This hit every pleasure nerve in my contemplative body, hence the excitement behind this book. This is a book about why we walk and the experience of walking rather than about walking.If you enjoy philosophy, contemplation, and really deep and rich writing, walk (don't run) and grab this one. My first truly exciting 5 star of the year.

We usually do not think much of walking, see it as a form of exercise, an effort to lose weight, a slot in our weekend. But this book cuts right down to the beautiful philosophical experience that walking can be, how interrogating the meanings of “walking” can help us understand ourselves better, and our human condition.

I love to walk/bike so the title peaked my interest. I found some chapters great and others so, so. The author mentions many well known walkers and what walking did for them. No mention of Thoreau and his ideas on sauntering, this surprised me.

Other than the fact that I realized I am a sports walker rather than a real walker, I can't say that I learned much about walking from reading this rather boring book. It did have some interesting profiles of prolific walkers like Baudelaire and Nietzsche.

Although this book enrolls the virtue of walking and experiencing rather than quoting other writers, this is exactly what this book does. Not that it suffers in anyway from that. The chapter on the urban walker as subversive is particularly good.

This book illustrates perfectly my own thoughts on walking, where Gros goes beyond anything I felt like I could say on the subject. His meditative process of analyzing some of the most notable philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries (with one or two more), and their habits of walking as ways to process and produce thought, was revelatory and insightful, as grounded as the process of walking in itself.

This is wordy book that doesn’t meet its title. I am very disappointed and will return it. Difficult and nonsensical to read

Pleasant subjective reveries around the topic of walking but full of factual inaccuracies about the thinkers/philosophers that are discussed. The lack of scholarly references hides false depictions of great thinkers—notably of Kant and Nietzsche. Thinly researched and replicates myths and inaccurate caricatures of key thinkers. So read for the pleasure of reading and for the love of walking but don’t regard this as an insightful book with regards to the walking-thinkers discussed in it.

This beautiful, gentle, inspiring book is an almost perfect treasure. In part, an exploration of some great thinkers and creators, and the link between their inspiration and the physical act of walking, in part, a journey in itself into what happens to us, physically, spiritually, emotionaly, when we walk on the earth. One or two of the case studies of the thinkers I found the link between walking and their work a little tenuous, though none the less fascinating for that. For most, the references, insights and quotations are profound. As a walker, and as someone who works creatively with the act and art of walking, I found this book essential and transformative reading, written with a lightness of touch that belies its depth - a bit like the gentle act of walking itself. Whatever your interest in walking, read this book. I feel its insights have been essential in restoring my relationship with the earth which I gently walk on, and with myself as a human, the walking animal. I recommend reading it with a pencil to hand, in the open air.

A friend had recommended this book so I wanted to read it. I have been savoring the chapters - just reading it very slowly before falling asleep. I have learned more about various philosophers who were major walkers. After reading the book I will want to find works by some of the philosophers Frederic Gros writes about.

Very interesting book overing many different issues, it is written in a light manner and not to heavy going. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in walking. There is also a great audio lecture by Tate of Frederic discussing the book.