Interview with Tristan Gooley, author of The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs
Tristan Gooley, author of The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs, recommends an interersting set of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Tristan's book:
Review from Book Depository:
The ultimate guide to what the land, sun, moon, stars, trees, plants, animals, sky and clouds can reveal - when you know what to look for.
Includes over 850 outdoor clues and signs for you to enjoy the wonders of the outdoors from your living room.
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The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs
This top ten bestseller is the result of Tristan Gooley's two decades of pioneering outdoors experience and six years of instructing, researching and writing. It includes lots of outdoor clues and signs that will not be found in any other book in the world.
As well as the most comprehensive guide to natural navigation for walkers ever compiled, it also contains clues for weather forecasting, tracking, city walks, coast walks, night walks and dozens of other areas.
Buy On:
Book Depository €9.62
Waterstones £10.99
Wordery $14.67
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Review From Book Depository: Why is there more chance we'll believe something if it's in a bold type face? Why are judges more likely to deny parole before lunch? Why do we assume a good-looking person will be more competent? The answer lies in the two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking, and slow, rational thinking. (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Five years ago I was wrestling with a conundrum. I had noticed how I was sensing direction in stars and trees without apparently thinking about it, but it was not something I had been able to do a decade earlier. And at the same time there were people I taught who struggled to see the same thing at all, even when it was explained carefully.
As part of my investigation into what was going on I discovered Kahneman's book and it helped unlock the mystery. Our brain uses two modes of thinking and although Kahneman is more focused on the economic and urban impacts of this in his book, his insights allowed me to take this knowledge back to its roots: the wild. This led to my writing a book about how we can learn to sense things in nature instinctively, to rekindle that innate sense that our ancestors doubtless had and indigenous people retain.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Buy On:
Easons €12.99
Book Depository €11.99
Waterstones £10.99
Wordery $14.46
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
A little bit esoteric for most tastes, but I was enthralled by a little-known and academic book called The Role of Physical Environment in Ancient Greek Seafaring by Jamie Morton. On reading that title most won't be tempted and I wouldn't recommend it to many. But for my work it has been a treasure trove, helping me get inside the minds of the ancients, giving me a chance to discover their experience of the types of clues and signs that I research and write about. It may have more pages than readers for all I know, but I'm so glad that it was written.
Review From Book Depository:
In this study of the world of ancient Greek mariners, the relationship between the natural environment and the techniques and technology of seafaring is focused upon.
An initial description of the geology, oceanography and meteorology of Greece and the Mediterranean, is followed by discussion of the resulting sailing conditions, such as physical hazards, sea conditions, winds and availability of shelter, and environmental factors in sailing routes, sailing directions, and navigational techniques. Appendices discuss winter and night sailing, ship design, weather prediction, and related areas of socio-maritime life, such as settlement, religion, and warfare. (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The Role of Physical Environment in Ancient Greek Seafaring
Wide-ranging sources and illustrations are used to demonstrate both how the environment shaped many of the problems and constraints of seafaring, and also that Greek mariners' understanding of the environment was instrumental in their development of a highly successful seafaring tradition.
Buy On:
Book Depository €216.84
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
Danny the Champion of the World by Road Dahl. I haven't read it for decades, but what I recall is the exciting way it captures a sense of triumphing by knowing your turf better than your adversary.
Review From Book Depository
Danny lives in a caravan with his father, the most marvellous and exciting father any boy ever had.
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Danny the Champion of the World
All the land around them belongs to Mr Victor Hazell, a rich snob with a great glistening beery face and tiny piggy eyes. Nobody likes him, not one-little bit.
So one day, Danny and his father concoct a daring plot that will give the old blue-faced baboon Victor Hazell the greatest shock of his life - so long as they don't get caught ...
Buy On:
Easons €5.99
Book Depository €7.58
Waterstones £6.99
Wordery $9.13
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
Paper for fiction and serious non-fiction. Audiobooks to fall asleep to.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
I don't have one, but a stable of favourites. I like the Daunts chain, my local Waterstones in Chichester and all of the independent bookshops that I visit. Every single time I visit a town, I search out the bookshop and make a point of buying a book and signing any of mine that they stock. In the unlikely event I don't find a book I want, I will buy one as a gift. If we lose our bookshops I would be distraught.
Many thanks to Tristan for recommending an interesting set of books! Please don't forget to check out Tristan's book The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs
Daryl
Image Copyrights: HODDER & STOUGHTON (The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs), Penguin Books Ltd (Thinking, Fast and Slow), Brill (The Role of the Physical Environment in Ancient Greek Seafaring), Penguin Random House Children's UK (Danny The Champion of the World).
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