The Library That Walks Through the Great Outdoors With You

Many of us take books with us wherever we go. Perhaps as a well-worn paperback, or maybe stored on an eReader. But we might not always be mindful of our choices – we might simply take whichever book is closest to hand, and read this book during a bit of downtime out on the trail.

The Walking Library is a celebration of the journeys involved in the act of walking and the act of reading. This wonderful project helps us to get more from our walks, and more from our reading, by combining the transformative aspects of both.

The Walking Library Project

The Walking Library project is the work of Misha Myers and Deirdre “Dee” Heddon. Misha Myers is a Senior Lecturer and Creative Arts Course Director at Melbourne, Australia’s Deakin University, while Dee Heddon is the James Arnott Chair in Drama at the University of Glasgow in the UK.

Together, Myers and Heddon have created The Walking Library project. Since 2012, this project has brought together the twin disciplines of rambling and reading. At first glance, these two pastimes seem somewhat different, but at their core, they share many similarities. Both transport us into new mindsets and new locations, and each takes us on a journey.

It’s this shared ethos that Myers and Heddon are tapping into with their project. The latest edition of The Walking Library focused on forest walks, seeking suggestions for books that offer the perfect accompaniment for a ramble into the woods.

Profound Connections Between Rambling and Literature

Myers and Heddon are out to do more than simply assemble reading lists for particular walks – although this, by itself, would be a noble endeavor. Instead, the project is focused on exploring more profound philosophical and artistic connections between rambling and literature.

For example, the Walking Library for Forest Walks edition of the project asked the public the following questions:

Which book can transport you from your armchair to the imagined forest?

Which book can help you see the forest for the trees?

Which book provides seeds for thought and future forests?

Which leaves would you want to turn and share?

Which forest stories stretch both legs and minds?

These questions help The Walking Library team to curate the titles they will bring with them on their walk – titles that help attendees explore their twin passions of reading and walking.

The Walking Library in the Field

Past editions of The Walking Library demonstrate how the project works in the field. In 2017, The Walking Library commemorated the Suffragettes who went door-to-door around Geelong, and elsewhere across Victoria, in 1891. These Suffragettes were seeking support for women’s right to vote – more than a century later, walkers paid tribute to these efforts.

The 2017 walkers began their ramble at The School of Lost Arts in Geelong – a school run by local artist and scientist, Mary-Jane Walker. From here, the group progressed along Noble Street to a space beside the cricket oval at Windmill Reserve, overlooking the valley and the River Barwon.

Here, group member and activist Lorna selected the first book from their walking collection. Holding the spine of the book aloft, Lorna made sure all could see the name of its author – Gertrude Stein.

Later in the walk, members would read from a diverse range of works. These include Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, David Abrams’ The Spell of the Sensuous, and Dark Emu: Black Seeds Agriculture or Accident, by Bunurong and Bruce Pascoe.

Kathleen Jamie’s The Tree House, and Heather Rose’s The Museum of Modern Love were also read on the walk, as attendees reflected on the landscape, the human history of the place, and their own positions within both.

Historic Entanglements Between Walking and Reading

The Walking Library is a fascinating project. The ongoing endeavor is the latest installment in a long shared history of walking and reading. From the walking libraries that originated in 17th century England – designed as practical means of disseminating literature, but developing a romance of their own – to the mobile libraries of the 20th century, reading and exploring have gone hand in hand for centuries.

Romantic poets like Wordsworth and Keats famously provided their own poetic reflections on the landscape of the English Lake District, but they did not venture into this landscape alone. John Keats famously took Divine Comedy with him, exploring his surroundings accompanied by Dante’s famous epic work.

John Muir is known today as a pioneering conservationist, and someone who loved the untamed and ageless beauty of the great outdoors. But he loved the more human, more temporary, structures of literature too. On his own epic expedition from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, Muir took with him John Milton’s Paradise Lost, a volume of Robert Burns’ poetry, and other classic tomes.

If we love to walk, then we love to read too – each walk is a traverse across a new story, as the landscape unfolds before us. And it works the other way too – the first page of each new book is the opening step on an exciting journey. With The Walking Library, Misha Myers and Dee Heddon are helping us explore these journeys with fresh eyes.