Rebecca Solnit is such a compelling author that I have ordered another book of hers – A Field Guide to Getting Lost. (I get lost often.) Sorry this is an aside, but also an accolade for Wanderlust, which is an amazing book. It is incredibly well written, meticulously researched, and deeply passionate in its history of walking for social awareness, political protest, and basic survival. For Solnit, walking is both a means to an end and an end in itself. Do I dare say, “I walk, therefore I am.” Her book comes close to this aphorism. Rebecca covers the majesty of walking on its grander scales – poets, philosophers and peaceful protesters to its absurdity on a treadmill – “going nowhere because there is no where to go.” Solnit is American, so there is a concentration of walking in the US. However, it is the US of the beat generation – a time when walking and wilderness were escapes from the vehicle and the manicured lawn in a sterile suburb. It speaks to the “alternate” walker.