A writer tells us it's okay to be a little lost — and that's how we find our place
A Field Guide to Getting Lost — Rebecca Solnit
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A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit
What It’s About
This is a book that many seem to have vaguely heard of but rarely have read, and I’m so glad I made the time to pick it up a few years ago.
It’s been a book I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, trying to find my own bearings and directions, and I plan on rereading this (as soon as I can find it in my moving boxes) to reorient myself and remind myself that it is, indeed, okay to be lost. In fact, Solnit argues, lost can be a necessary place we all need.
She explores, in memoir-style essays, how distance, loss, grief, and other dark places don’t have to be the abysses we think of them, but rather needed spaces we must traverse and the joy of being in the unknown.
Solnit, through her essays, meanders on pop culture, meditation, “self-care” rituals, nature, poetry, and more, and how each of these can help or hurt our own journeys, and why it’s okay to not quite know where we’re going next.
“The world is blue at its edges and in its depths. This blue is the light that got lost . . . The color of that distance is the color of an emotion, the color of solitude and of desire, the color of there seen from here, the color of where you are not.”
Why You Should Read It
During these winter months when life can be either quieter and sadder or more hectic and lively, spending time slowing down with lovely prose can be a solace. Thank you so much — you, dear readers — for giving me the space for a break and quiet rest. This is the book that I’d give to friends going through the same.
Solnit’s writing reminds me a bit of George Saunders and a bit of Carmen Maria Machado, both literary and haunting yet deeply personal.
What do you like reading during winter months? Are you usually more busy, or does life slow down? I also plan on picking up the second book in this series — a middle-grade favorite that I recommend to kids and grown-ups alike, especially for the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
Can’t get enough, or looking for a different recommendation? Browse the archives, or check out some popular past recommendations:
A woman turns a passion project into a book and knits the ugliest sweater ever
Read a 1970s historical fiction about a logging town and mothers fighting for their children
Read about a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking, mystery-solving nun
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Rebecca Solnit had one of my all time favorite essays where a guy tried to explain to her what her own essay was about.
Thank you for reminding us of this Solnit book, which I’d heard about and then forgotten to read! Knowing what it’s about shifts it higher on my TBR. I’m all for getting more comfortable with uncertainty.