Book Review-A Philosophy of Walking By Fréderic Gros

I find myself reading more books of essays than fiction these days. It is perhaps because of my brain’s adaptation to reading in the era of social media: reading 180-character snippets has made  my attention span shorter and my having less patience. It could be also that I am becoming less accepting of the novel form. Regardless, I am finding satisfaction if not outright joy in reading well-written and concise essay collections. This is one of the books that fell on my lap during my excursions into the essay form.

Another book that I have used for my critical reading purposes is by Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading. (https://polymathtobe.blogspot.com/2024/01/book-review-history-of-reading-by.html) Manguel’s book was more extensive and more catholic in its scope.

This book by Gros is a philosophical treatise on walking, which is clearly stated in the title. Fréderic Gros is a French philosopher, an erudite philosophical explorer. In this case, he was also ably assisted by his translator John Howe, as I thoroughly enjoyed Howe’s translation of Gros’ thoughts. This was a fact that needs to be recognized because I so enjoyed reading the 25 essays because of the fluent translations of the original essays. The book was not only accessible, it held my attention, filled me with wonderment, and elicited critical questions as my mind wandered with the essays.

The book is laid out to explore and intellectually investigate walking, something that most of us take for granted. Those of us who are not cursed by physical ailments that prevent us from walking understand the feelings and mechanics of walking intrinsically, which could have made the author’s exploration of the topic seem redundant. Yet Gros was able to make the reader discover the joys of walking for the first time in our lives, such is the fluency of his words and cogency of his explorations. He adroitly explores the wonders behind the different kinds of feelings that we get from walking, the feeling of slowness, the solitude of taking a walk, the silences that surrounds us during a walk, the simple pleasures of a stroll, the sensual pleasures of walking in a public garden, and the role of an urban flâneur, and the importance of the pilgrimages, amongst many other topics.

Interspersed amongst the explorations of many different kinds of walking are chapters devoted to people from history who are known for their walking habits. Philosophers like Nietzsche, Rimbaud, Rousseau, Thoreau, Nerval, Kant, and Gandhi. Each of the essay on these philosophers gives concise histories of each philosopher and relates how their philosophical treatises are affected by their walking habit.

I was familiar particularly with Nietzsche, Kant, Thoreau, and Gandhi and the roles that their walking played in their philosophical works, yet Gros was able to expand my understanding of these philosophers. The author could have expended considerable amount of pages on each of those philosophers I mentioned, and it is very much to his credit that he did not overextend his discourses on the obvious subjects because his circumspection in that regard served his purpose of integrating the practice of walking into those philosopher’s philosophical work. He could have expounded on the histories of the philosophers and then digressed into their philosophies in general; but his prudence and economy of explanation allowed the readers to focus on walking.

This was a book that I read in those moments when I am in the mood for a short respite from deliberate bouts of concentration while I am reading non-fiction or if I needed to rest my imagination from too much thought perturbations from reading long and convoluted novels; as rewarding much as those reads are, sometimes a break is needed to refresh my mind. The essays in this book are immensely enjoyable and are of a length that will allow my mind to relax as I am able to focus on something other than complex and dense material. I would like to think that creating this kind of reading habit and spacing the shorter essays in-between heavier readings is also helping me re-learn how to read deeply for short periods of time, which will return me to being able to read and think deeply for longer periods of time. Regardless of whether my method meets its intended purpose, I am enjoying the exercise.