Show threadIdzieMar 8
"A good grammar of animacy can still re-enchant existence. To imagine that a river is alive causes water to glitter differently. New possibilities of encounter emerge -- and loneliness retreats a step or two. You find yourself falling in love outward, to use Robinson Jeffer's beautiful phrase." Robert Macfarlane, #IsaRiverAlive
TheEdinburghBookshopMar 3

#WhatWereReading : Joe's favourite read of last year has just come out in paperback - Robert MacFarlane's wonderful Is a River Alive? from Penguin Books

Highly recommend and inspired reading.

#books #livres #nature #NatureWriting #bookshops #librairies #bookstodon #IsARiverAlive #RobertMacFarlane #RecommendedReading

Show threadIdzieFeb 24
"One of modernity's many vanishing tricks is to disappear the provisionality of its own conclusions. We now take for granted that we take rivers for granted. It is unremarkable that flowing fresh water can be owned, for instance -- can be privatized and sold, reduced to liquid asset -- or to think that access to a river's banks may be tightly controlled or forbidden, rather than being part of a blue commons." Robert Macfarlane, #IsaRiverAlive
Show threadIdzieFeb 24
"The impounded meaning of 'river' is now one of 'service provider', an identity held in place by structures of the imagination as well as of land. We have become increasingly waterproofed: conceptually sealed against subtle and various relations with rivers, even as they continue to irritate our bodies, thoughts, songs and stories. Rivers run through people as surely as they run through places." Robert Macfarlane, #IsaRiverAlive
Show threadIdzieFeb 18
"Urban planners speak of 'daylighting' streams and rivers. This is the practice of un-burying the watercourses over which many cities have been built, and which have been confined to drains and tunnels, flowing invisibly down in darkness. These imprisoned watercourses are sometimes known as 'ghost rivers': their voices are heard at street level, if at all, as whispers drifting from manhole covers or drain grilles...'Daylighting' lets the water of buried streams meet the sun again. It is a means of bringing river ghosts back to life in towns and cities, of re-encountering rivers as friends and fellow citizens." Robert Macfarlane, #IsaRiverAlive
Show threadIdzieFeb 18
"[F]or every human is, of course, a waterbody. Water flows in and through us. Running, we are rivers. Seated, we are pools. Our brains and hearts are three-quarters water, our skin is two-thirds water; even our bones are watery. We were swimmers before we were walkers, slow-turning like breath-divers in the dark flotation tank of the womb." Robert Macfarlane, #IsaRiverAlive
IdzieFeb 18
"To be silenced is not the same as to be silent; to go unheard is not the same as to be speechless. No landscape speaks with a single tongue." Robert Macfarlane, Is a River Alive? #IsaRiverAlive
kaggsy59Jan 21

“…part of a web of entangled life…” #isariveralive

As I've no doubt mentioned many times before, I'm a great believer in every book having its time and so I don't necessarily pick up each new title that comes through the door as soon as it arrives. However, there's a danger in having a massive TBR in that a book may disappear into it and get forgotten, and today's one is a case in point.

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2026/01/21/part-of-a-web-of-entangled-life-isariveralive/

“…part of a web of entangled life…” #isariveralive

As I’ve no doubt mentioned many times before, I’m a great believer in every book having its time and so I don’t necessarily pick up each new title that comes through the door as s…

Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings
Gaian WayDec 11

Is a River Alive? Book Club(Final meeting: December 11, 3:30pm ET)

We'll gather three times this fall to discuss the three parts of Robert Macfarlane's new book. We discussed the introduction and Part 1 in October. At the second meeting in November, we'll discuss Part 2, and in our 3rd meeting in December, we'll discuss Part 3 and the Conclusion. Join via Zoom.

https://zoom.us/j/7750874170?pwd=aWR1Y213MlFkMVh3MWQ3UHFkMjJxQT09

#GaianWay #BookClub #IsARiverAlive #RobertMacfarlane

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Denis 🌏Oct 20

Today has so far been sort of a lazy, under the weather loss but I'm feeling a little better at the moment so I'm going to see if I can do a small walk/hike.

It was nice though, I did read and finish "Is a River Alive?" by Robert Macfarlane which I loved loved loved and HIGHLY recommend.

#books #isARiverAlive #natureRights #naturesRights #riverRights #robertMacfarlane

https://bookshop.org/p/books/is-a-river-alive-robert-macfarlane/9ae567d9083d3c7c