
Mountains of the Mind
Adventures in Reaching the Summit
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Narrated by:
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James A. Gillies
About this listen
The basis for the documentary film Mountain: A Breathtaking Voyage into the Extreme.
Combining accounts of legendary mountain ascents with vivid descriptions of his own forays into wild, high landscapes, Robert Macfarlane reveals how the mystery of the world's highest places has come to grip the Western imagination - and perennially draws legions of adventurers up the most perilous slopes.
His story begins three centuries ago, when mountains were feared as the forbidding abodes of dragons and other mysterious beasts. In the mid-1700s the attentions of both science and poetry sparked a passion for mountains; Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Lord Byron extolled the sublime experiences to be had on high; and by 1924 the death on Mount Everest of an Englishman named George Mallory came to symbolize the heroic ideals of his day. Macfarlane also reflects on fear, risk, and the shattering beauty of ice and snow, the competition and contemplation of the climb, and the strange alternate reality of high altitude, magically enveloping us in the allure of mountains at every level.
©2003 Robert Macfarlane (P)2019 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Hailed as "the great nature writer of this generation" (Wall Street Journal), Robert Macfarlane is the celebrated author of books about the intersections of the human and the natural realms. In Underland, he delivers his masterpiece: an epic exploration of the Earth's underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself.
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Wonderful book, disappointing narrator
- By Clare Woods on 07-05-19
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Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Landmarks, a fascinating exploration of the relationship between language and landscapes by Robert Macfarlane, read by Roy McMillan. Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words. Landmarks is about the power of language to shape our sense of place.
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Buy the book
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The follow-up to the internationally best-selling sensation The Lost Words, The Lost Spells is an audio treasure that evokes the magic of the everyday natural world.
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A perfect pairing of prose and narrator
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In 2007, when a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary - widely used in schools around the world - was published, a sharp-eyed reader soon noticed that around 40 common words concerning nature had been dropped. Apparently they were no longer being used enough by children to merit their place in the dictionary. Ten years later, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris set out to make a “spell book” that will conjure back 20 of these lost words and the beings they name, from acorn to wren.
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Really beautiful!
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Overall
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Performance
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Hailed as "the great nature writer of this generation" (Wall Street Journal), Robert Macfarlane is the celebrated author of books about the intersections of the human and the natural realms. In Underland, he delivers his masterpiece: an epic exploration of the Earth's underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself.
-
-
Wonderful book, disappointing narrator
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Landmarks
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- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Landmarks, a fascinating exploration of the relationship between language and landscapes by Robert Macfarlane, read by Roy McMillan. Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words. Landmarks is about the power of language to shape our sense of place.
-
-
Buy the book
- By Kindle Customer on 08-08-17
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The Lost Spells
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- Narrated by: Julie Fowlis, Yrsa Daley-Ward, Johnny Flynn, and others
- Length: 40 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The follow-up to the internationally best-selling sensation The Lost Words, The Lost Spells is an audio treasure that evokes the magic of the everyday natural world.
-
-
Beautiful
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The Old Ways
- A Journey on Foot
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
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- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this exquisitely written book, Robert Macfarlane sets off from his Cambridge, England, home to follow the ancient tracks, holloways, drove roads, and sea paths that crisscross both the British landscape and its waters and territories beyond. The result is an immersive, enthralling exploration of the ghosts and voices that haunt old paths, of the stories our tracks keep and tell, and of pilgrimage and ritual. Told in Macfarlane’s distinctive voice, The Old Ways folds together natural history, cartography, geology, archaeology, and literature.
-
-
A perfect pairing of prose and narrator
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-
The Lost Words
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- Narrated by: Edith Bowman, Guy Garvey, Cerys Matthews, and others
- Length: 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2007, when a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary - widely used in schools around the world - was published, a sharp-eyed reader soon noticed that around 40 common words concerning nature had been dropped. Apparently they were no longer being used enough by children to merit their place in the dictionary. Ten years later, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris set out to make a “spell book” that will conjure back 20 of these lost words and the beings they name, from acorn to wren.
-
-
Really beautiful!
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By: Robert Macfarlane, and others
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Sherpas, The True Unsung Heroes
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Disappointed in the judgmental tone
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very long
- By Dana on 07-17-08
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Ghosts of K2
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At 28,251 feet, K2 might be almost 800 feet shorter than Everest, but it’s a far harder climb. It will kill you on the way up and the way down. Mick Conefrey guides us through the early story of the legendary mountain and the extraordinary attempts that led up to its first ascent in 1954 - these are tales of riveting drama and unimaginable tragedy.
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First Review? It was an "okay" book
- By Matthew on 10-20-15
By: Mick Conefrey
What listeners say about Mountains of the Mind
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Cherilyn Parsons
- 01-12-25
Magnificent!
Beautifully read and written. I have this classic book in print but it was also a pleasure to listen to.
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- Robert
- 10-02-24
Admirably British
The narration complemented perfectly the subject matter. One comes away feeling more intelligent, self reflective and connected to humanity.
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- karla arens
- 09-07-20
Pretentious Narrator
I’ve read this book and it is brilliant but the audible version’s pretentious narration I find off putting and does a disservice to the content. Sadly, I’m exchanging for something else
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6 people found this helpful