the Prism of a Book Mike Wall Wellington Square Bookshop
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DO SOME ARMCHAIR TRAVELING THIS SUMMER. HE “WHAT IF” OF EVERY LIFE IS WHO WOULD I BE
if I’d lived somewhere else? We are who we’ve become because of where we live—we make friends, take jobs, create personal maps and short-cuts. We grow settled in this landscape through the stories that have grown up there. Yet many of us yearn for adventures, so we dream of another life through the prism of a book and say, “What if, yes, why not, what if ….” These half dozen books—best sellers, Sierra Club picks, Pulitzer Prize winners—will take you on trails, though the landscape, and on journeys to the South Seas, 50 islands, the early 19th-century American West and Tinker Creek, Virginia, all from the comfort of your home.
IN THE SOUTH SEAS by Robert Louis Stevenson In 1888, his health troubled and believing himself to be played out as a writer, Stevenson—known for Treasure Island, Kidnapped and many more—traveled to the South Seas hoping for renewal. He dreamed of a spot where he could “learn to address readers from the uttermost parts of the sea.” In Samoa, he observed everything, opened himself to others and listened to their stories. He met a man marooned by a whaler, cheerful chiefs, deposed chiefs, men of “weight and fame,” and dignified cannibals. Stevenson became happy and died at age 44. CountyLinesMagazine.com | June 2018 | County Lines
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