{"product_id":"to-breathe-with-birds-a-book-of-landscapes-hardback-9780812246810","title":"To Breathe with Birds; A Book of Landscapes (Hardback) 9780812246810","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eTo Breathe with Birds\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eA Book of Landscapes\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eVáclav Cílek (Author), Morna Livingston (Photographs by), Evan W. Mellander (Translated by), Laurie Olin (Contributions by)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812246810\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 24 April 2015\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e192 pages, 24 illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.666 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"In reading these essays, I feel as if I have had the privilege of taking a very long walk through a landscape of towns, villages, and open countryside with an old friend. What is home to the author has in a sense become a second home to me through his vivid personal descriptions and recollections. This is a book for anyone who relishes the discovery of new places in the context of their historical evolution into a modern world that requires serious attention to ecological balance and sustainability.\" (Paula Deitz, author of the book \u003ci\u003eOf Gardens: Selected Essays\u003c\/i\u003e) \"This is a remarkable book, one that rescues a fragment of the world and offers us perception and knowledge of a very particular place, a cultural landscape of deep meaning, beauty, and value.\" (Laurie Olin, from the Foreword)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eJust as there is love at first sight between people, VÁclav CÍlek writes, there can be love at first sight between a person and a place. A landscape is more than a location, it is one party in a relationship-even when the spirit of a certain setting is not perceptible to those who visit. But whether we travel to experience rapture or excitement, to discover truth and beauty, or to be dazzled, we search for the essence of faraway landscapes to gain perspective on our own place within the world. \u003ci\u003eTo Breathe with Birds\u003c\/i\u003e delves into the imaginative and emotional bonds we form with landscapes and how human existence-a recent development, geologically speaking-shapes and is shaped by a sense of place.\u003cbr\u003e In subtle and lyrical prose, renowned geologist and author VÁclav CÍlek explores topics from the history of asphalt to the spirits we imagine in trees, from geodiversity to the mathematics of snowflakes. Weaving earth science and environmentalism together with memoir and myth, his chapters visit resonant locations from India to Massachusetts, though most are deeply rooted in the river-laced, war-scarred landscape of CÍlek's Czech homeland. These reflections are accompanied by Morna Livingston's evocative photographs, which capture the beauty and strangeness of natural and human-made forms. The first book-length appearance of CÍlek's work in English translation, \u003ci\u003eTo Breathe with Birds\u003c\/i\u003e offers insightful perspectives on the symbolism of landscapes as we struggle to conserve and protect the depleted earth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eForeword, by Laurie Olin\u003cbr\u003e Preface: Gathering Strength and Drinking Dawn in the Landscape of Home\u003cbr\u003e 1. Geodiversity and Changes in the Bohemian Landscape\u003cbr\u003e 2. A Tree as a Family Member\u003cbr\u003e 3. A Revolution of Surface: Successful as Asphalt\u003cbr\u003e 4. Journey to Uničov or About the Gap Between the Birds\u003cbr\u003e 5. Walking Through a Landscape\u003cbr\u003e 6. Tranquillity at the Fundaments of the World\u003cbr\u003e 7. The Masked Moose and Other Stories\u003cbr\u003e 8. Dreaming About Vigilance: A Nut from Nine Undersea Hazel Trees\u003cbr\u003e 9. Journey to India: In Benares One Comes to Understand That One Was Born in Libeň\u003cbr\u003e 10. The Breath of Bones and Places\u003cbr\u003e 11. The Standard Central Bohemian Vision\u003cbr\u003e 12. Places from the Other Side\u003cbr\u003e 13. On Landscape Memory and the Stone of St. Ivan at BytÍz near PřÍbram\u003cbr\u003e 14. The Man Who Used to Write in a Forsaken Landscape\u003cbr\u003e 15. The Six-Cornered Snowflake\u003cbr\u003e 16. Bees of the Invisible\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52670838047000,"sku":"9780812246810","price":25.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/to-breathe-with-birds-a-book-of-landscapes-hardback-9780812246810","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}