A Field Guide to Getting Lost

By: Rebecca Solnit

Narrated by: Rebecca Solnit

Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

Whether she is contemplating the history of walking as a cultural and political experience over the past 200 years (Wanderlust), or using the life of photographer Eadweard Muybridge as a lens to discuss the transformations of space and time in late 19th-century America (River of Shadows), Rebecca Solnit has emerged as an inventive and original writer whose mind is daring in the connections it makes. A Field Guide to Getting Lost draws on emblematic moments and relationships in Solnit's own life to explore issues of wandering, being lost, and the uses of the unknown. The result is a distinctive, stimulating, and poignant voyage of discovery.

©2005 Rebecca Solnit (P)2014 Audible Inc.

meditation on the 'other' side of life

So much of American culture is focused on 'doing' on 'success' on 'accomplishment' on 'finding our place', stroking our ego, 'making things happen'. All of which can be exhausting, frustrating, futile or ego deflating as much as it is motivation to make our lives better. This is a very refreshing and often passionate look at the other side. The benefits and pleasures, the meaning and value of letting go, of letting things happen, of wandering off, or getting lost. There are surprises, insights, relief and challenges in those processes also. This book offers us new ways of thinking, feeling and understanding our lives. In all our lives, I presume, there are in mine, times I see as failure, as cop out, as less than I could have, should have been. This perspective gives me a way to reframe some of those experiences for my own benefit, to see their value, to forgive myself, to breathe deeper. Besides that it is very well written and a pleasure to listen to.

poor narration

I listen to audiobooks as I work, so it's very helpful if the narrator has some energy and inflections in the reading. For this book though, I possibly couldn't understand what the narrator was saying because of her monotonous voice. I couldn't finish the book.

Made me sleepy

I love Rebecca Solnit's writing, and I especially love when the audio book is narrated by the author them self. The only critic I have is Solnit's voice is so soft my mind would drift from the story and wander, making me a bit sleepy.

Why did they let her read this?

The author's lilting, soft voice took away from her authority. I would find myself daydreaming and at the end, struggled with why she wrote the last chapter. I am returning the audiobook to purchase a hardcopy. Her thoughts are gorgeous and insightful but it is all lost here.

Gen X XY will <3

I saw the TL in SF in the 90s, I saw cliffs of Route 1 at every stage of life, I saw cathedrals in Europe, and graves of my family, and everyone’s ancestors, like dancers at a lifelong festival, wandering gypsies. Free. Thank you Rebecca. You gave me a beautiful retreat and restored parts of my heart with the creativity of your love and Devotion. This book was a gift to my soul.

My only complaint, soft spoken reader.

She spoke so softly it was hard to hear clearly what she was saying without turning the volume all the way up.

Such high hopes, dashed!

I had really high hopes for this book. I thought it was very poetic until I realized it wasn’t good enough to be poetry and lyric, but the prose wasn’t good either. I thought her voice was great until it started to grate on me and then she started fumbling with her own words and then the cuts got sloppier and sloppier. I couldn’t even finish it...

Awful, the author is not fit to narrate audiobooks

The author's voice completely ruined it for me, I couldn't even finish the first chapter. The voice is so slow and sleepy and lacking any emphasis anywhere, that I just couldn't bear it. I was really excited about the book and its topic and I'm sure the print version would be very interesting to read. The audioversion read by the author is horrible.

Not a Field Guide to Anything but Rambling

I learned absolutely nothing from this audiobook, sadly. I can't recommend you waste your time reading.

needs a more compelling reader...

... To express in articulate Ms Solnit's compelling prose. I found myself drifting even when I was deliberately trying to pay attention. The good news is that I've bought the book and it is definitely worth reading!

Fantastic writer, not a great reader.

I wanted to like this, but found the reading very hard to follow. Solnit often pauses halfway through a sentence at an unnatural point, in a way that makes it a challenge to correctly parse. This is a flaw when each sentence is so heavy with meaning.
I was somewhat heartened to read other reviews, which similarly say the reading is difficult to follow. It’s not just me!

Hard copy preferable

Exceptional content by Rebecca Solnit. I would recommend reading a hard copy over listening to the audiobook as I found her reading voice very repetitive, her tenor rather tragic.

One of the greatest books ever written

Solnit's observations of human and non-human life are some of the deepest, truest, most nuanced and broadly informed, that I have ever come across in my 70 years, and her writing is breathtakingly beautiful. This exquisite book is only enhanced by her own reading. After listening to the first hour, I bought a hard copy to put away in a 'time capsule' of treasures I am collecting for my granddaughter for when she is older.

Great content ruined by the narration

Writing and performance are two different skills and it's very evident here. Her cadence and breathy meek voice are off putting. I gave up listening and read the physical version instead, which I would recommend doing, well written and engaging.

I prefer to read than to listen to Rebecca

It's one of those tricky and hard to find things: the ability to recognize when you are great at something and not so great at something else. I love Rebecca's writing and have all her books. This book is special for all the insights and reflexive journey it offers, but Rebecca didn't manage to narrate it well. Her voice sounds almost lifeless, and even the punctuation reading is off. I'd stick to the printed version or the e-book.

A mapping of the emotional worlds

Listening to this book is like mini meditations, on the histories, natural worlds and the sensations we receive from them. The arousal of geotainment. Highly recommend you treat each chapter as a gift of mindful richness.

Not really my thing

It was OK, not really my kind of thing. Not a fan of the narrator/writers voice , very monotone or some such. I struggled to focus on her voice. And you need to focus. Interesting stories through out, but if your focus slips for a second you're lost. (maybe that's deliberate given the topic of the book)

An interesting listen

I loved the narration, dreamlike & airy. The story was beautifully told.
I’m unsure what to think of the story, meandering from piece to piece.