Shane O'Mara

This book is excellent. We have all been told to walk. When I was in school, we walked all the time. And, when I was in day school, we walked to the bus stop, which was 30 minutes away from home. Now, we demand the bus comes to our doorstep. In doing so, we create a generation of couch potatoes.

Doctors recommend we walk and build it into our lifestyle.

Shane O'Mara has done us a favor in writing this book. He starts with the science of walking and its health benefits. He covers some great ground historically and talks about the social, creative, and urban planning aspects of walking.

There is much to recommend this book, and I hope it converts us all into a generation of walkers.… (meer)

This book explains the science of walking, starting with the development of bipedalism in the evolutionary chain. It covers such topics as the brain’s sense of space, the combination of nerves and muscles that dictate forward motion, balance, and much more. There are plenty of references to walking in literature and tips for designing walker-friendly cities. There are lots of references to measurements, calculations, and research results. It is informative but a bit dry.

As a regular walker, I was expecting it to cover a little more about the health benefits and diversions provided by walking. While these topics are covered, they are not conveyed in a particularly engaging manner. Citing statistics and survey results only goes so far. On the plus side, I learned quite a bit.

“Walking enhances every aspect of our social, psychological, and neural functioning. It is the simple, life-enhancing, health-building prescription we all need, one that we should take in regular doses, large and small, at a good pace, day-in, day-out in nature and in our towns and cities. We need to make walking a natural, habitual part of our everyday lives.” … (meer)

I had high expectations of this book which, unfortunately, were unfulfilled.

I wasn’t able to finish it, partly due to having to return it to the library before I had got through it, partly because what I did manage to read was so boring, one long chapter on HOW we walk being practically, or should I say totally, incomprehensible, to me at any rate.

There were promising chapters, to judge from their titles, - “Walking the City”, “Creative Walking” and “Social Walking”. I should probably have skipped trying to get through the “how we walk” chapter to get to these other chapters, but I’m not good at skipping. Potential readers are hereby forewarned so they don’t make the same mistake as I did.

As it is, sadly, I can’t recommend the book.… (meer)