Welcome back to Book Break!
Now you might not usually catch me surrounded by this much wildlife.
I'm more of an indoors kind of gal.
But I'm here today in the middle of the rainforest.
Just kidding, I'm actually here today at the Barbican Conservatory.
And I've been inspired to come here today and experience the great call of the wild,
because I've been reading quite a few books recently that are set in the great outdoors.
And I'm starting to think that maybe I should spend a bit more time surrounded by greenery
after all.
So first, I've been revisiting a classic from my childhood, The Jungle Book.
This here is the complete Jungle Book.
It's a collection of all the stories involved in The Jungle Book and the Second Jungle Book
which was published a year later.
There are so many characters and stories in here that didn't make it into the movie, so
it's so fun to go back and re-explore the original.
And then while I was in a Jungle Book mood, I also completely fell in love with Into the
Jungle.
This is for younger readers, but if you're a fan of The Jungle Book, it's so lovely and
nostalgic to go and read these.
This is a collection of origin stories for each of the most beloved characters in The
Jungle Book.
And it's got the most beautiful illustrations all the way through.
And while I'm talking about books set in the wild, I cannot ignore Walden by Henry David
Thoreau.
This is pretty much the great nature book.
It's a reflection of his time spent living in a cabin in the woods, and it's all about
self reliance, and humans as a part of nature.
The thought of living in a cabin in the woods, separated from my iPhone, fills me with a
strong sense of dread, which is probably a sign that I really need to try this out.
And now, get ready for one of the most beautiful book covers you have ever seen in your life.
This is Wilding by Isabella Tree.
Wilding is the story of the farm run by Isabella and her husband Charlie, and what happened
when they decided to step back and let nature take over.
Their land is now home to extremely rare species like turtle doves, and purple emperor butterflies.
It's this bustling ecosystem, and it's a really amazing story of the magic of nature.
What happens when you let nature take the lead?
And now for something a little bit different, a poetry collection.
Black Nature is the first collection to focus specifically on nature poems by African American
authors.
And it's all about reclaiming a genre that Black poets have for a very long time been
left out of.
African American poets have been writing about nature for over four centuries, but these
poems are always interpreted as protest poetry, or political poetry, and therefore they're
left out of what the definition of nature poetry is.
So this book, edited by Camille Dungy, is all about changing that.
Now enough about humans, let's get onto the dogs.
The Call of the Wild is all about a dog called Buck who is kidnapped and then sold as a sled
dog in Alaska.
And how he becomes wilder and wilder.
And I've got it paired here in this lovely edition along with White Fang, which is also
about a wild dog.
Jack London's got a really good theme going on here.
Now, before Frozen ever even existed, my childhood Elsa was the lion from Born Free.
This book by Joy Adamson is the true story of how she rescued a lion cub called Elsa,
and raised it in her home, and then realised that as a wild animal, Elsa needed to be returned
to the wild.
And so she set her free!
And it was a movie, and it was so good, and the theme tune was so beautiful.
And I'm just completely in love with this edition here with the cute little lion nose
on the cover.
Now if you're looking for a book about the healing powers of nature, I recommend Ceremony
by Leslie Marmon Silko.
Ceremony is a novel about Tayo, a Native American veteran who is suffering from trauma after
being held as a prisoner of war.
And when he returns to the Laguna-Pueblo reservation where he grew up, he initially just feels
even more isolated from everyone around him.
But when he starts exploring the ancient Laguna rituals, which involve going out and reconnecting
with nature, this helps bring him closer to nature and to his surroundings, and also to
the people around him.
And then of course, there's Robinson Crusoe, the story of a sailor marooned on a desert
island for nearly three decades.
This novel is almost three hundred years old, and some people consider it to be the first
ever novel.
That massively depends on your definition of novel, but I think we can all agree it's
one of the most exciting.
There have been so many books and movies and TV shows all based on this premise of being
stuck on a desert island.
Well Robinson Crusoe did it first.
And finally, I can't talk about heading into the wild without talking about Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer.
It's the true story of young college graduate Christopher McCandless, who gave away his
college fund, cut off all communications with his family, and headed out in the wild.
Two years later, he was found dead in an abandoned bus in Alaska, and in this book, Jon Krakauer
traces everything that happened in between.
So give this video a thumbs up if I mentioned your favourite book set in nature, and do
please leave me a comment letting me know your favourite book set in the great outdoors.
And of course, do subscribe to this channel, because we post new videos every Thursday.
And can I recommend that you pay a visit to the Barbican conservatory?
It is absolutely amazing here, it feels like I've stepped into a real jungle.
See you next time.