The Walking Library takes a library for a walk to experience books in places and places through books.
The Walking Library for a Wild City features a range of books which people have suggested would be good guides to the exploration of nature in an urban setting, or which will help us reflect on what wild means in a city context. The library is a way to discover what a wild city is and imagine what it may become.
The books that people suggested range from those which help us see what’s sometimes overlooked – for example, the variety of wild things growing in vacant lots – to ‘field-notes’ for a modern city; from dystopian apocalyptic fiction – where nature makes a comeback – to helpful guides to urban foraging; from stories about weeds and the lives of urban trees, to studies of the evocative edgelands between spaces.
We invite you to join our walking library, and help carry our books by foot, sharing texts and looking for the wildness that thrives beneath our feet and in our local backyards. As we walk and read together we will re-map the dear green city of Glasgow – the green howe – and rediscover the significance of old names – Sauchiehall Street, willowhaugh; Kelvin, the reedy river – as well as inventing new ones.
Our first Walking Library for a Wild City is a walk to arcadia: a biblioblitz
As this walk is part of the RSPB’s Glasgow Wildlife Garden Festival, we thought we’d borrow and adapt the RSPB’s popular observing and recording activity, the BioBlitz. A BioBlitz involves identifying all living things in an area within a set period of time. For our walk to arcadia, we are bringing together the bio with the biblio in a biblioblitz. Carrying recommended books with us as we walk from the Barras to arcadia, we will use them to help us ‘rewild’ our city, seeing anew the nature and wildness all around us, from the weeds in the pavements to the nests in the trees.
Join us at the Glasgow Collective to select a book from our library and walk with us through the Barras and Glasgow Green to Arcadia, sharing sites and texts as we wander together. We’ll note what we see on our journey and remap the city as we walk it. Maybe you’ll choose to carry The Public Life of the Street Pigeon and count all the pigeons en route? Or perhaps you’ll walk with Lily Takes a Walk and look out for lurking wild beasts? Or might The Dear Green Place call out to you, reminding you of all that is to be loved and cared for in this city. Our library of books suits all tastes, from the young to the old and the urban adventurer to the horticulturalist.
The walk itself will last about 90 minutes and will keep to pavements and paths. Our pace will be meandering. We welcome all ages, though children must be accompanied by an adult.
a walk to arcadia: a biblioblitz, from the Barras
Sunday 13th May, 11:30am - 1:30pm
Start: Glasgow Collective, 13-27 East Campbell St, G1 5DT
End: Glasgow Collective
Free event, but booking is recommended. Book your place via Eventbrite here.
More information on the Walking Library Walks for wild city | fiadh-bhaile can be found here.
