Bringing the Outdoors Indoors
Hello! How’s it going?
I’m Dan. I recently joined Luath Press as the Sales & Marketing co-ordinator about a month ago now. I know what you’re thinking and yes, it was a turbulent time to start a new job.
Staying safe means staying at home. It’s definitely been interesting figuring out various ways to keep ourselves occupied outside of work. I’m currently finding that staring wistfully out of the window takes up a good few hours...
What I’m trying to say is that I really miss the outdoors. I’m lucky enough to have some green areas in safe walking distance but when I say outdoors I’m referring to following:
Rambling through the heather and thorny thistles adoring a munro
Breathing in the salty sea air accompanied by the rolling tides
Stargazing and pretending to be able to spot the various constellations
Now, thankfully, I do have a solution to scratch that itch. We publish several wonderful nature and outdoors books that cover all of these and more. While not quite the real thing, they can provide the armchair travel that suits our current lifestyles and inspiration for your future travels.
Talk soon,
Dan
Stargazing is a hobby made somewhat difficult without access to the outdoors. In Oor Big Braw Cosmos, the heavens are revealed in a winning combo of accessible astronomy and space-inspired poetry. Featuring suns, stars, galaxies and the astronomers who found them this is the perfect book to sit back, relax and blast off with at home.
2. Riddoch on the Outer Hebrides by Lesley Riddoch
The Herald said that ‘Riddoch’s style nicely brings home the beauty of the islands and the charm of those who live there' and really we couldn’t put it better ourselves. Based on her cycle journey through the eponymous island chain this is an essential armchair travel book.
3. Skye Through an Artist’s Eye by Diana Mackie
Swiftly taking a more abstract approach here, we have Diana Mackie’s gorgeous paintings depicting the waterfalls, woodland, shorelines and moonscapes of Skye. Said to be a place where you can experience every season in one day Diana’s paintings evoke this turbulent beauty and will transport you instantly to the northwest coast.
4. Mountain Days & Bothy Nights by Dave Brown & Ian R. Mitchell
I’ve personally stayed in a bothy overnight only once but recently I’ve had the urge to do it again… Taking you into the bothies, howffs and dosses of Scotland this is a classic mountain lit book depicting the climbing scene in the ‘60s – sky-high counter-culture. A must-read for new stay-at-home mountaineers.
5. St Kilda: The Silent Islands by Alex Boyd
Shortlisted for the Saltire Society First Book Award in 2018, this stunning collection of images taken on a ‘battered medium format camera’ casts a new light on the famous island of St Kilda. Robert Macfarlane, the author of Underland, called the images ‘a major addition to the tradition of modern landscape photography’ and we have to agree.