Reading in place

I often find that I forever associate books I read with the place in which I read them.

Reading Principles by Ray Dalio on a flight to Tel Aviv. Poor Economics on the Northern Line in rush hour. Thunderball on a beach in Devon. Reading Barbarian Days, a surfing autobiography, while on a surf trip in Portugal (sadly my own surfing didn’t do the book justice).

I have read a few books in lockdown, which I am sure will always remind me of this time. Two stand out as reminders of that other crisis we must not forget about – with this week’s CO2 readings the highest on record:

Drawdown lays out available solutions for global warming. The most uplifting thing I have read on the topic, full of the things we can do to reverse the buildup of atmospheric carbon.

Let my people go surfing, about the life of Yvon Chouinard, and the philosophy of the environmentally-minded business he built (Patagonia).

Both highly recommended, if you’re looking for something to read in isolation, or anywhere else.