Tracy Durnell (tracydurnell.com)Braiding Sweetgrass
by Robin Kimmerer
(non-fiction, philosophy)
Started July 2022
32% – stuck on a boring chapter
I came to it at a time when I was doing a lot of reading on Indigenous ways of knowing and the idea of orality. As a result, in addition to buying a physical copy, I got an audiobook version from the library. My first reading was actually a listening. There was something more intriguing, poetic, and authentic about hearing it. Listening also give more power to her voice as a storyteller. Once I’d finished, I revisited some of my favorite parts to re-read and make some notes.
The book also has some benefit in that while it is somewhat linear, the chapters could be read out of order or even skipped without destroying the whole.
I hope you ultimately find it as beautiful as I did.
Replied to https://boffosocko.com/2023/11/30/55820049/ by
Chris Aldrich (Boffo Socko)
Thank you for the suggestion Chris! From what I’ve read of it so far, it does seem like it would be suited well to reading aloud. I haven’t listened to an audiobook in probably twenty years — we used to do books on tape during family road trips as a teen, and I came to really dislike them I can still recall several particularly bad ones making the agonizing hours of driving feel even longer. But now that I get to choose my own book, maybe it’s time to give them another try Because I did enjoy some of what we listened to — I recall His Dark Materials having a full cast.
I finally made the time to read Kimmerer’s essay The Serviceberry on Thanksgiving, and I kept turning to my husband and going, “This essay is amazing.” So it seems like an appropriate time to pull Braiding Sweetgrass back off the shelf I got on the audiobook list at the library but it’s a 13 week wait so we’ll see there.