But instead of restaurants and tourist locales, we find only a preying hole, levitation, immolation, holes swallowing silence, the directions of birds, movement as travel. Island to island.

    Today, the convergence of global networks, online databases, and new tools for mobile mapping coincides with a resurgence of interest in walking as an art form. In Walking and Mapping, Karen O'Rourke explores a series of walking/mapping projects by contemporary artists. She offers close readings of these projects--many of which she was able to experience firsthand--and situates them in relation to landmark works from the past half-century. Together, they form a new entity, a dynamic whole greater than the sum of its parts. By alternating close study of selected projects with a broader view of their place in a bigger picture, Walking and Mapping itself maps a complex phenomenon.

    He kept careful records and discovered that no matter where he was or what the terrain was like, he always averaged two miles an hour! Follow him as he begins his adventure on the Appalachian Trail hiking alone through Connecticut and Massachusetts to Vermont. Next he walks 190 miles across England on the famous Coast-To-Coast trail: from St. Bees on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood Bay on the North Sea. This is followed by an even longer walk from one side of Ireland to the other, from Wicklow to the Cliffs of Moher, and through the village where his grandmother was born and raised. A friend joins him on his fourth walk: the West Highland Way in Scotland, 110 miles of breathtaking scenery and wacky adventures as they hike from Glasgow north to Fort William. Finally, during the week of his 70th birthday, walk with him as he hikes the scenic Pembrokeshire Coastal Path in Wales. Along the way, relax with him as he enjoys a pint or two in an eclectic collection of pubs, country inns and hostels chatting with colorful locals. Five walks and a thousand episodes of humorous, heart warming and just plain fun.