Reviews: 2 books of weather based journeys

Two books of a similar style or theme, where the authors travel around the world in hunt of certain styles of weather: Snow and Wind.

The Snow Tourist by Charlie English

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, a travel book with a theme of snow! I love snow! I don’t ski/snowboard but love walking in snow and how the world looks covered in snow. This book will however lead you through one man’s obsession to find and experience different types of snow and snow experiences. As well as descriptions of the beautiful and solitude that you can almost visualise, he also covers the dangers of things such as avalanches and not-so-solid snow-ground. It’s a beautifully written journey with interesting characters and facts.

Where the Wild Winds Are: Walking Europe’s Winds from the Pennines to Provence by Nick Hunt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book through the Goodreads Giveaway program. As an overview the book is split into 4 (IIRC) winds, that the author follows or tries to find, with mixed success. It reminded me very much of a book I read last year – The Snow Tourist by Charlie English. Although it took me slightly longer to get into reading that the Snow Tourist, I’m not sure if its because the wind stories weren’t as initially exiting or whether I just find snow more exciting? I think the fact that this was a hardback as well meant I found it phsycially less easy to read given that I generally read in the bath/bed lying down and thats just not comfy with a hardback.
But before I digress too much. the story starts on Cross Fell in the North West of England and eventually travels across Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, as well as Switzerland, Austria and Germany.
For me, the story much like the winds start to pick up once the author leaves the UK in search of the Bora and the stories of his encounters with various locals on his travels. I think this is definitely more of wind book with a theme of travel, than a travel book with the theme of wind if that makes sense. I enjoyed it once it got past the slow start.