Underland
by Robert MacFarlane The college course than had the greatest and most lasting impact on me was Geology. It was about the earth, history, nature, time, rocks, artifacts, speculation, stories, and exploration. In other words, it was a lot like reading! When a friend lent me this volume, and I read the cover blurbs, it immediately intrigued me. But after the first chapter I realized that this was going to be, if it wasn't already, one of the best non-fiction works I'd ever read. The book essentially follows the writer's investigation of the world beneath the land, the "underland:" the hidden places of earth, natural and man made, the secrets these spaces hold, and the questions they pose. While much of the book is fact and investigation and discovery, some of it is pure poetry. And early in the book passages like these were a clear indication that whatever type of reader you might be, or prose you might prefer, you were probably going to be more than satisfied wit...
