Comments on: Alone again, naturally

Question: Alone again, naturally

b33j — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:52:39 -0800

Book recommendations please: fiction and non-fiction [including (auto)biographies] of people who lived alone, and their experiences and thoughts about it.

Not so much cool warrior/spy/athletic/mountain conquering superhuman dude/tte who just happens to be alone as s/he conquers the universe, but (ordinary-ish, probably geographically stationary) people who found it a challenge (even lonely), and reflected it on it.

Bonus points for ascetic lifestyles, including monks/nuns but without too much god stuff (as I can't relate to that).

Thank you.

By: pont

pont — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:08:54 -0800

An Island to Oneself by Tom Neale probably fits your bill quite nicely. Wikipedia calls him a "survival enthusiast" but that's not the impression I had from reading the book. He didn't come across as someone who wanted an "extreme" lifestyle -- just someone who wanted to live alone on a desert island, and wasn't afraid of the sacrifices and hard graft required to fulfil that dream. The book appears to be in print and available on Amazon, but there's also an edition available free online.

By: Fichereader

Fichereader — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:14:36 -0800

May Sarton's Journal of a Solitude. I read it decades ago, and I was quite moved by it. (This makes me want to pick it up again.)

By: b33j

b33j — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:14:44 -0800

(kinda looking for reverse of survivalist type people - home bodies who live alone and not from choice but it looks like an interesting read).

By: backwards guitar

backwards guitar — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:35:32 -0800

Walden.

By: bukvich

bukvich — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:53:43 -0800

Walden. Deals with many of the issues and also is a literary classic very fun to read.

By: bricoleur

bricoleur — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 21:17:45 -0800

A Very Small Farm

My Side of the Mountain

Not a book, unfortunately, but maybe worth your while: Alone in the Wilderness

By: The corpse in the library

The corpse in the library — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 21:59:09 -0800

Florence King is a loner and a misanthrope, to the point that she considered taking the passenger seat out of her car so she wouldn't be expected to give people rides. She's a great, very funny writer (and yes, very conservative, but I love her writing even though we disagree on so many things).

By: rhizome

rhizome — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 22:53:35 -0800

I like "Razor's Edge" for this

By: unliteral

unliteral — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 23:45:50 -0800

Cave in the Snow - This is the incredible story of Tenzin Palmo, a remarkable woman who spent 12 years alone in a cave 13,000 feet up in the Himalayas.

By: unliteral

unliteral — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 23:52:01 -0800

Walking Home - Lynn Schooler had recently lost a dear friend and was feeling his marriage slipping away from him when he set out on a daring journey-first by boat, then on foot-into the Alaskan wilderness to clear his head.

By: humboldt32

humboldt32 — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 00:59:10 -0800

Island in the Sound

By: peacrow

peacrow — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 03:10:57 -0800

Just a short essay, but Thomas Merton's "Rain and the Rhinoceros". (It's not heavily religious.)

By: silence down below

silence down below — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 03:56:25 -0800

Alone by Richard E. Byrd.

By: Neeuq Nus

Neeuq Nus — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 04:51:38 -0800

Party Of One and Solitude: A Return to the Self

By: josyphine

josyphine — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 05:18:08 -0800

Another essay, rather than a book: "A is for Dining Alone" by M.F.K. Fisher

By: mr. digits

mr. digits — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 05:52:17 -0800

You could track down Hubert Selby Jr.'s novel 'The Room', but that runs more to the "I'm an aberrant criminal doing solitary" type of stream-of-consciousness, as memory serves. I last read it in 1998 or so.

By: paduasoy

paduasoy — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 06:06:20 -0800

Sara Maitland, A Book of Silence.

Emily White, Lonely: Learning to live with solitude.

By: theora55

theora55 — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:12:22 -0800

A Room of One's Own, V Woolf

By: mskyle

mskyle — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:07:41 -0800

OK, this is sort of a self-help book from the 1930s. Wait! Wait! Don't run screaming yet! It's also full of sometimes goofy, sometimes charming, sometimes charmingly goofy anecdotes about women living alone. It's weirdly inspiring, and although some of the advice (one should, apparently, own at least four bedjackets) is outdated or possibly just bizarre to begin with, the fundamental message of the book is pretty timeless. And it has adorable illustrations.

Live Alone and Like It, by Marjorie Hillis.

By: Sidhedevil

Sidhedevil — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:08:52 -0800

An Unknown Woman, by Alice Koller, and The Outermost House by Henry Beston are considered classics of the solitude memoir.

Doris Grumbach's Fifty Days of Solitude is pretty amazing. I liked a lot of things about Leslie Marmon Silko's The Turquoise Ledge.

By: b33j

b33j — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 01:20:44 -0800

In this theme, I accidentally came across Drinking the Rain by Alix Kates Shulman and it's absolutely charming and soothing. I recommend it thoroughly.