Favorite Book(s) Featuring Hermits
June 16, 2022 9:32 AM Subscribe
As the title suggests I am looking for any and all book recommendations about embracing the her lifestyle. Life is growing increasingly expensive and emotionally draining and while I can't go run off to live in the forest in a cozy cottage all by myself, I suspect that I would find some solace in reading about other people who can. Thank you kindly.
A writer, albeit with her husband and child? We Took to the Woods (1942) by Louise Dickinson Rich is a classic.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:52 AM on June 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:52 AM on June 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
There's a children's book called Mandy (written by Julie Andrews!) that I love love loved as a kid.
Mandy is an orphan and lives in an orphanage surrounded by other kids all the time, and all she wants to do is have some quiet time to herself. She stumbles upon an abandoned cottage in the woods one day while snuck out on a walk, and then makes it her mission to fix up the little secret cottage for herself.
She got herself a little cup and a plate, and bought soap flakes with extra money she earned sweeping up for a shopkeeper in town, and there's a lovely little part where she just revels in the quiet simplicity and dignity of fixing a nice little snack just for herself and washing up her own dishes after that resonated so strongly for me as a kid. It wasn't til I went back and read it as an adult that I realized oh man I was a deeply overwhelmed introvert when I was little and had no way to cope with that.
Anyway, it's nice. I think it may hit the spot for you right now.
posted by phunniemee at 9:53 AM on June 16, 2022 [6 favorites]
Mandy is an orphan and lives in an orphanage surrounded by other kids all the time, and all she wants to do is have some quiet time to herself. She stumbles upon an abandoned cottage in the woods one day while snuck out on a walk, and then makes it her mission to fix up the little secret cottage for herself.
She got herself a little cup and a plate, and bought soap flakes with extra money she earned sweeping up for a shopkeeper in town, and there's a lovely little part where she just revels in the quiet simplicity and dignity of fixing a nice little snack just for herself and washing up her own dishes after that resonated so strongly for me as a kid. It wasn't til I went back and read it as an adult that I realized oh man I was a deeply overwhelmed introvert when I was little and had no way to cope with that.
Anyway, it's nice. I think it may hit the spot for you right now.
posted by phunniemee at 9:53 AM on June 16, 2022 [6 favorites]
Here's another one about someone intending to be a hermit: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. It's about a monk travelling to a hermitage that ends up meeting a sentient robot.
posted by amarynth at 9:55 AM on June 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by amarynth at 9:55 AM on June 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
Godric by Frederick Buechner is told from the POV of an hermetic monk in 12th-century England, and is one of the most wonderful pieces of writing I have ever read. No joke.
It boasts what I consider to be the greatest opening sentence to any novel, ever ("best of times worst of times" can go pound sand): "Five friends I had, and two of them snakes."
Perfection.
posted by Dorinda at 9:59 AM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
It boasts what I consider to be the greatest opening sentence to any novel, ever ("best of times worst of times" can go pound sand): "Five friends I had, and two of them snakes."
Perfection.
posted by Dorinda at 9:59 AM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Ones that come to mind to me are Woodswoman, and the classic children's book My Side of the Mountain.
posted by gudrun at 10:00 AM on June 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by gudrun at 10:00 AM on June 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits
posted by derrinyet at 10:09 AM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by derrinyet at 10:09 AM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Matrix by Lauren Groff scratched this itch for me recently, if living in a small community fits what you are seeking.
Lots of YA classics are also good bets:
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Gary Paulson's Hatchet series
posted by veery at 10:29 AM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Lots of YA classics are also good bets:
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Gary Paulson's Hatchet series
posted by veery at 10:29 AM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Dewdrops on a lotus leaf: The Zen poems of Ryokan
It's a book of poetry yes but if you find that intimidating like I would, the poems are light, friendly, and accessible, and feel like letters from your friend in the woods, and how he's doing (which, many of them are actually just letters to his friends, from the woods)
posted by bleep at 11:22 AM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
It's a book of poetry yes but if you find that intimidating like I would, the poems are light, friendly, and accessible, and feel like letters from your friend in the woods, and how he's doing (which, many of them are actually just letters to his friends, from the woods)
posted by bleep at 11:22 AM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
(Representative passage:
"I live by a creek, Tinker Creek, in a valley in Virginia's Blue Ridge. An anchorite's hermitage is called an anchor-hold; some anchor-holds were simple sheds clamped to the side of a church like a barnacle or a rock. I think of this house clamped to the side of Tinker Creek as an anchor-hold. It holds me at anchor to the rock bottom of the creek itself and keeps me steadied in the current, as a sea anchor does, facing the stream of light pouring down. It's a good place to live; there's a lot to think about.")
posted by missrachael at 11:53 AM on June 16, 2022
"I live by a creek, Tinker Creek, in a valley in Virginia's Blue Ridge. An anchorite's hermitage is called an anchor-hold; some anchor-holds were simple sheds clamped to the side of a church like a barnacle or a rock. I think of this house clamped to the side of Tinker Creek as an anchor-hold. It holds me at anchor to the rock bottom of the creek itself and keeps me steadied in the current, as a sea anchor does, facing the stream of light pouring down. It's a good place to live; there's a lot to think about.")
posted by missrachael at 11:53 AM on June 16, 2022
A translation of Kamo no Chōmei's brief 13th C. text Hōjōki (An Account of My Hut / My Ten-Foot Hut) is available online, and it's great.
posted by Wobbuffet at 1:42 PM on June 16, 2022
posted by Wobbuffet at 1:42 PM on June 16, 2022
Four Seasons North is a memoir about a couple who live in the Alaskan wilderness. It's beautifully written and doesn't downplay the difficulties, while it celebrates the joys and beauty.
posted by Kangaroo at 3:27 PM on June 16, 2022
posted by Kangaroo at 3:27 PM on June 16, 2022
Hermits: The Insights of Solitude by Peter France
The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the North Pond Hermit by Michael Finkel
posted by jessamyn at 6:00 PM on June 16, 2022
The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the North Pond Hermit by Michael Finkel
posted by jessamyn at 6:00 PM on June 16, 2022
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So yeah, it goes "nuclear family" by the end, but I read it as a child and remember a definite cozy, homey hobbity feel still.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:43 AM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]