On paying attention
And a short book: On The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd
“The thing to be known grows with the knowing.”
― Nan Shepard
Dear Reader,
I’ve been on a tour in Canada to support my new book, How to Survive a Bear Attack.
Doing a tour requires a shift. I change from an introverted writer who is alone at a desk to an extroverted speaker who is in public on a stage.
I enjoy touring. I appreciate meeting people who love books as much as I do. It’s important to get out from behind my desk. On stage or on the radio, I find myself repeating stories — the ones that best describe a moment I’m trying to capture.
By this point, I’ve told my favourite bear story on several evenings (about finding a young bear eating a box of apples). I wonder, in telling it time-after-time, how do I keep this story fresh?
A few weeks ago, I had an afternoon off. I was in Huntsville, Ontario, and would have loved to go exploring, but I was exhausted. I stayed in what seemed like a nondescript hotel room and read a short book by Nan Shepard called The Living Mountain.
First published in 1977, this book is close to plotless: A woman walks around the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland and notices things. The brief chapters are organized by the elements, like Water, Frost and Snow, Air and Light.
It falls perfectly within my ideal length for a short book, 125 pages. (My love of short books is no secret). Reading this book, I stayed still, perched on a foamy hotel pillow, while my mind traveled. I went to a completely different time in an entirely different place—a world of mountain light, of colour, of shape, of shadow.
The Living Mountain has been called, “The finest book ever written on nature.” Maybe? It’s absolutely brilliant.
Shepherd has traveled through these mountains for years. For another person, this could be the opposite of exploring. For her, it’s all about discovery.
The book starts: “Summer on the high plateau can be delectable as honey; it can be also a roaring scourge. To those who love the place, both are good, since both are part of its essential nature. And it is to know its essential nature that I am seeking here.”
Can you look at something that’s familiar in a new way? This is what the author captures in this book, both in the landscape and her writing. The trick is to pay attention. If you decide to look closely, and with interest, nothing will be the same.
“However often I walk on them, these hills hold astonishment for me. There is no getting accustomed to them.”
I’ve been thinking about Shepherd’s book every time I’m on stage. The secret to keeping a story fresh lies in the detail, the mountains in Scotland, a story about a young bear, a foamy pillow in a hotel room in Huntsville. If I decide to pay close attention, everything and anything can hold my interest.
As Shepherd writes, “The thing to be known grows with the knowing.”
Yours in books,
Claire
P.S.
My book, How to Survive a Bear Attack, will be out in the U.S. in print September 2025. To readers in the U.S., you can pre-order from your favorite bookstore or put in a request at your library. Thank you in advance!
If you want to hear more about How to Survive a Bear Attack, I suggest this interview with Matt Galloway on the CBC.
An article I read and loved this month, Taffy Brodesser-Akner on the Holocaust story she said she would never write [Gift link].
Have you watched “The Pitt”? It’s a hospital drama, one shift, 12 hours of life in an emergency room. It’s overly-dramatic and often unrealistic and delivered as realism with a straight face, which is what I loved about it. Also, one of my favourite podcasts of late is The New Yorker’s Critic’s At Large — they discussed How “The Pitt” Diagnoses America’s Ills.
I highly recommend Conclave, the film based on the novel by Robert Harris. It makes Pope picking that much more fun.
If the writer Eva Holland loves North Of North, a show billed as a heart-warming arctic comedy, then I will too. Next on my list to watch.
This is Books I Love, a monthly letter. It’s about books I love. I’m a Canadian author, Claire Cameron. Thank you for reading!
Have you read “Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women” by Annabel Abbs? Nan Shepherd is included in it and overall it’s a really good book.
My copy of How to Survive a Bear Attack arrived this week. I’m excited to read it!