Editions

In Praise of Walking

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9781784707576

  • Length: 224  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 159g

  • RRP: £8.99

In Praise of Walking

  • The new science of how we walk and why it’s good for us

'Informative and persuasive enough to rouse the most ardent couch pototo' New Scientist


Walking upright on two feet is a uniquely human skill. It defines us as a species.

It enabled us to walk out of Africa and to spread as far as Alaska and Australia. It freed our hands and freed our minds. We put one foot in front of the other without thinking – yet how many of us know how we do that, or appreciate the advantages it gives us? In this hymn to walking, neuroscientist Shane O’Mara invites us to marvel at the benefits it confers on our bodies and minds, and urges us to appreciate – and exercise – our miraculous ability.

SUNDAY INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE WEEK

AGreatRead and ArgosyBooks BOOK OF THE MONTH

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9781784707576

  • Length: 224  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 159g

  • RRP: £8.99

Reviews

  • Fascinating ... O’Mara argues [walking] is intimately connected to our bodies, our brains, and ultimately how we exist as a species

    The Times

  • In Praise of Walking is both informative and persuasive enough to rouse the most ardent couch potato – perhaps saving humanity before our lifestyle consumes our brains completely

    Jonathon Keats, New Scientist

  • Convincing and compelling ... In Praise of Walking is peppered with insights about everything from 19th-century poets and flâneurs to modern-day experiments with subjects playing video games in fMRI scanners

    Sunday Times

  • Walking makes us healthier, happier and brainier ... [O'Mara] knows this not only through personal experience, but from cold, hard data

    Observer

  • Full of insights… an accessible and thought-provoking discussion of walking as a key to human success

    Gina Rippon, author of The Gendered Brain, Gina Rippon, author of The Gendered Brain

  • A book that will leave you itching to go out for a good old-fashioned stroll

    Mail on Sunday

  • A fascinating new book that examines the multitudinous benefits of this form of locomotion

    Harper's Bazaar

  • Like a poem to walking… [and] the science that might help convince planners to prioritise walking as a means of getting around

    Lucy Whetman, UK Press Syndication

  • Forget apples. A walk a day really will keep the doctor away

    Evening Standard

  • [In Praise of Walking] it provides an antidote to the many miseries that can accumulate because of our modern, sedentary lifestyle

    Simple Things

About the Author

Shane O'Mara

Shane O’Mara is Professor of Experimental Brain Research at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin. He is Principal Investigator in, and was Director of the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, one of Europe’s leading research centres for neuroscience. He is also a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator and a Science Foundation Ireland Principal Investigator. He is the author of two previous books, Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation and A Brain for Business – A Brain for Life. He has also written many scientific papers, as well as for the newspapers and magazines. He loves to walk wherever and whenever he can, with long urban walks in any walkable city a particular favourite. @smomara1 www.shaneomara.com

Shane O'Mara

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