Ultimate Library: top ten reads

Discover your next great read in our Library at The Lake. Together with our friends at Ultimate Library, we’ve put together a specially curated collection of books for you to borrow during your stay.

You’ll find titles covering the Lake District, natural landscape, history, travel, the arts, food and drink and a compendium of novels, to name a few. Fill your pockets with classics at Another Place and hunker down by the fire, or find some quiet outdoors by the lakeshore.

“A room without books is like a body without a soul” – Cicero

Here’s our list of top ten Lake District reads to look out for.

William Wordsworth and Dorothy Wordsworth: All in each other by Lucy Newlyn
University lecturer, Lucy Newlyn, untangles the relationship between one of Britain’s greatest poets and his sister. As a woman personally invested in the poet as well as the region, Newlyn is the perfect guide to all things Wordsworth.

Alfred Wainwright – a pictorial guide to the Lakeland fells (series books 1-6) by Alfred Wainwright
The series by MBE Alfred Wainwirght (whose six books detail six different Lakeland regions) is the evidence of a man who devoted his life to researching and compiling the Lakeland fells. Complete with updated maps and recently-checked routes for the fells in the Lake District region.

Broken Road by Patrick Leigh Fermor (European travel)
This is the final volume of the greatest travel writer of his generation. With magnificent rolling prose it documents the trip of an 18-year-old Leigh Fermor across Europe.

SPQR by Mary Beard
New non-fiction title that looks at Roman history from one of Britain’s best-loved classicists. Beard endeavours to show how much we can learn about Roman History whilst keeping her accounts light and humorous.

Essays on art by Julian Barnes
A series of essays based around art, woven into a full exploration into how art has made its way from Romanticism into the modern day. Personal but informative, they are accompanied with colour illustration for a fuller story of art.

I’d rather be reading

Consolations of the Forest by Sylvain Tesson
A great piece of writing which explores the process of self-examination through the mind of Tesson himself, who decides to decamp in the Russian forest in the search for freedom.

I never knew that about the Lake District by Christopher Winn
A fascinating miscellany of entertaining stories and interesting facts about the Lake District. Winn sets out to teach his readers about the secrets and the quirks of the Lake District and those who have lived there.

In Your Prime by India Knight
This opinionated yet funny book by British journalist, India Knight, contains pages of indispensable advice for those entering middle age.

The Walker’s Friend by Jude Palmer
Palmer’s guide to walking not only provides practical tips but also provides suggestions of what one should do and see while walking or hiking. The Walker’s Friend accompanies these recommendations with both funny quotations and beautiful pieces of prose from both classic and contemporary writing.

Ten Million Aliens by Simon Barnes
A collection of short essays on the animal kingdom by former Times of London sports journalist. Brilliantly written and littered with first-hand accounts of Barnes’ interaction with these animals. If you like Gerald Durrell, you will like Ten Million Aliens.

Pick your read and book your stay at Another Place.