Book: Stone Play
20th Mar 2009
My first impression of Stone Play was that this was a book full of pretty pictures and pretentious quotes about bouldering attempting to justify what to many of the world’s population is a fairly pointless pastime. The photos are indeed pretty, though fairly random in choice. Ffor example there are a few of Dave MacLeod, but none of James Pearson. Granted, Dave is no slouch when it comes to bouldering, but James is the only person in the world to have flashed two Font 8B boulder problems. I guess this is one of the points of the book – it is not a manual of the best boulders in the world doing the hardest problems in the world. I suppose on reflection that this is a breath of fresh air. As for the quotes, well it’s not a book to sit and read from cover to cover, but more of a dip in and out of and contemplate the short message kind of read. Many of them are genuinely interesting and thought provoking, written by many of the pre-eminent bolderes of the generations. Retails at £19.95
Well worth filling your stocking with and leaving by the toilet for occasional reading.
Reviewed by Matt Heason on behalf of planetFear