So what can possibly be made of all this strolling, hiking and pacing? Writing about walking, it turns out, is almost as plentiful as writing about writing, yet much of it, as Rebecca Solnit points out in ''Wanderlust: A History of Walking,'' is ''episodic,'' with ''no overarching plot.'' Ms. There are climbers seeking glory, urbanites seeking respite, believers seeking salvation, protesters seeking change, flaneurs seeking amusements, joggers seeking slimness. In another era, Charles Dickens desperately paced London's streets ''if I couldn't walk fast and far,'' he said, ''I should explode and perish.'' Walkers abound.
A woman known as Peace Pilgrim set out in 1953 on a pilgrimage for world peace, beginning at the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, Calif., and logging perhaps 80,000 miles before, in 1981, she was killed in a car that had offered her a lift. One explorer trekked 1,700 miles across the Australian outback accompanied by three camels. There are as many walks as there are walkers.
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