You’ve got to love Werner Herzog.
Confronted with the news that his friend was dying, his reaction was to walk 500-plus miles across Europe (during Winter) to see her.
He declared the world would “not permit her to die” before he had completed the journey.
It’s a bold move, and one he documented in a fascinating sliver of a book called Of Walking in Ice.
In researching ahead of her own ambitious trek (across the North of England, from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay), acclaimed writer—and generally lovely person—Jenn Ashworth stumbled on Herzog’s strange account and was captivated by it.
Familiar with the book myself and a big fan of Herzog, it was an absolute pleasure to discuss it with her for the show.
Indeed, welcome to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.
As you may well know by now, in each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books and culture to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
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In this episode, as I say, my very special guest is the writer Jenn Ashworth, author of Ghosted and most recently The Parallel Path. We discuss her pick for the library, the 1978 memoir Of Walking in Ice by Werner Herzog.
About Jenn
Jenn Ashworth’s first novel, A Kind of Intimacy, was published in 2009 and won a Betty Trask Award. On the publication of her second, Cold Light (Sceptre, 2011) she was featured on the BBC’s The Culture Show as one of the UK’s twelve best new writers. In 2019, she published a memoir-in-essays, Notes Made While Falling, which was a New Statesman Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. Her most recent novel, Ghosted: A Love Story, was shortlisted for the Portico Prize in 2022. Her memoir, The Parallel Path, was published by Sceptre in 2025. She lives in Lancashire and is a Professor of Writing at Lancaster University.
About Werner
Werner Herzog has produced, written and directed more than seventy features and documentary films, including the multi-award-winning Grizzly Man, Aguirre, The Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, My Best Fiend, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Nosferatu, Lessons of Darkness, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Into the Inferno, Meeting Gorbachev and Encounters at the End of the World. He has also directed many operas and published more than a dozen books of prose, including Conquest of the Useless, Of Walking on Ice, The Twilight World, and, most recently, his acclaimed memoir, Every Man for Himself and God against All. In 2025, he was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice International Film Festival.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
Order Of Walking in Ice by Werner Herzog and pick up a copy of The Parallel Path from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
Watch the greatest ever clip of Werner Herzog in the jungle here.
Find Jenn Ashworth on Instagram here.
Find Glenn Fisher on Instagram here.
Find The Library of Lazy Thinking on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. If you’d like to support the library and get access to everything here, you can become a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge). All support goes back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My writing has been published in Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I write about books and interview other writers and artists here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands. Meanwhile, I am currently working on my first novel about a delivery driver who accidentally kidnaps a pig. Brave/bold agents: hit me up.
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