--- title: Life Between the Tides: 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 description: Find out why "Life Between the Tides" by Adam Nicolson is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. canonical: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2022/6228569/life-between-the-tides/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-11-14T12:56:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:11:14.087Z og:title: 'Life Between the Tides' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 og:description: Here's why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2022/6228569/life-between-the-tides/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6be3ad9e487e0a22/698a37b9457a52c31bd670bc/LifeBetweenTheTides.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Life Between the Tides' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Life Between the Tides' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 twitter:description: Here's why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6be3ad9e487e0a22/698a37b9457a52c31bd670bc/LifeBetweenTheTides.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 14, 2022 # Life Between the Tides by Adam Nicolson by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  “The sea is not made of water. Creatures are its genes,” Adam Nicolson writes. “No need for binoculars or special stalking skills: go to the rocks and the living will say hello.” In _Life Between the Tides_, Nicolson writes about rockpools and the flurry of marine life within them with a poet’s sense of wonder. The author has created his own tidal pool along the coast of Scotland, which soon fills with sandhoppers, prawns, winkles, crabs, anemones, and more. Great writers and thinkers appear in allusions and ripples of his musings: [Virginia Woolf](https://time.com/5750614/virginia-woolf-biography/ "undefined") and her experimental novel _The Waves,_ and T.S. Eliot and his own Massachusetts rock pool, among others. —_Laura Zornosa_ **Buy Now**: _Life Between the Tides_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780374251437 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3zUXQJF "undefined") **Contact us at** [letters@time.com](mailto:letters@time.com?subject=%28READER%20FEEDBACK%29%20Stay%20True&body=https%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2Fcollection-post%2F6228627%2Fstay-true%2F "undefined")**.** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2022/6228569/life-between-the-tides/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2022/6228569/life-between-the-tides/"},"headline":"Life Between the Tides","datePublished":"2022-11-14T12:56:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:11:14.087Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2022/6228569/life-between-the-tides/","keywords":["Books","list","best books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6be3ad9e487e0a22/698a37b9457a52c31bd670bc/LifeBetweenTheTides.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6be3ad9e487e0a22/698a37b9457a52c31bd670bc/LifeBetweenTheTides.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2022/6228569/life-between-the-tides/","name":"Life Between the Tides"}}]}] ```