What are you reading?

[Guest]

The author states "You are what you read" and so offers a glimpse of the books which occupy his own shelves at home. Appendices make for good lists for exploration.

You are what you read.

I like the truthiness of that, and feel sorry for folks who do not read much beyond their slant corrupted Facebook feed.

And I agree wholeheartedly about appendices in nonfiction books, I usually want to know more and try to inter library loan titles and authors that look interesting.

This 7 year old thread has been a gold mine of excellent recommendations. Where ever the OP Roadends is, I thank him.

It is time to scroll back a few months and pull more book titles for inter library loan.

 

[Odyssey]

I took a hard left turn heading south, and am now in the middle of the gulf stream...sargassum, sea turtles and flying fish. The pulsing warm salt water flow washes over me under a turbulent blue sky. Just let me drift awhile in my pool floatie, happily reading The Gulf Stream Chronicles - A Naturalist Explores Life In An Ocean River, by David S Lee. Pass me some sunblock and another lemonade.

 

[Boreal Birch]

I second Mike McCrea's last three sentences in Post # 403. Those of us that are avid readers or armchair adventurer's owe Roadends a big debt of gratitude. I have found some wonderful books from this thread, many more to come too.

 

[Guest]

happily reading The Gulf Stream Chronicles - A Naturalist Explores Life In An Ocean River, by David S Lee. Pass me some sunblock and another lemonade.

There was not much lemonade on Dave Lee cruises, or on dry land. The cheapest crap beer available yes, mostly so no one else would drink the swill and there was all the more for Dave.

I hope you are enjoying The Gulf Stream Chronicles. Dave wrote hundreds, maybe thousands, of scientific and journal articles on everything from ornithology to herpetology to botany, but that was his first everyman book, published posthumously. Unless you count the 900 page 5 lb Atlas of North American Freshwater Fishes as an everyman tome.

https://www.amazon.com/American-Freshwater-Publication-Carolina-Biological/dp/0917134036

He was the best rounded Naturalist I have ever met, and could be plunked down from Florida to Arizona to Guam to the jungles of South America and tell you the scientific and colloquial names, natural history and interesting tid bits for any flora or fauna in sight.

And he had a wicked sense of humor. Invited to give a talk to the Bermuda Natural History Museum he chose as his publicized topic How to ruin a perfectly good island. The notion of some interloper stirring crap riled up the locals something fierce, and he had a helluva turn out for his talk.

He showed slides and spoke for an hour about Guam. Lessons transferable, without needing to say so.

 

[VernAK]

Currently reading "Sources Of The River", tracking David Thompson across Western North America.
This definitely not a how-to book.

Our winter persists so I have gone back through a couple of Cal Rustrum's books. I met Cal way back in my formative
years. I think I have most of his books.

 

[Guest]

Those of us that are avid readers or armchair adventurer's owe Roadends a big debt of gratitude. I have found some wonderful books from this thread, many more to come too.

Someone should find Roadends and bring him back if only to bask in well deserved praise.

I went back a couple months ISO recent book recommendations, something I have done via this thread a few times a year since 2011. Gawd bless this thread, and gawd bless a decent County inter library loan system. With some simple cut and paste and click, on the way via inter library loan

A Fly Rod of Your Own, John Gierach
Barkskins, Annie Proulx
Ice Ghosts, Paul Watson
Champlain's Dream, David Hackett Fischer
Longitude, Dava Sobel

I am number one on the reserve list for all of them and they should be at the local library within the week.

Side note, my county library system does not return inter-library loan books to the original location, where they are sent is where they stay until someone else checks them out or requests them. I like to think I am seeding my local library with good reads.

I did less well than usual with the recent recommendations from this thread, only those five out of a dozen titles I selected were available in the county system. I usually bat closer to .500 on inter library loans.

Before I start with the more complex intra library loan requests, not renewable and a buck apiece to reserve, I had a looksee review of some of the more interesting to me nonfiction suggestions, as possible used book purchases.

I bought copies of these, all for less than I spend each week the Washington Post that goes into recycling.

The Forest for the Trees, How Humans Shaped the North Woods
The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake 1577-1580
Feud Hatfields, McCoys, and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860 1900
The Sea Runners

I always need unread books when travelling and that is too rough a life for library reads, much less hitting the due back date. A lot of the books I have tripped with were used paperbacks culled from this thread. Especially appreciated has been the stuff specific to the place I was travelling, so that I could read and look out and see it right there, in my here and now field of vision.

Bonus on the use book purchase, I have a nonfiction reader sons birthday coming up next month. I will have some of those books read by then. And gift wrapped. He would consider good reads the best gift he could receive. heck, I sneak into his bookshelves on occasion.

Last trip home he nonchalantly asked about The Waters Will Come, a book he had given me for Christmas. I recommended it and asked if he would like to borrow it. It was still up on my bedside table.

He replied I already did.

Good job Son.

 

[Guest]

I want to thank too many folks on this thread for many excellent book suggestions. I owe some of you a debt of gratitude, and wish I could remember who recommended what.

Most recently, Dava Sobels Longitude, a slender page turner, and Paul Watsons Ice Ghosts, the current reason I am enthralled and staying up late reading. Both are library copies, but I will buy copies to own or lend.

Waiting in the wings, David Fischers Champlains Dream, which looks equally promising.

Reaching back a couple years, a special thanks to whoever suggested David Roberts The Lost World of the Old Ones and In Search of the Old Ones, both extraordinarily enjoyable and well written.

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-World-O...r=1-1&keywords=the+lost+world+of+the+old+ones

https://www.amazon.com/Search-Old-O...625&sr=1-1&keywords=in+search+of+the+old+ones

Especially appreciated has been the stuff specific to the place I was travelling, so that I could read and look out and see it right there, in my here and now field of vision.

I gave those David Roberts Old Ones books to friend Joel a couple years ago, and he purposely set them aside to read now, whilst he is backpacking Grand Gulch, Fish Canyon, Owl Canyon and elsewhere amidst the Cedar Mesa.

I am envious of his opportunity to read and be there now.

I guess I need to feed Joel some Craig Childs next, maybe Finders Keepers or Apocalyptic Planet, two more excellent reads discovered courtesy of recommendations on this thread.

 

[Alan Gage]

I've since moved on to Meadowland - The Private Life Of An English Field by John Lewis-Stempel.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation.

Alan

 

[Odyssey]

I took a hard left turn heading south, and am now in the middle of the gulf stream...sargassum, sea turtles and flying fish. The pulsing warm salt water flow washes over me under a turbulent blue sky. Just let me drift awhile in my pool floatie, happily reading The Gulf Stream Chronicles - A Naturalist Explores Life In An Ocean River, by David S Lee. Pass me some sunblock and another lemonade.

Some Gulf Stream news. Wishing I were there for the big day.
http://islandfreepress.org/2018Archives/04.25.2018-SeaTurtleReleaseonOcracokeIslandDrawsaCrowd.html

 

[sweeper]

Just started "Canoeing Maine's Legendary Allagash" by David Leff

 

[DaveOR]

Currently reading:

Wood: Craft, Culture, History by Harvey Green. From the back cover: " We build our houses and heat them with it, we sail on it and sit on it, we make our weapons and hit balls with it."

Robicheaux, by James Lee Burke. The latest from just about my favorite fiction author, mystery or otherwise. His description of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Tin Roof Blowdown really brought home to me better than any media story what a natural and human tragedy that disaster was.

 

[Jatfomike]

I

 

[sweeper]

I

Who wrote it? Sounds like a great book.

 

[memaquay]

It's a Zen book about canoeing with a single blade.

 

[Jatfomike]

Who wrote it? Sounds like a great book.

LOL! I tried replying from my phone last night and it would not take.

What I was trying to say was that I was in the middle of reading Robicheaux and like most Burke books it is a great read. Having been to New Orleans a couple of times recently and being somewhat familiar with the area now I appreciate the Robicheaux series much more.

Mike

 

[Odyssey]

I

An autobiography of some sort.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

Just finished Ian and Sally Wilson: 'Arctic Adventures'. Enjoyed it very much. A couple canoes down the Thelon, then travels by dog team up and down a stretch of Hudson Bay. Turned around and ordered 'Wilderness Journey'.

 

[Guest]

I bought copies of Ice Ghosts, and Longitude, as gifts for offspring. Hee hee, I will be able to borrow those familial copies to reread. And both will see an eventual reread.

Most recently two, um, survival books.

Continuing a fascination with North Korea, Under the Same Sky, from Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America. One of the best of a bunch of recent Life in North Korea books. That is one weird Communist dynastic worship the Great Leader regime.

https://www.amazon.com/Under-Same-Sky-Starvation-Salvation/dp/0544705270

And a different survival tale, a sort with which I had no reader familiarity, A long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. The middle third of that book is eye opening in a frightful way.

https://www.amazon.com/Long-Way-Gone-Memoirs-Soldier/dp/0374531269

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I'm back to Mark Twain again. Life on the Mississippi.

A lot of fascinating stuff in there. Some history, some river running, some typical Sam Clemens wry humor. Some interesting historical quotes....".....the great common sewer of western America" (not Clemens' words) Once again, my perception of a time in history dashed against the rocks of eye witness account.

 

[Guest]

A couple more survival tomes:

Into The Storm; Two Ships, a Deadly Hurricane and an Epic Battle for Survival (Tristram Korten, 2018).

Fast and well paced, with touches of merchant shipping, flags of convenience, Coast Guard and Rescue Swimmer history, hurricane prediction and tracking.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/563463/into-the-storm-by-tristram-korten/9781524797881/

Island of the Blue Foxes; Disaster and Triumph on the Worlds Greatest Scientific Expedition (Stephen Bown, 2017)

From the flyleaf: The immense eighteenth century scientific journey. . . .from St. Petersburg across Siberia to the coast of North America involved over 3000 people. . . .led by the legendary Danish Captain Vitus Bering. . . . .

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stephen-r-bown/island-of-the-blue-foxes/

Kind of a tough slog getting across Siberia but once the expedition is underway the action picks up.

Bown is also the author of The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen.

If you enjoy paragraphs that span an entire printed page (I do not) you will like Bowns syntax.