This is good. Thanks. About half way through.
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Happy Winter Solstice! 🌇🌃
What are you reading?
- Thread starter roadends
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I'm reading, or should I say was reading( started but quit) Canoe Nation by Bruce Erickson, I found it really boring, first of, the introduction is 33 page long, really long, boring stuff, so after half of that I jumped to the first chapter.... Same lengthy slow moving bla bla bla... So I quit any one wants it??
I'm still working my way through old classics. Finished Two Years Before the Mast a while ago. After all that reality, I escaped to some Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy stuff. Weird dude, that Edgar. Currently....Tarzan. Not what I expected....
In what way?
I'm stuck. I'm reading The Hidden Mountain by Gabrielle Roy, a story about a canoe tripper/artist. He travels from the Yukon to Ungava sketching and painting as he goes. He meets colourful characters and constantly strives to capture the rugged beauty of the wilderness, but not till he stumbles across a soaring mountain in the upper reaches of Labrador does he meet his mountain muse. His entrancement nearly results in his death. This was all good reading (Ms Roy wrote in a very romantic style not to everyone's taste) until this fellow travels to Paris France to study art. I'm bogged down sitting on the quay next to the Seine wishing the artist/canoe tripper would just pack his bags and get back to the fun exciting part of the story; so I'm stuck.
Meanwhile...I read a very funny book Who in The World is Tom Baker? It's an autobiography of my favourite Dr Who actor Tom Baker. He has led an interesting and amusing/troubled life. I don't know many of the name dropping parts, but it's a great read if you're a fan of this actor and Dr Who.
Meanwhile...I read a very funny book Who in The World is Tom Baker? It's an autobiography of my favourite Dr Who actor Tom Baker. He has led an interesting and amusing/troubled life. I don't know many of the name dropping parts, but it's a great read if you're a fan of this actor and Dr Who.
Two that I read recently were Death on the Barrens by Grinnell, and Barren Grounds by Pessl. Both different takes on the 1955 Moffatt expedition by people who were on it. Grinnell is pretty damning of Moffatt, while Pessl is more forgiving.
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Guest
Guest
White Eskimo, Knud Rasmussen’s Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic (Stephen Bown, 2015)
http://www.amazon.com/White-Eskimo-...Fearless+Journey+into+the+Heart+of+the+Arctic
I vaguely knew the name from reading other Arctic exploration books, but knew very little of the man or his history.
A well written and enjoyable read. Not surprising, Bown’s book on Amundsen was another fine read.
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Viking-A...id=1450546860&sr=1-1&keywords=the+last+viking
http://www.amazon.com/White-Eskimo-...Fearless+Journey+into+the+Heart+of+the+Arctic
I vaguely knew the name from reading other Arctic exploration books, but knew very little of the man or his history.
A well written and enjoyable read. Not surprising, Bown’s book on Amundsen was another fine read.
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Viking-A...id=1450546860&sr=1-1&keywords=the+last+viking
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Really good books about the north and Inuits culture, are the one written by James Houston....
I just started a new book last night, Les Aventures De Radisson. It is the Journey of Pierre-Esprit Radisson, One of the best coureur des bois of all!!
I just started a new book last night, Les Aventures De Radisson. It is the Journey of Pierre-Esprit Radisson, One of the best coureur des bois of all!!
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Not too long ago I finished reading a fascinating book on wolverines. "Wolverine Way by Douglas Chadwick
A 5 year field study of wolverines in Glacier National Park sounds like a dry, tedious read but it was not. "Wolverine Way" held my attention page by page as the author shares the project's uncovering of key[/FONT] missing knowledge of the wolverine's habitat, foraging practices and range, social structure, and reproduction habits.[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The study required the trapping and sedating of wolverines - descriptions of those wolverine encounters provided plenty of excitement.
Crisply written, there really are no dull, plod through the pages, parts to this book.[/FONT]
A 5 year field study of wolverines in Glacier National Park sounds like a dry, tedious read but it was not. "Wolverine Way" held my attention page by page as the author shares the project's uncovering of key[/FONT] missing knowledge of the wolverine's habitat, foraging practices and range, social structure, and reproduction habits.[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The study required the trapping and sedating of wolverines - descriptions of those wolverine encounters provided plenty of excitement.
Crisply written, there really are no dull, plod through the pages, parts to this book.[/FONT]
Much more violence than any cinematic version I remember. Brutal, in fact. And Tarzan learned to speak French first? And not from Jane.
Here's a link to an episode of Nature that is a companion piece to the book "Wolverine Way" that Will mentioned above. I too, read the book and have seen a wolverine in the far north of Ontario near the Ont-Manitoba border near Fort Severn. Fascinating creatures with a reputation that doesn't do them justice.
I'm on another journey. Several books washed up on my chair-side shore for Christmas, thanks to my kids. I just started The Peregrine by J.A.Baker. The author moved from bird watching observer to an obsessive biographer following a pair of peregrines over a season in his local valley. A true nature writer, Baker provides the details of scientific observation with that of a poet. " Sparrowhawks are always near me in the dusk, like something I meant to say but could never quite remember. Their narrow heads glared blindly through my sleep. I pursued them for many summers, but they were hard to find and harder to see, being so few and so wary. They lived a fugitive, guerrilla life. In all the overgrown neglected places the frail bones of generations of sparrowhawks are sifting down now into the deep humus of the woods. They were a banished race of beautiful barbarians, and when they died they could not be replaced.
I have turned away from the musky opulence of the summer woods, where so many birds are dying. Autumn begins my season of hawk-hunting, spring ends it, winter glitters between like the arch of Orion."
The Peregrine, J.A.Baker, 1967.
I have turned away from the musky opulence of the summer woods, where so many birds are dying. Autumn begins my season of hawk-hunting, spring ends it, winter glitters between like the arch of Orion."
The Peregrine, J.A.Baker, 1967.
Finishing up "The lost men", by Kelly Tyler-Lewis. Saga of Ernest Shackleton's Ross Sea ice party in 1914-15, concurrent with him losing his ship "Endurance" in the ice and making his own epic voyage and becoming a hero for the ages.
But, you learn how many of the facts and good stories are obscured by details too many to list about poor planning, poor tactics, poor leadership, poor nutrition, etc. A surprisingly honest telling of two for the ages journeys gone bad, but travelled by men with big hearts and good intentions.
Still, a fascinating read for me, a "Polar Head'.
But, you learn how many of the facts and good stories are obscured by details too many to list about poor planning, poor tactics, poor leadership, poor nutrition, etc. A surprisingly honest telling of two for the ages journeys gone bad, but travelled by men with big hearts and good intentions.
Still, a fascinating read for me, a "Polar Head'.
G
Guest
Guest
Hurley's Journal, Hardcover. A compilation published this year. Bought it for myself from Amazon whilst Christmas shopping. It is not reviewed on Amazon but I know Hurley the writer well.
Never met him in person but he would undoubtedly be good company. Hard to believe the last issue was published 12 years ago. From the last line of the Foreword: "Of all the legacies I might have chosen, none can compare with the chance to hold a little child's hand along a woodland path, beside a river, where the wild things of the world remind us of the meaning of life itself."
Hurley went on to sea kayaking, and then sailing, and has written a couple of novels. His writing is direct, precise, and clever. He was based in North Carolina, so most of the canoe trips are up and down the East Coast for the most part. Of course some of the included trip planning information is dated or unnecessary.
He published a similar but less comprehensive compilation with selected stories called "Letters from the Woods." The reviews on Amazon for that one are glowing. If you have never read Hurley, you are in for a treat. The Journal seems to have fallen out of favor or been forgotten, and the 2015 compilation apparently did not sell well. I bought my copy new for $3 or something preposterous like that, and you can get one now on Amazon for less than $6 including shipping.
Never met him in person but he would undoubtedly be good company. Hard to believe the last issue was published 12 years ago. From the last line of the Foreword: "Of all the legacies I might have chosen, none can compare with the chance to hold a little child's hand along a woodland path, beside a river, where the wild things of the world remind us of the meaning of life itself."
Hurley went on to sea kayaking, and then sailing, and has written a couple of novels. His writing is direct, precise, and clever. He was based in North Carolina, so most of the canoe trips are up and down the East Coast for the most part. Of course some of the included trip planning information is dated or unnecessary.
He published a similar but less comprehensive compilation with selected stories called "Letters from the Woods." The reviews on Amazon for that one are glowing. If you have never read Hurley, you are in for a treat. The Journal seems to have fallen out of favor or been forgotten, and the 2015 compilation apparently did not sell well. I bought my copy new for $3 or something preposterous like that, and you can get one now on Amazon for less than $6 including shipping.
G
Guest
Guest
Just remembered that Robin tripped with Hurley a couple of times, and that came up in another thread a few years ago.
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Guest
Guest
I had a collection of Hurley’s Journals from the subscription years, but I think they fell by the wayside during some shop purge. The Journal was an enjoyable “newsletter-ish” publication and I ended up paddling in a couple of places unknown to me before reading a Hurley trip report.
I said this last year, and maybe the year before, but this is my favorite time of year as a reader. In large part because the “Best of 2015” lists are all available and I can dependably look over the various 2015 Best of Non-fiction lists and come up with a half-dozen titles to inter-library loan.
This one got so-so reviews, but the survival story as told by McPhee in “Coming into the Country” is my favorite part of that book.
81 Days Below Zero
http://www.amazon.com/Days-Below-Ze...1451578654&sr=1-1&keywords=81+days+below+zero
This time of year is also special because the presents under the tree always include books. One of those was Erik Larson’s Dead Wake (which seemed to be on every Best Non-Fiction of 2015 List)
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Wake-Las...UTF8&qid=1451578884&sr=1-1&keywords=Dead+wake
A page turner; I read it in a day. Although I had to retrain my reading style. I am a fast sight reader and the copy of Dead Wake I received is a “Large Print” book. I’ve never read a large print book before and it took some getting used to; some lines of text only have 5 or 6 words and I had to figure out how to sight read two lines at once.
As fate would have it the next Christmas book I picked up was Bridge of Spies (Giles Whittell, 2010). Also a fine read, but the paperback copy I have was published in tiny font.
http://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Spies-...id=1451579410&sr=1-1&keywords=bridge+of+spies
Lastly I will put in another word for my late friend David Lee’s book Gulf Stream Chronicles. Even landlocked Iowa boys seemed to enjoy it.
http://www.amazon.com/Gulf-Stream-C...8&sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=Gulf+Steam+Chronicles
I say that not only because I knew the author, illustrator and characters, I believe it is an important book in the natural history realm.
I got a couple of books for Christmas:
"Crusoe of Lonesome Lake" by Leland Stowe. This is actually a re-read for me; I was assigned to read it in school 40 years ago. It may have been one of the few assignments that I actually did back then. I couldn't remember the author, main character, or title of the book. But I remembered the guy carved out a homestead farm in the Canadian woods and fed Trumpeter swans. After a few google searches I found it. Of course it has been out of print for a long time but we found some used copies.
I don't know that it is written really well, but I found it amazing what Ralph Edwards was able to teach himself to create through shear grit and determination.
My son gave me the other book for Christmas: "How to Poo in the Woods", the golden rules of how to relieve yourself in the wilds. It is worthy of a couple of smirks.
"Crusoe of Lonesome Lake" by Leland Stowe. This is actually a re-read for me; I was assigned to read it in school 40 years ago. It may have been one of the few assignments that I actually did back then. I couldn't remember the author, main character, or title of the book. But I remembered the guy carved out a homestead farm in the Canadian woods and fed Trumpeter swans. After a few google searches I found it. Of course it has been out of print for a long time but we found some used copies.
I don't know that it is written really well, but I found it amazing what Ralph Edwards was able to teach himself to create through shear grit and determination.
My son gave me the other book for Christmas: "How to Poo in the Woods", the golden rules of how to relieve yourself in the wilds. It is worthy of a couple of smirks.
It's not exactly mentally stimulating, but I just finished reading "Never sniff a gift fish" by Patrick McManus. I think next I'll finally get back to reading "A new voyage round the world" by William Dampier, originally published in 1697
I still have all my copies of Hurleys Journal, I need to dig them out and spend some time re-reading them. I enjoyed his style and found him to be a nice tripping companion.
I once lent all my copies to another tripping friend who found them to be "hokey", but he paddled a Grass River canoe with a paddle stroke of about 50-55 per minute and ran across portages cause he could. On the other hand, I liked to smell the roses and found Hurley to be the same.
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