• Happy Weed Appreciation Day! 🌱🌿🌻

What are you reading?

The biography of Jim Bridger.
It lays out the complicated politics of the American Frontier when it was colonized by the Fur Trade.
We fought with the British and the French and the Spanish for the lands of the West. The Rocky Mtn Fur Co and the American Fur Co competed for the best trapping areas and ran over the free trappers. We trusted the Nez Perce, Shoshone and Chinook, and faught to the death with the Blackfoot.
 
I picked up a hardback copy of Calvin Rutstrum's North American Canoe Country (copyright 1964) a few of weeks ago in a shop that sells primarily used outdoor gear. I finally got around to reading it and enjoyed the tales of paddling a century ago along with the views of a paddler writing during the transition period of wood and canvas to aluminum canoes, from canvas to "lightweight" tents and from fresh or dried foods to freeze-dried meals. The illustrations by Les Kouba round out the book nicely.

Down here in the south books on these topics are rare items and I am happy to have come across this one.
 
This, a reprint of three 19th century canoe books: Canoe Handling; Practical Canoeing; Canoes and Canoeing. I'm enjoying the writing and descriptions. This book is larger than most reprints, making it easier to read and see the diagrams.
 
I ordered " Canoe Trails and Shop Tales. Making Crooked Nerves Straight" by Hugh Stewart. Hugh is the past owner of Headwaters Canoe and he has a long history with wood canvas canoes, building, guiding, and canoeing the north with wood canvas canoes. He is a firm believer in promoting wood canvas canoes for wilderness tripping. I think I will enjoy this book very much. ;-).

I ordered it from Patrick McGahern Books in Ottawa, Ontario.
"We specialize in books on the Arctic and Canada, and fishing and angling, and if you'd like to receive our catalogues by email (6-8 per year), please drop us a note.

Also, you can see all our inventory and catalogues on our new website www.mcgahernbooks.ca, where you can order safely and securely."
 
@SouthernKevlar glad you found a copy - I enjoyed reading that Rutstrum and a few others in the last year.

Check out Abe Books, they have a few other titles by Calvin Rutstrum, used, very reasonable with free shipping.
Alibris is also a good source for used books of this nature. I couldn't find 'Beyond the Paddle' by Garret Conover at either of those however - Powell's Books in Portland had a used copy selling online.

For those interested in shopping locally, Indiebound is a great way to find local bookstores near you.

 
Thank you guys, I'm always looking for new books.
Horrorbabble is a diamond in the rough, speaking as a lover of Lovecraft. Ian Gordon is absolutely terrific.

I'm always into several books at a time, these days it's -
The Ship Under the Ice - Mensun Bound; story of the recovery of Shackleton's Endurance
Against the Grain - James Scott; an interesting look at cereal grains and early state formation
Man's Search for Meaning - Victor Frankl; somewhere between Holocaust memoir and self-help


@Tsuga8 I just snagged a copy of Beyond The Paddle off of Alibris, there were several more available.
 
Stories from the Churchill by Ric Driediger

IMG-0946.jpg

An excellent read of tales from northern Saskatchewan. Ric has been paddling, guiding and outfitting for travel on all the rivers in the area. Chapters begin with the kind of interesting tales one would expect and build to an end of outstanding and surprising adventures/essays.

And note: Paul Mason does the illustrations.
 
Wickliffe W. Walker, Torrents As Yet Unknown.
Lebanon, NH: Steerforth Press (2023)

I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of Wick Walker's latest book to review for our canoe club newsletter. Wick was a 1972 Olympic paddler and is now a retired Army officer. The book will be officially released on September 12th.

Torrents tells the stories of expeditions down unexplored whitewater river canyons during the last half of the 20th Century. These were high stakes, risk-of-life trips. I lost count of the number of drownings in the book. The paddlers are challenged by narrow escapes from whitewater hazards, portages over house sized boulders, and a raft eating crocodile.

All the chapters of Torrents are first rate adventure tales, masterfully told by a world class paddler and explorer.
 
My reading interests usually depend on the political, social, economic mindset currently influencing me. I have been studying a lot on environmental degradation, climate change, and sustainable development currently. I read research articles mostly and that's when I chanced upon this interesting concept of climax community - an ecological term used to denote an ecosystem or community of plants, animals and other living organisms that has achieved equilibrium, or become stable. I have been doing some in-depth reading about this concept right now.
Then, I've been reading a few of Anton Chekhov's and Khalil Gibran's short stories from the internet.
images.jpg
Finally, I am about to start with Willoughby's canoeing exploration and journey. I was interested in this after reading a post about it in this forum.
 
Appalachian trail journals. What an adventure! Trail journals. Com is the site, and people post as often they wish. Ive read hear on this site some of you all have done the appalachian trail, and possibly some have done the triple crown. Congratulations,
 
Just finished Disappointment River by Brian Castner.

Castner tells the story of Alexander Mackenzie's first European "exploration" (he was guiding by First Nations guides, of course) of what is now called the Mackenzie River, the longest in Canada. Mackenzie was searching for the fabled Northwest Passage as a route to get furs to the Orient for trade. Castner paddles the Mackenzie from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean, and each chapter (after the first few, which are mostly historical context) alternates between Mackenzie's story and Castner's. Although the early chapters with historical context might have been abridged a bit, once both journeys are underway the book is a page-turner, though the trials and tribulations of Castner won't be very exotic for some members of this site.

 
Back
Top