What are you reading?

[frozentripper]

Right now, it's Mechanics Of Flight, A.C. Kermode which was first published when biplanes flew and then updated for jets in 1972 (my copy). Understandable explanations of aeronautics, physics, design, flying... also has parallels with hydrodynamics since both deal with fluid flow and could help with the ongoing quest to determine how much less efficient scratchy canoes actually are.

Unrelated words of wisdom which may have canoetripping parallels since water can be downright risky at times...

Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.

Twentieth in line in library order for Lost City Of The Monkey God, archaeological discovery in the disease-ridden Honduran mosquito coast... maybe a long wait since it became so popular after becoming a NY Times #1 this year.

Undaunted Courage, about Lewis and Clark being the first to map and describe travels across America was a good read with many surprisng details but at a busy time of year. Reminds me of having to deal with the locals in some places while describing natural areas. Also a popular #1 read at one time years ago so the wait wasn't as long.

 

[frozentripper]

Lost City Of The Monkey God... there must be a lot of copies in the library system so no long wait despite being twentieth in line. There it was on the shelf yesterday waiting to reveal the horrors of the mosquito coast, on with the torture trip.

 

[Odyssey]

I'm nearly finished "Kiss of The Fur Queen" by Tomson Highway. The author weaves a story of Cree legend and harsh truths with equal measures of humour and ugliness, leading the reader through a strong spiritual world and the frail physical world that many young people face when they leave northern reserves for southern cities. Highway balances ugliness and beauty, prose and plain speak, to deliver an unbiased view of two worlds colliding.

 

[Guest]

Current read, The Death and Life of the Great Lakes

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-G...eywords=the+death+and+life+of+the+great+lakes

Absolutely fascinating, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Egan’s writing style is reminiscent of McPhee in bringing together characters, history, science and unforeseen consequences.

I don’t remember who recommended it, probably DaveOR, whose eclectic taste is near identical to mine. An Inter-library loan copy, which one of my son’s is waiting for me to finish.

Waiting in the wings The Boys in the Boat, and a couple other library loan suggestions from these threads.

 

[Odyssey]

A slow read...
I've been reading Cache Lake one chapter at a time over several months; not how I usually read books, but this has been a great way of escaping every once in a while. I often lose interest part way through a good read and put that book down never to pick it up again for months, years...Cache Lake calls me from the book pile just when I need that canoe country escape the most.
Some books aren't conducive at all to slow reading such as many history books. I tend to forget dates and names too quickly to be able to follow along over several drawn out months. Also stories in which I need to remember characters, plots etc. In these cases I wind up going back one chapter, two, oh what the heck, I might as well start all over again.
Anyone else out there who does the slow read type of thing?

 

[frozentripper]

Hey, Odyssey, I've read the last several slowly as well, renewing at the library several times. It's like tuning in to the next episode on a TV series, where are things going now? I do online reading much of the time and a real, page-turning book is a relief sometimes.


Reading "real" books rather than in some digital form seems to be in a downtrend...

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

[h=1]Just finished Jeff Forester: The Forest for the Trees: How Humans Shaped the North Woods. He focuses on the Arrowhead region of MN including pre contact, exploitation, USFS, and roadless/wilderness periods. Pretty good read for BWCA/Quetico campers who are interested in trees and forests and a non-fiction follow up to Barkskins I mentioned earlier.[/h]

 

[memaquay]

Only about 100 pages into Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer. The book is over 800 pages, so I have barely cracked the spine. The author starts off by saying people like Champlain have fallen out of favour in historical circles in the last 20 years due to the revisionist history that has judged all "world Builders" of the past with a modern viewpoint. Apparently Champlain has been under a cloud of suspicion, much like John A MacDonald, for his relations with the First Nations. However, Fischer maintains that this is a false application of real historical work, and that history should speak for itself. Quite topical in today's world's of political correctness and the ruckus surround statue destruction.

So far, it's been quite thorough, I now know more about Champlain's town of birth than i ever thought possible. I'll probably take it on my first outers trip of the year and see if I can get another 100 pages knocked off.

 

[Bioguide]

[h=1]Longitude[/h] Release Date:03-30-09
Publisher: Random House Audio

• Written by: Dava Sobel
• Narrated by: Kate Reading , Neil Armstrong
• Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
• An exciting scientific adventure from the days of wooden ships and iron men, Longitude is full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd. It is also a captivating brief history of astronomy, navigation and clockmaking. During the great ages of exploration, "the longitude problem" was the gravest of all scientific challenges. Lacking the ability to determine their longitude, sailors were literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Ships ran aground on rocky shores; those traveling well-known routes were easy prey to pirates.
  In 1714, England's Parliament offered a huge reward to anyone whose method of measuring longitude could be proven successful. The scientific establishment--from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton--had mapped the heavens in its certainty of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution--a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had been able to do on land. And the race was on....
  
• Unabridged Audiobook

 

[27 ELKS]

I'm (once again) reading an all time literary classic by Patrick F. McManus, "They Shoot Canoes, Don't They?" Is this book banned here?

 

[DaveOR]

Started, and then put down Lower River by Paul Theroux. I really like most everything written by Theroux, particularly his non-fiction travel writing. But this one had the main character, 62 years old, recently divorced and selling his business, thinking about returning to Africa where he was happiest in his life, in the Peace Corp in his younger days. He was revered in his village for his lack of fear of...snakes, deadly snakes. I could see where this was heading. I don't do snakes real well. (Especially after also watching an episode of Dr. Blake mysteries where the murder weapon was an Asian Pit Viper hidden among the hoses in the car of a vacuum cleaner salesman.)

I have tried several times to read Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, but could never get it done. It is a dense, daunting and very thick book. But my wife got the audio book version from the library and, listening to the book (with an excellent reader), I understand why it is his seminal book. It was really good. It also helped the rafter and ridge framing and sheathing of the new shop go really well.

Found two other Stegner books at Goodwill, both are much more approachable; Crossing To Safety and Marking The Sparrow's Fall: Wallace Stegner's American West, edited by his son, Page Stegner.

Speaking of shops, getting more direct help from Creating Your Own Woodshop/ Charlie Self, from the library and Setting Up Shop/Sandor Nagyszalanczy from AbeBooks.

 

[Tiernan]

I am reading Pissl's (Barren Grounds) account of the tragic Moffatt trip on the Dubawant River after having first read Grinnell's (Death on the Barrens)account. I really enjoy the contrasting perspectives.

I also enjoyed the overlap in (No Man's River) Mowat and P.G. Downes (Sleeping Island). I don't want to spoil it if you haven't read them.

In reading (Lands Forlorn) Douglass. I became interested in John Hornby. I found and loved (The Legend of John Horby) Whalley, and another perspective on this fascinating legend of the north called (Snow Man: John Horby in the Barrens) Waldron. I also got my hands on Hornby's nephew's death diary called (Death in the Barren Ground) Christian

 

[DanOver]

I am reading "Catch em Alive" by Jim Abernathy and "The Abernathy Boys" - The Abernathy Boys is especially engaging, as Jim Abernathy allowed his 5 and 9 year old sons to take adventures on with only the two of them in the early 1900s. Horseback rides from OK to AZ, then OK to New York City, and finally coast to coast - which they did in a record-breaking 62 days. The boys took some of he money they made and bought a tandem Indian Motorcycle for adventures. But when you read Catch em Alive, you understand what kind of guy their dad was. Amazing.

 

[Guest]

Shackletons Forgotten Expedition, The Voyage of the Nimrod
by Beau Riffenburg

Like Wolves on the Fold, The Defense of Rorke's Drift
by Lieutenant Colonel Mike Snook

Churchill, Wanted Dead or Alive
by Celia Sandys

The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake 1577-1580
by Samuel Bawlf

Hodges Scout, A Lost Patrol of the French & Indian War,
by Len Travers

Samurai Warriors
by David Miller

Autumn of the Black Snake, The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion That Opened the West
By William Hogeland

The Best Land Under Heaven, The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny
by Michael Wallis

Those listed are but a few of the books I've read so far this year. I average about 3 per month, and am particulary interested in the Revoluntionary War, French & Indian War, Civil War, and voyages of discovery and/or survival. I am also interested in the Mayan, and Aztec cultures.
I visited my first library when I was in the 4th grade; I was hooked.
There are several used book stores I frequent, several library sales I attend every year, and I special order books from the local bookstore.
I occasionally scout books for resale. My best find cost me $60.00. I resold it a year later to a collector for $5,500.00

I know some disagree; I avoid fiction book like the plague.
My wife, also a voracious reader, typically reads fiction.
To each their own............

BOB

 

[frozentripper]

Hap Wilson's new book is on reserve at the library... only second in line so probably not too long a wait. The cover looks a little over the top, bordering on wilderness porn but we'll see... read, actually.

Summary
New York's Men's Journal Magazine hired a studio photographer from Brooklyn, a post-master/writer from Thermond West Virginia and two Canadian river guides to paddle one of the country's most dangerous whitewater rivers - the Seal in northern Manitoba, for the purpose of publishing the quintessential Canadian adventure story. Add to this unlikely melange of characters, the possibility of capsizing in freezing water, the threat of polar bears, a midnight sail down Hudson Bay and Manitoba's worst boreal wild fire, this chronicle will carry the reader to the extreme edge of exploration.

 

[DaveOR]

I'm on a bit of a music jag...

Clapton's Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build The Perfect Instrument/Allen St.John.
Author seems on a bit of an adulation riff over Henderson, but the glimpse into the guitar making process and finding out the difference between a 1939 Martin 000-42 and a 1974 Martin 000-28 is guitar geek heaven. Henderson is a craftsman and also happens to be a helluva flat picker himself.

By the way, Clapton had to wait 10 years to get his Henderson guitar.

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and The Brain/ Oliver Sacks.
A fascinating book at the power of music to affect neurological conditions through stories of Sacks' patients musicians and everyday people.

The Songlines/ Bruce Chatwin.
I first read this book last winter preparing for my trip to Australia last March. I came back to it after reading the Sacks book.

Chatwin is famous for his travel writing but this book is travel writing set as a novel. From the book flap: "[Aboriginal] labyrinths of invisible pathways across the continent are known to us as Songlines or Dreaming tracks of their ancestors...Along these "roads" they travel in order to perform all those activities that are distinctly human - song, dance, marriage, exchange of ideas and arrangement of territorial boundaries by agreement rather than force."

 

[alsg]

Upwards: The Story of First Woman to Thru-Paddle the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. https://www.amazon.com/Upwards-Story-Thru-Paddle-Northern-Forest/dp/1633811220

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

Just finished Peter Wohlleben: 'The Hidden Life of Trees'. He digests forestry and tree physiology research into a very readable narrative. Not exactly canoeing fare but we paddle in the north woods, so there is some relevancy there.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and The Brain/ Oliver Sacks.
A fascinating book at the power of music to affect neurological conditions through stories of Sacks' patients musicians and everyday people.

The radiolab episode on Oliver Sacks' final months on earth was eerily fascinating.

http://www.radiolab.org/story/oliver-sacks-journey-where-to-where/

 

[Odyssey]

I'm reading Adam Shoalts A History of Canada in Ten Maps, Epic Stories of Charting a Mysterious Land. Only two maps into the book and enjoying every page.
For lighter funner stuff I'm laughing out loud with You're Not Lost If You Can Still See The Truck, by Bill Heavy. One of the best reads in years; or maybe ever. It touches your soul and tickles your funnybone, often in the same chapter.