Books
My reading interests are rather eclectic. I like humor. I like adventures in the natural world, particularly in the far north. I like certain biographical and historical works, particularly first person narratives. I like explorations of the mind.
Not being a writer at heart nor very good at it, I've relied on the writers I read to provide most of the text for these blurbs about the books I've been reading. Generally I'll quote the first few lines from a book. If some passages grab me that I want to save and savor again, I'll include those too. And every once in a while I'll have something to contribute too.
To paraphrase Isaac Asimov, if an author doesn't get my attention in the first couple of pages, I'm gone. Life is too short to spend it on uninteresting stuff.
This list is in roughly reverse chronological order of my reading. Some have a page here with excerpts from the book and occassionally a comment. Others have a link to Amazon.
Books with a link to a page here
- Anasazi America: Seventeen Centuries on the Road from Center Place by David E. Stuart
- Point of Departure, an Autobiography, by James Cameron
- March to Quebec, compiled and annotated by Kenneth Roberts
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond
- On A Planet Sailing West by Linda Clarke
- More Readings From One Man's Wilderness : The Journals of Richard L. Proenneke, 1974-1980
- Bad Dirt : Wyoming Stories 2 by Annie Proulx
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
- Bird by Bird : Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
- On Moral Fiction by John Gardner
- Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure by Daniel Quinn
- Descartes' Error : Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain by Antonio R. Damasio
- The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto
- a book of bees by Sue Hubbell
- Total Renewal by Frank Lipman
- Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin
- The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich
- Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology by David Graeber
- Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell
- On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt
From Lakeside Classics Series
- My Life East and West by William S. Hart, The Lakeside Press, 1994
- Mrs. Hill's Journal - Civil War Reminiscences by Sarah Jane Full Hill, The Lakeside Press, 1980
- Two Years' Residence on the English Prairie of Illinois by John Woods, The Lakeside Press, 1968
- A Texas Ranger by N. A. Jennings, The Lakeside Press, 1992
- Children of Ol' Man River, The Life and Times of a Showboat Trouper by Billy Bryant, Lakeside Press 1988
- Hell among the Yearlings by Edmund Randolph, Lakeside Press 1978
- The Logbook of the Captain's Clerk, Adventures in the China Seas by John S Sewell, Lakeside Press 1995
- Narrative of My Captivity among the Sioux Indians by Fanny Kelly, Lakeside Press 1990
- Skyward by Admiral Richard E Byrd Lakeside Press 1981
- Excursion Through America by H. Mohr Lakeside Press 1973
- Autobiography of an English Soldier in the United States Army by George Ballentine, Lakeside Press 1986
- From Mexican Days to the Gold Rush, Memoirs of James Wilson Marshall and Edward Gould Buffum Who Grew Up with California, Lakeside Press 1993
- Uncle Dick Wootton by Howard Louis Conard Lakeside Press 1957
- Life of Tom Horn, Government Scout and Interpreter, Written by Himself, A Vindication, Lakeside Press 1987
- Pioneers - Letts and Banning Narratives - 1825-1865 Lakeside Press 1972
The rest, some with a link to Amazon.com
- Small Pieces Loosely Joined, A Unified Theory of the Web by David Weinberger
- John Adams by David McCullough]]
- Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival by Bernd Heinrich
- On Killing : The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman
- The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto
- Fighter, The True Story of the Battle of Britain by Len Deighton
- Jesse Monongya, Opal Bears and Lapis Skies (American Indian Master Jewelers) by Lois Sherr Dubin
- Why We Run: A Natural History by Bernd Heinrich
- A Year in the Maine Woods by Bernd Heinrich
- Life Among the Piutes by Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins
- The New Humanists : Science at the Edge by John Brockman (Editor)
- Arctic Explorations, The Second Grinnell Expedition In Search of Sir John Franklin 1853, 54, 55 by Elisha Kent Kane, M.D.,U.S.N, Lakeside Press 1996
- In America: A Novel by Susan Sontag
- Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
- That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
- Against the Clock by Ron Ayres
- A Country Year: Living the Questions by Sue Hubbel
- Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich
- Caught in Fading Light: Mountain Lions, Zen Masters, and Wild Nature by Gary Thorp
- My Dream of You by Nuala O'Faolain
- The Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich
- Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
- Tom Brown's Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants by Tom Brown