Zeno
06-08-2003, 02:46 AM
This book is a paperback book. It has pages and text and two covers and a binding and the usual blurbs, acclaim, and pedestrian drivel that inhabit all book covers and the first few pages. It is small and neat as books go and at about 160 pages is not weighty or big enough to scare many people. There is a picture of half a fish on the cover, a rainbow trout possibly, but only the front half is shown, as if the ass end of a fish is uninteresting.
The text is a series of essays arranged in chronological order. It is not a chapter and verse type book. It cost less than fourteen dollars, including shipping; from a place that may or may not be called Amazon dot com, period. Which I added for emphasis.
Now, is the book worth reading? Yes. Is the book worth reading if you do not fish? Yes. Will you get “more” from the book if you are a fisher-type-person, especially the type called fly fishing fanatic? Yes. Is the book always about fishing? No. Which is good.
This is an excellent book. Much of it is very well written in an engaging, witty style. Ian mentions places from New York, Ohio, and New Jersey to Montana and from city fishing to freezing on the Bitterroot River. And he also rattles on about the outdoors or owners of fishing shops or eccentric Homo sapiens beating about in the woods. One of the best essays is called, A Lovely Sort of Lower Purpose. It is not typical of most “outdoor” writing but it is the most insightful and uncanny essay that I have read in many a year.
This book lives up to most of the blather on its back cover. I give it 9 fish out of 10.
Buy it, read it, then use it for bait.
-Zeno
The text is a series of essays arranged in chronological order. It is not a chapter and verse type book. It cost less than fourteen dollars, including shipping; from a place that may or may not be called Amazon dot com, period. Which I added for emphasis.
Now, is the book worth reading? Yes. Is the book worth reading if you do not fish? Yes. Will you get “more” from the book if you are a fisher-type-person, especially the type called fly fishing fanatic? Yes. Is the book always about fishing? No. Which is good.
This is an excellent book. Much of it is very well written in an engaging, witty style. Ian mentions places from New York, Ohio, and New Jersey to Montana and from city fishing to freezing on the Bitterroot River. And he also rattles on about the outdoors or owners of fishing shops or eccentric Homo sapiens beating about in the woods. One of the best essays is called, A Lovely Sort of Lower Purpose. It is not typical of most “outdoor” writing but it is the most insightful and uncanny essay that I have read in many a year.
This book lives up to most of the blather on its back cover. I give it 9 fish out of 10.
Buy it, read it, then use it for bait.
-Zeno