Good books

[Raider Bill]

I am currently reading Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner.  It's a great read if you want to know what living in remote Alaska is really like.

In many ways, he had it rougher than I did.  In some ways, he had it easier.

ha ha , nice to see so many good book suggestions! I love it. Have you ever read the book by Heimo Korth called The Last Frontiersman? I read it last fall. He was the last person allowed to homestead up in the ANWR reserve. He was a greenhorn when he got up there and learned some lessons the very hard way. He was from here where I live. Must be something in the water around here , lots of wisconsinites seem to end up in AK. , maybe because they are used to the cold! -23 f here this morning.

I read the last frontiersman last week!  great book. I think someone here recommended it.

[Texas Ranger]

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and the two sequels.

[northwoods1]

I am currently reading Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner.  It's a great read if you want to know what living in remote Alaska is really like.

In many ways, he had it rougher than I did.  In some ways, he had it easier.

ha ha , nice to see so many good book suggestions! I love it. Have you ever read the book by Heimo Korth called The Last Frontiersman? I read it last fall. He was the last person allowed to homestead up in the ANWR reserve. He was a greenhorn when he got up there and learned some lessons the very hard way. He was from here where I live. Must be something in the water around here , lots of wisconsinites seem to end up in AK. , maybe because they are used to the cold! -23 f here this morning.

I read the last frontiersman last week!  great book. I think someone here recommended it.

I can suggest another book that is right along the same lines, it is called "The Last of the Mountain Men" which is about a guy named Sylvan Hart. He went in to remote Idaho and set up a homestead on government land. They tried to kick him off but finally left him alone because he really went all out on the self sufficiency thing. He had a great little cabin that you couldn't access except by scaffolding running along a cliff face above , I think, the Snake river. Had a large vegetable garden with dozens of different things growing in it and a blacksmith shop where he made all sorts of stuff like knives and he even built the guns he used to get his meat. Really interesting book I bet you would like it

[northwoods1]

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and the two sequels.

That is another one which I just saw the movie haven't read the book. I thought the movie was good and I think I just saw a new book out that has that same girl as a character, it must be the sequel your talking about.

[northwoods1]

I'm getting The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest for Christmas (think Douglas-fir) and am looking forward to reading that...

That book sounds interesting. I bet there would be a lot of information in there you might not find elsewhere.

[northwoods1]

Does it come on DVD?   :D  With 3 young in's, coaching minor hockey 2 nights a week with games and tournaments every weekend, a full time job during the day and my consulting business by night...who has time to read.   :D

Self inflicted I know...

Yes I know what you mean by not having time. Most of the time for me it is hard to find a book that really holds my interest. Nothing better than a good book though... it often helps me forget about all of the other things that require my attention.
Actually , to be honest I find time to read EVERY morning for at least a couple minutes :D shortly after I wake up and have my 1st cup of coffee and need to visit the lavatory :D :D

[Chris Burchfield]

I listed "Decision Points By George W. Bush." on the Restricted Board as I enjoyed the book.  Currently 125 pages into "Spoken from the Heart" by Laura Bush. Enjoying it also.  I don't think John Grisham or Tom Clancy has ever written a bad book.

[Warbird]

I am currently reading Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner.  It's a great read if you want to know what living in remote Alaska is really like.

In many ways, he had it rougher than I did.  In some ways, he had it easier.

ha ha , nice to see so many good book suggestions! I love it. Have you ever read the book by Heimo Korth called The Last Frontiersman? I read it last fall. He was the last person allowed to homestead up in the ANWR reserve. He was a greenhorn when he got up there and learned some lessons the very hard way. He was from here where I live. Must be something in the water around here , lots of wisconsinites seem to end up in AK. , maybe because they are used to the cold! -23 f here this morning.

I have heard of "The Last Frontiersman" but have not yet read it.  Sounds like I'll have to check it out.

-37 F here this mornin'.  Supposed to get real cold tonight.... they're calling for -50.

[northwoods1]

I have heard of "The Last Frontiersman" but have not yet read it.  Sounds like I'll have to check it out.

-37 F here this mornin'.  Supposed to get real cold tonight.... they're calling for -50.

I've got a hardback copy of that if you want it. Think I bought it in an airport somewhere needed something to read where do you get books where you live anyhow, do they have a library there or what?

[northwoods1]

I listed "   
Decision Points By George W. Bush." on the Restricted Board as I enjoyed the book.  Currently 125 pages into "Spoken from the Heart" by Laura Bush. Enjoying it also.  I don't thing John Grisham or Tom Clancy has ever written a bad book.

George Bush wrote a book? I did not know that.

[Warbird]

where do you get books where you live anyhow, do they have a library there or what?

Heh.  Yes, we have a library and many stores.  Fairbanks is what I call a large city with something like 40,000 people.  It's gotten too large for my tastes.  I've lived in extremely remote places, though, where we had nothing of the sort.

[Raider Bill]

Just ordered "last of the mountain men"
Thanks for the tip

[northwoods1]

where do you get books where you live anyhow, do they have a library there or what?

Heh.  Yes, we have a library and many stores.  Fairbanks is what I call a large city with something like 40,000 people.  It's gotten too large for my tastes.  I've lived in extremely remote places, though, where we had nothing of the sort.

I wasn't sure if you were close to town or not, or even what Fairbanks looks like. I've been close to Fairbanks but not quite there. I have a friend that lives in Delta Junction I would like to visit. I can send you that book if you want costs about $2 for media rate. Just pass it on when your done that would be fine with me 8)

[northwoods1]

Just ordered "last of the mountain men"
Thanks for the tip

Hey your welcome once in a great while you will still see some of his knives he made floating around for sale. Most people prize them, mostly for the story that goes along with them. 

[john_boylan]

World Made by Hand, fiction by James Howard Kunstler.  One man's fictional account of a post-apocalyptic America, set in the not too distant future.  Disturbing images, but the only piece of fiction that I have read straight through in the last twenty years.  If you're not already perhaps a slightly paranoid survivalist, it might set you on that path.  In any event, I couldn't put it down until I'd finished it.

[SwampDonkey]

George Bush wrote a book? I did not know that.

Yes, my father is reading it also. It's gotten lots of air time before it's release, mostly people poking fun for whatever reason.

[SwampDonkey]

I've been to Alaska, at a tiny little hamlet called Hyder in the panhandle. It is across the street, literally, from Stewart, BC. Stewart is the most northerly ice free port in Canada. It's quite a ways above Prince Rupert. Anyway, the mail service in Hyder comes from Canada Post in Stewart. There was a nice little store/trading post there where I got some nice wool pants for $20 a pair, Canadian money at par.  8) I was only there to see Stewart. We were up at Stewart Junction for work. From the junction you go one way to Stewart or on to northern Alaska or south to Cedarvale which is along the Skeena R. and the Kings Highway. That would take us all day to drive up there to the camps just before the junction on the Nass River.



Icey blue waters of the Meziadin meet the milky glacier melt waters of the Nass. Meziadin Lake filters out the silt of the glacial melt before it dumps into the Nass.



Nass river camp

Sometimes it would be crazy weather up there. The climate changes there as you go up into those forested hills above camp. Above them forest hills are rugged peaks frozen in ice and snow. Some times it would be raining all day down in camp and we would go up in those hills and the sun was shining all day up there. :D



Shows the changes from green aspen trees in the valley to ice and snow in the mountains. Not a book, and trouble is if a man doesn't keep a journal of some kind, the memory of it all fades with time. Mostly names of places and people you forget. You don't forget what you did.  ;)

[WDH]

Northwoods,

Have you read "The Mountain Man" by Vardis Fisher?  It was the book that the movie Jeremiah Johnson was based upon.  Vardis Fisher also wrote a fictional account of the Donner Party called "The Mothers".  He also wrote a fictional series of books called "The Testament of Man" that is one account of the ascent of man that was more formative on me than anything else that I have ever read.

[Skip]

Just finished reading an old classic "Two years Before the Mast" by Richard Henry Dana Jr, might be the best book I ever read and I've read a bunch  :P  :P  :P

[Raider Bill]

I'm going to keep amazon busy ordering these books you guys recommend!
I generally have 3 going at one time. My main book for unwinding and going to sleep with, a quick reader for the water closet and a book on cd in the truck.

[Patty]

I love to read in the mornings with my coffee. It is a gift to myself that I really have enjoyed the past couple of years.

The two recent authors I have been reading are: Bryce Courteny and Jim Fergus.
Bryce Courteney is an Australian author, his books are very long, in the 700-900 page range, but once started I could not put them down! Some of his books are: "The Power of One" and its sequel "Tandia"....books based in Africa back in the early to mid 1900's. "The Potato Factory" and its sequel "Tommo & Hawk" are excellent books  based on life in Australia back in the late 1800's early 1900's. And right now I am reading his book, "Brother Fish", another Australian based book concerning the Korean war. I am only 200 pages into this book of plus 900, so I am guessing it extends up to current times, but I don't know. Bryce is one of the best authors I have ever read.

Jim Fergus's books are based on America's southwest back in the days of Indians. "One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd" was his first fiction book, and "The Wild Girl" was his second. Excellent books both of them. Most of his books are non-fiction based on hunting, "A Hunter's Road: A journey with Gun & Dog Across the American Uplands". I just loaded this one onto my Kindle, but have not read it yet.

John Grisham's "The Confession" was a disappointment to me. I think I am just burned out on Grisham for awhile.

This is a great thread, I like learning about new authors and adventures for my mind!

[Warbird]

where do you get books where you live anyhow, do they have a library there or what?

Heh.  Yes, we have a library and many stores.  Fairbanks is what I call a large city with something like 40,000 people.  It's gotten too large for my tastes.  I've lived in extremely remote places, though, where we had nothing of the sort.

I wasn't sure if you were close to town or not, or even what Fairbanks looks like. I've been close to Fairbanks but not quite there. I have a friend that lives in Delta Junction I would like to visit. I can send you that book if you want costs about $2 for media rate. Just pass it on when your done that would be fine with me 8)

That is a very gracious offer of you, northwoods1.  One I'd be happy to accept, as long as you promise to look me up should you ever be in this area.  I already owe one FF member a cup of coffee for some reading material he sent up.  I'd like to buy you a cup of coffee too, in return. 

Let me know if this is acceptable and I'll PM you my mailing address.

[chain]

My bedtime story-teller book, "Guns of the Old West" by Dean Boorman is a fascinating volume of the guns, rifles, pistols [and a few others] that settled the Old West. One of my favorites is a color photo of a U.S. Army Spencer carbine in a .56-56 caliber. The rifle was carried by a Cheyenne warrior in the Battle of Little Bighorn.

[Doc Hickory]

I've read several books by a writer named Allan Eckert. His thing is to take a certain person or historical period and deal with it. He wrote a novel all about the Black Hawk war out in Illinois, another about Simon Kenton, a historical figure who was famous in the early days of Kentucky, and a whole sackful of others.  What I like about his writing is that he puts an extensive set of footnotes at the end of his books that expand the information in the text. His writing is based on historical records but he does put words into the historical figure's mouths, recreating conversations that are in context with their known statements and actions.  The result is a good taste of history minus that terrible 'dryness' so much of historical writing experiences.  I think I've read five of his novels and I've enjoyed each one very much, so be warned- you may become addicted!   Some of his titles are The Frontiersmen, Wilderness Empire, Gateway to Empire, The Wilderness War, Twilight of Empire, and Tecumseh.  Happy reading!

[northwoods1]

World Made by Hand, fiction by James Howard Kunstler.  One man's fictional account of a post-apocalyptic America, set in the not too distant future.  Disturbing images, but the only piece of fiction that I have read straight through in the last twenty years.  If you're not already perhaps a slightly paranoid survivalist, it might set you on that path.  In any event, I couldn't put it down until I'd finished it.

I'll look that one up , sounds like the story might make a good movie.