The Literary Outdoorsman

We've listed our favorite outdoor books here for you
to browse. Whether you need something to read while
sitting around the campsite, before bedtime, or on a
rainy day, these books are sure to satisfy. If you can't
get outside, the next best thing is to read a good book
about the great outdoors. Pick up a copy today!

Harry Middleton had to endure hardships to
find the queen mother of all trout streams in
the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains of
Tennessee. He had to live through
treacherous mountain roads, the cloud of
airborne industrial toxins that shrouds the
range for most of the year, an occasional
blast of lightning, and, worst of all, a helping
of rancid potato salad at a roadside diner.
Like Norman MacLean in A River Runs
Through It, Middleton makes fly-fishing a
religion with its own vision of nirvana, and if
it takes an occasional descent into the nether
regions to attain it, the author isn't afraid to
supply the grisly details. This graceful, funny
memoir belongs in every angler's library.
--Amazon.com

Middleton's writings and reflections
summon a deeper and more profound
respect for the essential role that
wilderness and mountains play on the
human psyche. Populated with eccentric
and engaging characters, Middleton recalls
his encounters with humor and alongside
his stirring depictions of the Smoky's
scenic vistas and the wild places provide
the solace of mountain streams, fast
watertrout hooked and trout lost. On the
Spine of Time will delight and engage
anyone who ever held a pole in hand while
hip deep in a pleasant stream while
matching wits with a wily trout.
--Reviewers Bookwatch/The Midwest Book
Review, February 1998

"Altogether beautiful in the power of
its feeling. . . . As beautiful as
anything in Thoreau or
Hemingway."--Alfred Kazin, Chicago
Tribune Book World

"It is an enchanted tale. . . . I have
read the story three times now, and
each time it seems fuller."
-- Roger Sale, New York Review of
Book

"The title novella is the prize. . . .
Something unique and marvelous:
a story that is at once an evocation
of nature's miracles and realities
and a probing of human mysteries.
Wise, witty, wonderful, Maclean
spins his tales, casts his flies,
fishes the rivers and the woods for
what he remembers from his youth
in the Rockies."
--Publishers Weekly

David James Duncan's first novel
has gained an increasingly wide
audience over the years--some might
even call it a following. This
coming-of-age tale of Gus Orviston's
search for the Pacific Northwest's
elusive steelhead, a metaphor for
Gus's internal quest for
self-knowledge, appeals to all who
cherish a good yarn and memorable
characters. Uncle Zeke's colorful
rendition of Gus's conception on the
banks of the Deschutes River is itself
worth the price of purchase.
--Amazon.com

"Irreverent, offbeat, and thoroughly
likable." --Los Angeles Times

"Entertaining . . . humorous . . . well
worth reading." --Chicago Tribune

"Wonderfully funny . . . imbued with
a wisdom and a rather joyous
ecology-minded spirit." --Esquire

"A veritable epic . . . moving,
rhapsodic in its
intensity."--Publishers Weekly

"Babb takes his readers on a
roller-coaster ride through farce
and satire to elegy and folk-tale.
He's a flyfishing Mark Twain who
knows a little bit too much about
Beavis and Butthead. The stories
meander and turn like the streams
on which they are set, leaving the
reader wondering where each
essay will deposit them."
--Library Journal

"He has a fine eye for fine words. . . It's
good. His confessions are insightful,
and a bit surprising, his metaphors
nail their targets and his words flow . .
. like river music. Sometimes smooth,
sometimes a bit rushed, sometimes in
a tumble, but when they sift into the
pool there's a clarity and insightful
depth. . . . If you haven't sat down with
a good story book, just to read good
stories for the enjoys--this may be a
good place to start."
--The Reel News

A brilliant collection of narrative essays
about flies, fly rods, float tubes, and just
plain fishing. Trout Bum will be a
classic of angling literature, not
because it adheres to an ancient model,
but because it updates a tradition....The
way Gierach tells a story is an act of
pure generosity..
--Rod & Reel

Trout Bum captures the passion,
confusion and left-handed poetry of
modern fishing, having his heart to the
rivers he fishes, John Gierach conveys
the power of his experience without
pretense.
--Thomas McGuane

Trout Bum is one of those delightful
funds, like Norman McLean's A River
Runs Through It. John Gierach is
simply one of the more wonderful
outdoor writers to come down the
pike in many a season. I laughed out
loud on almost every page, and found
much of what he has to say very
lyrical and touching. This book is a
treasure trove of fishy witticisms,
outright belly laughs, and enough
technical lore and love of nature to
keep the most avid (or even the least
avid) outdoors person turning pages
relentlessly.
--John Nichols