I greatly enjoy Gordon McQuarrie for his story telling that takes you there with him and the president. Ted Trueblood for his story telling and the practicality he works into them. Francis Sell for his knowledge that was earned through experience and his old time story telling. Gene Hill for the way he expresses what we do so well. Burt Spiller for his ability to take me grouse hunting when I cannot go myself.Townsend Whelen because I love those old Springfield custom rifles.

No writer in the outdoor sporting genre has ever come close to Jack O'Connor. Or ever will. He was a master of language, nuance, candor and sophistication. The rest stand in his shadow.

a book to read, and a place to read it
 

Quote from start of this Thread: "....To be able to sit back in that comfortable chair by the fire while enjoying a favorite beverage and become lost in a different place in a different time within the pages of a book is such a pleasure after a long day. I do it almost every day...." -- D. R.

So, part of the experience, other than selecting a good title, is providing the right atmosphere for reading it. A carpenter friend of mine cites a house he built for a client in a fashionable Northeast area, costing several million dollars. It was, as he reported, "all glass"; "there wasn't a cozy corner in the entire house" ; "you couldn't read a book". (Apologies to those who like or live in Frank Lloyd-type houses -- and are Ok with reading a book in them.)

My friend's reactions reminded me of what I saw when returning to a New England college a few years back. The library interior reflected a new-style of institutional remodeling. It no longer had any cozy corners; the wing-back chairs were all gone; even the displays of collections had been removed. It looked like a records storage facility or laboratory.

So, I sought some explanatory insights from a good "local knowledge" source -- one of the college Buildings and Grounds employees (often a good alternative to an academician). He told me that the current practice was to get people in and out of the library quickly -- no reading or study encouraged there; just get what was needed for study or research and take it elsewhere.

As for recommended titles, don't overlook the works of Jim Corbett, slayer of man-eating Tigers and Leopards. A boxed set of his writings -- hunting for sport, meat and guiding and his life in rural India under the Raj -- can now be obtained.

And, if drawn-in enough by the Corbett mystique, you can follow up with the biographies:

JIM CORBETT OF KUMAON, by D. C. Kala
CARPET SAHIB --A life of Jim Corbett, by Martin Booth
GENTLEMAN HUNTER, by Peter Byrne, the one biographer of unique authority, as he was once a professional guide for big cat sport hunters in India
BEHIND THE JIM CORBETT STORIES -- an Analytical Journey to 'Corbett Places' and Unanswered Questions, written by a squad of enthusiasts of varying nationalities, professions and advanced degrees, re-tracing Corbett's footsteps and debating the saga's lingering discrepancies.

A sad note for those who love to read by the fire: we lost a true Northeast Kingdom treasure in the passing of the author Howard Mosher a few weeks back. I had fished and hunted a bit with Howard and slapped my knees a hundred times in outrageous laughter with him. One of his last wishes was to finish a final book and this he succeeded in accomplishing. In saying goodby I know that the energy is never lost and this final work should be one great read.

Ok, very sorry for the loss of a true NEKer.

How can I get a copy of that book?

Dean,
Thanks for the reminder. I just pulled down my copy of "Tranquility" to enjoy this weekend. While it's not Nash writing about places familiar to thisTennessee boy, it is a wonderful book. Don't have the other two in the trilogy but I'll have to start looking for them. By the way, I am really enjoying the nice 28ga Repro I got from you recently!
Have good weekend.
Best
Tim

Thanks Tim - That's a sweetheart of a gun. I took a fair number of grouse and woodcock with it and that Mod barrel can really reach out there.
One of my greatest memories with it was a big cock grouse that flashed about twenty-five yards to my right from beneath some scrub apple trees flying up along an old barb wire fence toward another group of older apple trees. When he finally broke into view he was more than 35 yards away and about 4 feet off the ground going like a rocket. All in one motion I mounted that gun, put my finger on the rear trigger, swung past him, and I must have pressed the trigger because he disappeared from my view. I found him stone dead just beyond where I last saw him... a full 44 long paces from where I was standing when I shot.





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The one writer that I just never could warm up to was Nash Buckingham. I just find him hard to read. Spiller, Sheldon, Ford, Evans I have enjoyed immensely but not Nash.

Nash sure had the ability to put 'old-time Southern' dialect and colloquialism to the pen - he was a master of that style of story telling.




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Yes he was but I was never able to master reading it:)