“If you never win and are indifferent to losing, all that’s left is playing the game.”
Make no mistake. The Bruce Trail has simple sections that ar“If you never win and are indifferent to losing, all that’s left is playing the game.”
Make no mistake. The Bruce Trail has simple sections that are doable by even the most sedentary, out-of-shape walkers. But there are also sections that would challenge even the most experienced and accomplished long-distance hikers. Author Marg Heidebrecht and her friend Pam complete the 885 kilometer trail running between Queenston Heights and Tobermory in Ontario on 53 hiking days spread over a continuing period of 4 years of effort. Hard on the heels of their proud completion of that trek, Pam discovered she had cancer and passed away a short time after that.
IN THE SHADE is a heart-warming, evocative series of essays in which Heidebrecht muses on her ideas of love and friendship, loss, life and death, accomplishment and failure. While there is certainly an element of “how to” with respect to long-distance hiking, in general, and the Bruce Trail, more specifically, that is not IN THE SHADE’s primary focus. The back cover marketing blurb describes it well, “This book begins as “How to” but develops into “What now?” as Marg turns to words as a way of making sense of the world around her, steadying herself after the loss of a close friend.”
An enjoyable quick and easy read that may well prompt you into pondering your own relationship with the world around you and plant the seed of entering into your own version of a long distance hike somewhere in the world. Heidebrecht’s use of the afterword as a means of summarizing the three main components of her book – friendship, loss and the Bruce Trail – with a series of concise, beautifully summarized bullet points is a fabulous idea. For me, I intend to keep the book close to hand to reread those summaries time and time again.
“ … it is possible to soar without benefit of wings”
Perhaps you’re a beginner dipping your toe in the shallow end of the wilderness pool for the f“ … it is possible to soar without benefit of wings”
Perhaps you’re a beginner dipping your toe in the shallow end of the wilderness pool for the first time, stepping outside of your urban comfort zone and tentatively, even fearfully, indulging in a weekend canoe trip with your buddies that involves a portage or two off of the punters’ beaten track. On the other hand, you might be an accomplished four-season solo wilderness explorer planning a multi-week exploratory tour on a route that isn’t so much a route as an extended exercise in bushwhacking, compass and map reading, and risk management! Wherever you might fall on that wide spectrum of outdoor lovers, campers, hikers, canoeists, or explorers, there is no question that, sooner or later, somebody will ask you the inevitable question, “Why?” or “Whatever for??”.
NORTHERN WILD, subtitled BEST CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN NATURE WRITING, might be characterized as an anthology of essays that answer that question, as the back cover marketing blurb suggests, with “passion, wisdom, humour, reverence and a naturalist’s eye for detail”. Oh, there were other articles to be sure – informative pieces on the loss of Beluga habitat in the St Lawrence or the climatology of grasslands on the prairies for example. And there was even a piece that actually repelled me – a story of a December fisherman intent on landing a feisty steelhead trout out of season but, having seriously wounded it in the doing, consigned it to a certain death by releasing it bleeding into a river too cold to allow the blood to ever congeal and heal.
Even allowing for variations in personal temperament and reading tastes, NORTHERN WILD is a sure winner for outdoor lovers and couch-bound wannabes. Definitely recommended.
Lynn Truss, a proud, self-proclaimed snobbish pedant, makes no bones about the fact that her short book, EATS, SHOI am not a pickled herring salesman!
Lynn Truss, a proud, self-proclaimed snobbish pedant, makes no bones about the fact that her short book, EATS, SHOOTS AND LEAVES is really an extended essay on pedantry - a style book, a prescriptive grammar, a manifesto, a rant and, perhaps saddest of all, a eulogy - bemoaning the demise of the correct use of punctuation in the written English word today.
As a reader, writer and speaker who, frankly, takes pride in an extensive vocabulary and takes pains to use our magnificent language correctly, I found myself nodding vigorously in agreement as Truss eloquently spoke about the purpose of correct punctuation. She helps us to understand that commas, apostrophes, colons and the other denizens of our pantheon of punctuation marks are aids and signs on a road map for communication without misunderstanding. They are an invaluable assistance to reading out loud with the proper interpretation, lilt and intonation that an author intended in the same fashion as a well annotated musical score enables a musician to interpret music as a composer meant it to be played.
EATS, SHOOTS AND LEAVES also provides us with snippets of the history of punctuation. I wager that few of us were aware that the apostrophe first appeared as early as the 16th century.
If history and a pedantic rant delivered with a school marm attitude, a baleful glare and a wrathful wagging finger were all we got from a reading of EATS, SHOOTS AND LEAVES, I'm sure most of us would have yawned in complete boredom and Lynn Truss's novel would not likely have reached the list of best sellers. But, thankfully, EATS, SHOOTS AND LEAVES is also liberally sprinkled with a very healthy dose of dry as dust British wit, humour and sarcasm that hit my funny bone with a full-sized mallet. One of my favourites was the story of a community group who had built an enormous playground for the children of their neighbourhood and advertised it with the sign "GIANT KID'S PLAYGROUND". To the amazement of the group that had built the facility, it was hardly ever used. Lynn Truss, with tongue in cheek, suggested it was probably because everyone was terrified of meeting the giant kid.
By the way, the much maligned salesman of this review's title is actually a complete tee-totaller. He is, however, a very exceptional pickled-herring salesman! (If you'll forgive my mixed metaphors, a very different kettle of fish, indeed). This witty little example shows how the poor, lowly, and much misunderstood dash can eliminate any possibility of misunderstanding the sentence.
By a geek, about geeks and, ultimately, for geeks!
OK, OK, I admit it! I've been called a geek by the best of them. Even my family has indulged in a cBy a geek, about geeks and, ultimately, for geeks!
OK, OK, I admit it! I've been called a geek by the best of them. Even my family has indulged in a covert chuckle a time or two over my off-the-wall hobbies which include (aside from reviewing books for Goodreads, of course) Sudoku and crosswords. I've even been known to take a crack at constructing a cryptic crossword from time to time. So you may well imagine my pleasure at coming across GRIDLOCK, an insider's look at what author Matt Gaffney describes as "the quirky subculture of America's crossword puzzles."
Sadly, the idea was considerably better than the execution. I think the problem rests with the fact that there just simply isn't enough interesting material to pad out an entire book on the topic. Gaffney touches on the difficulties of making a living in the field, the growth of the use of computers in the industry, the evolution of theme-oriented puzzles and the quality of the puzzles in a national publication such as The Sunday New York Times versus the weakness and repetitiveness of puzzles in some of the off-the-shelf magazines. He talks at some length about the attributes that both solvers and creators alike look for in a well-constructed grid. He talks about some of the personalities in the field and even goes so far as to give us a peek inside some of the conferences that puzzle creators attend.
But ,the bottom line is this ... even though I probably qualify for at least honourary membership in the geek's club, reading about them never really ultimately proved to be particularly compelling. Passably interesting, yes, but thrilling page-turning - sorry, no!
Recommended (if you're REALLY into crossword puzzles).
How to turn success into even more success and fulfillment!
Jennifer White's book is not for wimps and losers.
A self-help book written by one of the fiHow to turn success into even more success and fulfillment!
Jennifer White's book is not for wimps and losers.
A self-help book written by one of the finest success coaches in the country, WORK LESS, MAKE MORE is an innovative tool to help self-driven, highly motivated individuals who are probably already successful do more and do better - to pull themselves out of a stalled rut, perhaps; to work more effectively; to make a quantum leap to a higher level of success; and clearly, to make a substantially higher level of income while working at a physically less demanding level.
Jennifer White's focus is on results and the premise, while difficult to envision, is achievable for those who are willing to make a paradigm shift in their outlook on what constitutes success, to undergo a sea change in their relationships with their family, their friends, their customers and their constituents.
This book is NOT for those that are unwilling to subject themselves to an intense level of scrutiny and, for a significant period of time, to pull themselves a long way out of previous comfort zones and to instill in themselves new habits.
My personal opinion is that this book is most likely to be successful for those individuals that are to a significant extent self-employed, self-driven, highly motivated and worrying with the realization that their career needs a lift. For those that qualify and are willing to change, Jennifer White's prescription will help you to become more deeply fulfilled and earn substantially higher financial rewards without driving yourself to an ulcer, without insulating yourself from your family and friends and without contemplating an early grave.
In the outdoors, knowing and tying the right knot in the right circumstances can save your food, your canoe, your sePerfect for campers and canoeists!
In the outdoors, knowing and tying the right knot in the right circumstances can save your food, your canoe, your self respect and even your life. The KLUTZ BOOK OF KNOTS is not the right choice for a sailor looking to win rigging contests. It certainly isn't the choice for someone looking to set records with the world's fanciest macramé creations. Nor is it appropriate for someone looking to begin a course in rock climbing. But it IS a superb primer of the very best set of basic and not quite so basic knot skills for someone who wants to develop an indispensable repertoire for use in the context of hiking, canoeing and backcountry camping - bowline, half hitches, tautline hitches, trucker's hitch, figure eight, double figure eight, figure eight on a bite, sheet bend and more.
You'll not only learn how to tie the knot but also how to tighten the knot and which context is correct for which knot. For example, you will learn that the choice between a bowline and two half-hitches depends on whether the rope you are working with needs to be snug to the attachment ring or post.
And what a brilliant idea ... the book's pages are made of heavy cardboard and are perforated so that the reader can practice with the supplied rope tying the knot to the page of the book directly over top of the illustration. Even a klutz can learn with great tools like that! Oh yeah ... I guess that's the whole point, isn't it?
And a bonus for those of us whose hiking boots or running shoes are constantly coming undone ... an absolutely bombproof way of tying up your shoes with a knot that simply will not loosen but is still a slip knot and comes undone with a simple one handed tug. I fell in love with that one! Highly recommended.
To the uninitiated, the art of having a dump in the woods probably seems no more complicated than "squatRequired reading if you have to "go" outdoors!
To the uninitiated, the art of having a dump in the woods probably seems no more complicated than "squat, squint, squeeze and squeegee"! But, alas, as the world shrinks and the use of the world's limited wilderness terrain by outdoor adventurers increases to the limit of the land's ability to withstand the stress of that use, it's just not that simple. When considerations such as ecology, weather, temperature, privacy, courtesy, hygiene, biodegradation, density of camping use in an area, terrain and so on are factored into the decision as to where and how to complete the necessary feat, all is not as simple as it would seem. The methods one should choose are as varied as the terrains one might choose to visit and the times of year in which those choices are made.
How to Shit in the Woods is a book that should be read by EVERY person who would choose to venture into the out of doors - whether you want to spend a weekend at the local campground or you're a hardcore toughened backwoodsman heading out into the bush for a week long solo canoe trip in Canada's northern boreal forest!
Be prepared for lots of silly toilet humour, hilarious anecdotes concerning toilet misadventures, lots of tongue-in-cheek jokes, a good number of belly laughs and a very earthy delivery to be sure - but the message ultimately is entirely serious and well worth the read! There is very little humorous when it concerns encountering the leavings of someone who trod the trail in front of you.
Highly recommended for campers of all stripes, sexes, ages and experience levels.
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