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In No Shortage of Good Days John Gierach takes readers from the Smokies in Tennessee to his home waters in Colorado, from the Canadian Maritimes to Mexico—saltwater or fresh, it’s all fishing and all irresistible. As always he writes perceptively about a wide range of subjects: the charm of familiar waters, the etiquette of working with new fishing guides, night fishing when the trout and the mosquitoes are both biting, and fishing snobbery, a pitfall he seems to have largely avoided: “A friend and I recently realized that making fly-fishing a way of life instead of a hobby has made us a couple of pretty one-dimensional characters. On the other hand, we agreed we’re two of the happiest people we know, albeit in a simple-minded sort of way.”
Gierach again demonstrates the wit, eloquence, and insight that have become his trademarks. No Shortage of Good Days is the next best thing to a day of fishing.
—The Denver Post
A prolific fly-fishing expert and nature writer dispenses hard-won field-and-stream wisdom.
Few writers, if any, have written about the implications of fly-fishing as eloquently as Ernest Hemingway inThe Big Two-Hearted River, but Gierach (Fool's Paradise, 2008, etc.) brings detailed insight and a sense of humor to the subject. With a title taken from an Annie Dillard quote ("There is no shortage of good days; it's good lives that are hard to come by"), the book is a collection of fondly remembered fishing trips and random fishing-related topics, along with miscellaneous other narrative odds and ends thrown in the mix: fishing and firewood, fly-fishing versus bait fishing, fly-fishing's countercultural history, salmon fishing, the experience of fishing with guides and even a random chapter on the perils of combining fishing with the pain-in-the-neck necessity of book tours. The author's strength is his obvious obsessive drive to find the perfect fishing spot and make the perfect cast; his travels take him from his home state of Colorado to Canada, Wisconsin, Washington State and Mexico. While his fisherman's jargon can get a bit too specialist-sounding for non-expert fisherman, Gierach's good for plenty of man-of-the-soil maxims. On the subject of fishing on film: "Fishing is like sex in that it can be anywhere from deeply meaningful to just plain fun to participate in, but it's oddly boring to watch in videos." Though his thoughts occasionally veer off on unforeseeable tangent, even these detours often have a certain charm: One minute he's talking about hooking wild trout in public water; the next, he's on to some old-fashioned transcendentalist contemplation on the frivolity of material wealth.
Gierach's genial campfire manner and woodsy witticisms should hook more than just the average fishing fanatic.
1 Third-Rate Trout Streams 1
2 Skagit 11
3 Home Water 21
4 Hex 33
5 The Perfect Host 43
6 Baja 51
7 Tennessee 61
8 Book Tour 71
9 Deckers 81
10 A Small River 93
11 Atlantic Salmon 103
12 Road Trip 113
13 Cheating 127
14 Firewood 139
15 Theotherhalf 149
16 A Goodyear 161
17 Food 173
18 Blue-Winged Olives 183
19 Conejos 191
20 Three Rivers 203
bodhi47
Posted July 13, 2012
It's Gierach. It's about fishing and sometimes about life itself. Easily read essays that are his standard fair. He's not breaking new ground or stretching the envelope, he's more like a comfortable pair of slippers. If you can't get out to fish, you can read about it here. He's got well crafted writing and is a master of the essay form. Good punch lines to most of the stories. If you've read Gierach before you'll enjoy this one too. And if you haven't read him before, it's as good a place as any to start.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 1, 2013
His has nothing to do witb fishing....
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Posted November 19, 2012
Full of praire dogs and praire chiken.19 praire dog holes 45 praire dogs.and 67 praire chicken
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Posted June 6, 2012
One of the best fly fishing writers in America.
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Posted May 25, 2011
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Overview
In No Shortage of Good Days John Gierach takes readers from the Smokies in Tennessee to his home waters in Colorado, from the Canadian Maritimes to Mexico—saltwater or fresh, it’s all fishing and all irresistible. As always he writes perceptively about a wide range of subjects: the charm of familiar waters, the etiquette of working with new fishing guides, night fishing when the trout and the mosquitoes are both biting, and fishing snobbery, a pitfall he seems to have largely avoided: “A friend and I recently ...