.

Cycling: A break at the top of a hill in Vermont
We crossed this "floating" bridge heading to a ride on the same trip.
Sixteen hilly mills to Groton. But they were quiet miles compared to US 2, from a Vermont vacation. The complete collection.

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What fun to find a wonderful book and head over to the Diesel and get a cup of coffee and settle down for a long read ...

Y2K+9 books

Y2K+7 books

Y2K+6 books

Y2K+5 books

Y2K+4 books

Y2K+3 books

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown - check out this page and do a text search for "glass vial with a scrap of paper" and see where the original ideas may have come from.
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
Islam, a Short History by Karen Armstrong
The Stone Raft by Jose Saramago
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Hunger by Elise Blackwell
Almost by Elizabeth Benedict
Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian
The Best American Short Stories 2002 edited by Sue Miller
Journey to the East by Herman Hesse
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
The Crazed by Ha Jin
The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle
The Language of Threads by Gail Tsukiyama
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Y2K+2 books
The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho
In The Pond by Ha Jin
The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama
Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama
Legacy of Luna by Julia Butterfly Hill
The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan
Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Kafka's Curse by Achmat Dangor
The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Best American Travel Writing 2000 edited by Bill Bryson

Y2K+1 books

Nansen by Roland Huntford.
Mabinogion Edited by Gwen Jones. History plus theology in one small package.
Bhagavad Gita History plus theology in one small package again?
Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin. Looks like a nice place to visit.
Talking it over by Julian Barnes
Waiting by Ha Jin. I thought this was extremely interesting, perhaps containing some relative truths about life in communist China. The layer of Lin's own meek view of himself was less evident early on in the book. The book is horribly sad, I think. Towards the end, I could hardly face the book. Worth reading.
No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe. Modern times in Lagos. English educated Umo tribesman tries to live by the rules of the English bureaucracy, with unplesant results.
An Imaginary Life by David Malouf. Part adventure story of a man looking for a conclusion to life. A neat conceit, not that I know all that much about Ovid and 1st century AD Rome.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. All easy and fun reads. Don't look for anything heavy but you do get Adams cynical interpretation of the late 70's. Not must reads but you really should consider reading them.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams.
Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams.
The Fall of the Year by Howard Frank Mosher. (Another story of Kingdom Common. Fast reading but Mosher leaves me wondering what the point of this story is - besides the varied stories of the town's inhabitants - who seem more diverse this time around, more immigrants of more ancestry than in his other Commons books. Not a must read.)
The Tale of the Unknown Island by Jose Saramago. (Lovely little book on what, self discovery? Oddly written, with unaccostomed punctionation and no quotes, which makes you pay attention. From Jake, through Karen.)
The Best of Outside by the Editors of Outside (For someone like myself who hasn't read the magazine, there are gems in this collections by authors previously unknown to me and works by authors I know well. Many of these had nothing to do with the author's other work - consider Jane Smiley's account of fox hunting in her youth. David Roberts' "Moment of Doubt" is staggering for those of us who thought we operated near the edge. Worth reading!)
All Quiet on the Orient Express by Mangus Mills (Another good read by Mills. Humorous in a dark and forbidding way. Not kind to capitalists.)
Light Action in the Caribbean Stories by Barry Lopez (What can I say, I follow Lopez through his writing.  These are odd stories, compared to some of Lopez's earlier work but lovely and often oriented to place.  Not as rich in experience of place as Mayordomo, but still evocative.  One story is about a cartographer who is thinking about GIS before its time. I'm clueless about what he is trying to accomplish in these stories.  I'll sit on this for a while.)
Mayordomo : Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico by Stanley Crawford (A lovely book focused on place and community.  While I just spent some time on land irrigated by water from an acequia in New Mexico, I came across the book by accident: my friend David, also intrigued by the idea of place and community, picked it up at a used bookstore in Northampton, then passed it on to me.  It hits the spot although I wouldn't recommend reading it for excitement.
Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (Well, a friend suggested it.  Not so overbearing on the religious aspect. Entertaining view of canals on Mars.)
Perelandra by C.S. Lewis (Please, this was a pedantic lecture on why a certain religion knows the way.  No more, I couldn't finish the trilogy if I tried. I did enjoy the image of the water surface of Perelandra [Venus] and land as it was formed by the waves.)

Some books that I read in Y2K

Tigers and Ice: Reflections on Nature and Life essays by Edward Hoagland (More Hoagland essays. Not bad but not princely writing like Walking the Dead Diamond River.)
Here and Nowhere Else: Late seasons of a farm and its family by Jane Brox (Leisurely study of life on the farm. Lyrically written, Brox is brutal in her account of her family and gives a loving account of the land. She does understand the land and sees it as a place she has come to love but it also feels like the land owns her. Not a must read but it is a nice read.)
Cities on the Plain by Cormac McCarthy (I waited until the hardcover was remaindered before buying this book. It is a good story although its disappointing to read about John Grady Cole and Bill Parhnam after their adventures. John Grady lost some luster in this instance of his life. But read it, especially if you read All the Pretty Horses - which you really should read!)
Plainsong by Kent Haruf (This turned out to be an engaging read after a slow start. Good story about life east of the Rockies in a small farming community, recommended to me by Emily of Albuquerque, who had spend 15 years in the foothills and out on the plains near Denver. Does that mean it was faithful to the region? Lots of conflict and some love. I liked the McPheron brothers and would like to think that there are people like them in the world.)
Who Killed Palomino Molero by Mario Vargas Llosa (You will see why he is up for the Nobel prize.  This is sweet writing, a believable story and touches on Vargas Llosa's common theme of the difficulty of being civil in an uncivil society.  It's a good detective story. This is a must read!)
Edisto Revisited by Padget Powell (Edisto was a wonderfully written coming of age story. I should have known that Simons would grew up slightly off. Revisted is wonderfully written but Simons turned into a disturbing young man and then the writing turned on me. Or the plot did ... )
Fieldwork: A Geologist's Memoir of the Kalahari by Christopher Scholz (Only something a geologist, or other field scientist, could love. But still a good read. Set in Apartheid era Botswana, you see only the edges of the regime: watching the Bushmen boarding the planes for the mile deep gold mines, cruel white officials, separate camps for the field crew. And then there are the wildlife problems: elephants taking a midnight walk past their camp.)
East of the Mountains by David Guterson (The friend who recommended this book said it was sad, the jacket said it was wonderful. Despite the premise [man goes off to die, unable to face a whithering disease], it is hopeful. Well written, not lots of dialog. I'm told that I really should read "Snow Falling on Cedars" by Guterson.)
The Last Place on Earth by Roland Huntford (Get through the first three hundred pages that set the stage for the race. The race, reconstructed from books and journals, is exciting. Makes Scott out to be a loser.)
Quicksand by Junichiro Taizaki (Sexual obsession in pre-WWII Japan. Hmmm ... I put this down for two years before reading the second half recently. Rather disturbing story.)
Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura (Spare writing. A picture of 20th poverty in Japan and an isolated villages odd strategy to help deal with it.)
The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills (What is this about? You have to read this! And you should read the review on Amazon by L. LaVoy.)
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
Fencing the Sky by James Galvin (Not as clean as "Meadow" but still a nice read. The fleeing thread is wonderful as are the threads dealing with ranching and horses. Too bad about the ending but still a good story.)
The Rediscovery of North America by Barry Lopez
Longitude by Dava Sobel (Cheap magazine-like read but I probably learned something and every geographer believes that s/he should read it.)
Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett (Wonderful story! After having read many original accounts of post-Franklin search epeditions, this story was believable and compelling. It became hard to remember where fact ended and fiction began. Read this if you are interested in the far north.)
Where the Rivers Flow North by Howard Frank Mosher
South by Ernest Shackleton
Snow Country by Yasunari  Kawabata
La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West by Francis Parkman (It's a history book and took me months to finish it but worth the read. Parkman writes a "literary" history but the volume of facts makes it dense despite the style. This was on my nightstand for months!)
About This Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory by Barry Lopez (I'm a fan of Lopez. He is the theology-free equivalent of Annie Dilliard [who I also like a lot].)
Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman (Personal look at the Lakota before real conflict with the whites. Parkman traveled with them for a summer in the mid 1840's. Life as it will never be seen again, so hopefully Parkman recorded his travels accurately for us. Unlike Parkman's La Salle history, this was a quick read and delicious, if you are an armchair time traveler.)

And still reading (and looking for gems like Tough Trip Through Paradise by Andrew Garcia):
     The Last Great Place: A Montana Anthology edited by William Kittredge and Annick Smith

Books that I've read in the last decade that I loved and/or influenced my dreams or are just good reads (not an inclusive list and in no particular order)

Capitan Pantoja and the Special Service by Mario Vargas Llosa (This didn't make it to the list until I read "who killed Palimino Molero?" recently.  This is equally tragic, human, funny, and well written and translated - at least it reads well.  Capitan Pantoja gets the unenviable task of keeping the men entertained, a job he works hard at despite his moral qualms about his task.  Beyond the edge of believability but still a strong story and wonderful read.)
Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard
Crossing Open Ground by Barry Lopez
Desert Notes by Barry Lopez
Winter Count by Barry Lopez
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (John Grady travels to Mexico, fleeing home, and lives life in an unfamiliar land. They get into trouble and mostly live through it. There is amazing writing although you better get used to McCarthy's long sentences and spare punctuation. I've read this a few times. Not just a boys' book, say female friends.)
Canoeing with the Cree by Eric Severid
Meadow by James Galvin
The Last Algonquin by Theodore L. Kazimiroff
Dersu the Trapper by  V.K. Arseniev (made into movie, Dersu Uzala, by Kurasawa)
The Living by Annie Dillard
The Lure of the Labrador Wild by Dillon Wallace ... a great, true adventure story. Also read Great Hearts and Mrs. Hubbards account of her own expidition, A Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador.
A Stranger in the Kingdom by Howard Frank Mosher
Disappearances by Howard Frank Mosher  ... a tall tale from Vermont
Fup by Jim Dodge  ... a California tall tale
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood ... hopefully this is just a tale
Drown by Junot Diaz
A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot ... a love story, a mystery, and a war story. Read it carefully so you don't miss the details.
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Fools Crow by James Welch
Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
Edisto by Padgett Powell
Black Elk Speaks by Black Elk as told through John Neihardt
Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman ... good campfire reading, at least my listeners wanted to hear more of the stories.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono
The Mountain, the Miner, and the Lord by Harry Caudill
The Practice of the Wild by Gary Snyder
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
Killing Mister Watson by Peter Matthiessen
Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett ... Too good for words. There are several less than memorable shorts stories in this collection but the novella which gives the collection its name is wonderfully written and tragic love story. Hard times, man, but gives the concept of a life worth lived, similar in hope to Giono's "The Man Who Planted Trees".
Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari  Kawabata
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis ... the myth of Cupid and Psyche retold.
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean
The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons by J.W. Powell
Letting Swift River Go by Jane Yolen  ...  A childrens' book on understanding loss through a young girl who watches as the Quabbin Reservoir replaces her valley and her home
Changes in the Land by William Cronin
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson  ... a wonderful childrens' book from the 1950's that I didn't know about until 1998
Lonesome Traveler by Jack Kerouac
The Top of the World Triology (Tundra, Ordeal by Ice, Polar Passion) edited by Farley Mowat
The Maine Woods by H.D. Thoreau arranged by Dudley Hunt  ...  all three Maine stories are woven into a single trip around Katahdin
Walking the Dead Diamond River by Edward Hoagland
 
 

Some random images that will give you vague insight into what I like to do and what I looked like years ago

(these are scanned photographs, most of them taken on a Pentax K1000).

Jon and I were vacationing on the Olympic Peninsula. We were out hiking and just looking around. Jon said, "let's go check
out the Port Angeles airport". I thought, "we could go there, it's his vacation, too".  Some of the results:
    Near summit of Mt. Olympus. Olympic Mountains, Washington, August 1991.  Pilot: Jon Sheehan, navigator and photographer: Daniel Sheehan.
    Blue Glacier, Mt. Olympus, Olympic Mountains, Washington, August 1991.  Pilot: Jon Sheehan, navigator and photographer: Daniel Sheehan.

Hiking in the Olympics:
    Old terminal moraine of Mystery Glacier in fog. Mt Mystery, Olympic Mountains, Washington, August 1994.

From a ski trip near Devil's Lake during the one week in my life I was laid off:
    Prints of hawk's wings right where the snowshoe hare tracks ended. Cliff trail above Devil's Lake, Baraboo Hills, southern Wisconsin, January 1988.
    Old Civilian Conservation Corps trail marker. Cliff trail above Devil's Lake, Baraboo Hills, southernWisconsin, January 1988.

In the past:
    When I was a young lad. Bear Creek, Pennsylvania, September, 1986.
    Near summit of Appleton Pass.  Olympic Mountains, Washington, August 1991.

Nearly the present:
    At the border. El Paso, TX, August, 2000.
    In the middle of a desert ride.West of Las Cruces, NM, August 2000.
    Walking the trail at White Sands, NM.  Near Alamogordo, NM, August 2000.
    Telemark skiing,   before the walk up the ski trail,   lunch high in the Gulf,   random skiers ascending slide   at Gulf of Slides, NH, April 2001. Those slides in the background of a couple of the pictures are the avalanche runouts that serve as spring ski runs. The Tuckerman site is here.

Comments? Reading suggestions?

    Send them from here.