Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers

Author: John Gierach
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501168606
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
Witty, shrewd, and always a joy to read, John Gierach, “America’s best fishing writer” (Houston Chronicle) and favorite streamside philosopher, has earned the following of “legions of readers who may not even fish but are drawn to his musings on community, culture, the natural world, and the seasons of life” (Kirkus Reviews). “After five decades, twenty books, and countless columns, [John Gierach] is still a master” (Forbes). Now, in his latest original collection, Gierach shows us why fly-fishing is the perfect antidote to everything that is wrong with the world. “Gierach’s deceptively laconic prose masks an accomplished storyteller…His alert and slightly off-kilter observations place him in the general neighborhood of Mark Twain and James Thurber” (Publishers Weekly). In Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers, Gierach looks back to the long-ago day when he bought his first resident fishing license in Colorado, where the fishing season never ends, and just knew he was in the right place. And he succinctly sums up part of the appeal of his sport when he writes that it is “an acquired taste that reintroduces the chaos of uncertainty back into our well-regulated lives.” Lifelong fisherman though he is, Gierach can write with self-deprecating humor about his own fishing misadventures, confessing that despite all his experience, he is still capable of blowing a strike by a fish “in the usual amateur way.” “Arguably the best fishing writer working” (The Wall Street Journal), Gierach offers witty, trenchant observations not just about fly-fishing itself but also about how one’s love of fly-fishing shapes the world that we choose to make for ourselves.

No Shortage of Good Days

Author: John Gierach
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 074329176X
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
A collection of fly-fishing essays reflect the author's visits to regions ranging from the Smokies to the Canadian Maritimes, where he explored such interests as fishing etiquette, mosquitoes, and the charms of third-rate streams.

Fool's Paradise

Author: John Gierach
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743291735
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Book Description
A lighthearted and lyrical new collection of observations on fly-fishing by the author of Still Life with Brook Trout features whimsical complaints about what the author believes is wrong with the world, both within and outside the fishing community. 50,000 first printing.

Trout Bum

Author: John Gierach
Publisher: Graphic Arts Books
ISBN: 0871089793
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 167

Book Description
Trout Bum is a fresh, contemporary look at fly fishing, and the way of life that grows out ofa passion for it. The people, the places, and the accoutrements that surround the sport make a fishing trip more than a set of tactics and techniques. John Gierach, a serious fisherman with a wry sense of humor, show us just how much more with his fishing stories and a unique look at the fly-fishing lifestyle. Trout Bum is really about why people fish as much as it is about how they fish, and it is ultimately about enduring values and about living in a harmony with our environment. Few books have had the impact on an entire generation that Trout Bum has had on the fly-fishing world. The wit, warmth, and the easy familiarity that John Gierach brings to us in Trout Bum is as fresh and engaging now was when it was first published twenty-five years ago. There's no telling how many anglers have quit their jobs and headed west after reading the first edition of this classic collection of fly-fishing essays.

All Fishermen Are Liars

Author: John Gierach
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451618336
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
This “elegiac tribute to the elusive art and ineffable pleasure of fly-fishing” (Kirkus Reviews) shows us why life’s most valuable lessons—and some of its best experiences—are found while fly-fishing. For John Gierach, “the master of fly-fishing” (Sacramento Bee), fishing is always the answer—even when it’s not clear what the question is. In All Fishermen Are Liars, Gierach travels around North America seeking out quintessential fishing experiences, whether it’s at a busy stream or a secluded lake hidden amid snow-capped mountains. He talks about the art of fly-tying and the quest for the perfect steelhead fly (“The Nuclear Option”), about fishing in the Presidential Pools previously fished by the elder George Bush (“I wondered briefly if I’d done something karmically disastrous and was now fated to spend the rest of my life breathing the exhaust of this elderly Republican”), and the importance of traveling with like-minded companions when caught in a soaking rain (“At this point someone is required to say, ‘You know, there are people who wouldn’t think this is fun’”). And though Gierach loses some fish along the way, he never loses his passion and sense of humor. Wry, contemplative, and lively—that is to say, pure Gierach—All Fishermen Are Liars is a joy to read—and, as always, the next best thing to fishing itself. “From the early days…to his present cult status, Gierach’s candor and canniness at the water’s edge have been consistent…His grizzled, laconic persona is engaging and the voice of the common angler” (The Wall Street Journal).

The Fly Fishing Anthology

Author: Danielle Ibister
Publisher: Voyageur Press
ISBN:
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Book Description
'The Fly Fishing Anthology' features glorious artwork and more than twenty stories and essays celebrating, reminiscing, and bemoaning the high sport of fly fishing. This first-of-its-kind book is divided into six themed chapters. The first chapter features stories of initiation -- none painless and all memorable. Chapter two explores the glorious vistas of fly fishing country. In the third chapter, our writers go nuts for trout, that highest echelon of game fish. Chapter four examines the seductive art of fly-tying. The fifth chapter is devoted to reminiscences, and the final chapter defends the great sport of fly fishing. More than half of the pieces take jabs -- some gentle, some sharp -- at the sport of fly fishing and the men and women who aim to master it. Highlights include John Gierach's Keillor-esque vision of a sleepy Colorado trout fishing town jolted awake by the age of neoprene waders and Latin terminology, Charles Elliott fly fishing for the elusive bone-fish at the elbow of baseball great Ted Williams, and newcomer George Tichenor self-deprecating with cheerful aplomb as he practices casting a fly on the revered Willowemoc.The writing represents the best that fly fishing literature has to offer. In these pages, dry fly master George LaBranche argues with passionate conviction that dry fly fishing is the highest art of angling. Zane Grey waxes poetic on the wild, lonely beauty of his beloved West, and sports-writing genius Red Smith wrests a hilarious, epic tale out of an amateur fly tier's first Silver Tip pattern. Of course, the fly fishing legends are present in these pages, including Cornelia 'Fly Rod' Crosby, G. E. M. Skues, and Joan Salvato Wulff.

Even Brook Trout Get The Blues

Author: John Gierach
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description
From his reminiscences about learning to fish to a lyrical piece about fishing during a late spring snow to a wry, though compassionate, look at the hard life of a brook trout, Gierach provides entertainment for fly-fishers and literature lovers alike. Drawings.

A Fly Rod of Your Own

Author: John Gierach
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451618360
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Book Description
“After five decades, twenty books, and countless columns, [John Gierach] is still a master,” (Forbes) and his newest book only confirms this assessment, along with his recent induction into the Flyfishing Hall of Fame. In A Fly Rod of Your Own, Gierach brings his ever-sharp sense of humor and keen eye for observation to the fishing life and, for that matter, life in general. Known for his witty, trenchant observations about fly-fishing, Gierach’s “deceptively laconic prose masks an accomplished storyteller…his alert and slightly off-kilter observations place him in the general neighborhood of Mark Twain and James Thurber” (Publishers Weekly). A Fly Rod of Your Own transports readers to streams and rivers from Maine to Montana, and as always, Gierach’s fishing trips become the inspiration for his pointed observations on everything from the psychology of fishing (“Fishing is still an oddly passive-aggressive business that depends on the prey being the aggressor”); why even the most veteran fisherman will muff his cast whenever he’s being filmed or photographed; the inevitable accumulation of more gear than one could ever need (“Nature abhors an empty pocket. So does the tackle industry”); or the qualities shared by the best guides (“the generosity of a teacher, the craftiness of a psychiatrist, and the enthusiasm of a cheerleader with a kind of Vulcan detachment”). As Gierach likes to say, “fly-fishing is a continuous process that you learn to love for its own sake. Those who fish already get it, and those who don’t couldn’t care less, so don’t waste your breath on someone who doesn’t fish.” A Fly Rod of Your Own is an ode to those who fish that “brings a skeptical, wry voice to the peril and promise of twenty-first-century fishing” (Booklist).

View From Rat Lake

Author: John Gierach
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476740178
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Book Description
Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays about fly-fishing, the natural world, and life in general by the acknowledged master of fishing writers. “In the world of fishing there are magic phrases that are guaranteed to summon the demon. Among them are: ‘remote trout lake,’ ‘fish up to 13 pounds,’ ‘the place the guides fish on their days off,’” writes John Gierach in this wonderful collection of thirteen essays inspired by a fishing trip to Rat Lake, a remote body of water in Montana. Once again John Gierach does what he does best—explain the peculiarities of the fishing life in a way that will amuse novices and seasoned fly fishers alike. The View from Rat Lake deftly examines man in nature and nature in man, the pleasures of fishing the high country, and the high and low comedy that occasionally overcomes even the best-planned fishing trip. Some typically sage observations from The View from Rat Lake: “One of the things we truly fish for [is] an occasion for self-congratulation.” “In every catch-and-release fisherman’s past there is an old black frying pan.” “We . . . believe that a 12-inch trout caught on a dry fly is four inches longer than a 12-inch trout caught on a nymph or streamer.”

The 48 Laws of Power

Author: Robert Greene
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0670881465
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 481

Book Description
Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control. This is the only authorized hardcover edition in the US. In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum. Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.