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Mike Collins
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Mike Collins
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PostThu Oct 20, 2016 4:12 pm 
I enjoy attending the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair every year at this time. This year allowed a copy of Ventures and Adventures of Ezra Meeker to become part of my library. Ezra Meeker was an early settler in Washington Territory and he recounts his Oregon Trail journey with the clarity that only an eye witness from that time can provide. He also helped me answer a question that I have had for a while; How was kinnikinnick processed to be smoked? He writes The Indians will take kinnikinnick leaves and roast them until brown, and then mix half and half with tobacco, when it make very fine smoking, and the odor is fragrant and very acceptable. It has an influence over the smoker like opium or ether. Some Indians that I have seen using it would keel over in a trance. The berries were also eaten and he states "...have the property of strengthening to an abnormal degree." Parenthetically kinnikinnick is sometimes also called "bearberry". The berries are not deciduous and thus do not fall to the ground. Bears will eat them in the spring when there is little else around to eat. The book is a great source of primary reference material for the territorial years of Washington. Ezra Meeker is an author who calls the First Nations members "friends" in his writings and I am glad to have "Ezra Meeker Seattle Feb 23rd, 1910" autographed in my copy.

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mike
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PostThu Oct 20, 2016 6:13 pm 
Mike Collins wrote:
This year allowed a copy of Ventures and Adventures of Ezra Meeker to become part of my library.
up.gif

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostWed Oct 26, 2016 4:20 pm 
Whittling away at the PKD collection. A bit of a disappointment. Interesting concepts, but the stories are more like outlines, not fleshed out at all. And character development is non-existent. I know they are just short stories, but I've read short story collections from other authors that prove you can pack a lot into a small number of pages. I have to give a tip of the hat to the various screenwriters that have adapted Dick's work to the big screen. He didn't give them much in the way of details to work with (at least with the short stories). Not surprisingly the ones I've read so far were changed a fair bit when they went from page to screen. In the meantime I got Orwell's "Animal Farm" from the library after a fairly long wait list. Just getting started on that but very much enjoying it so far. The prose is just so much fresher and more alive than PKD's. An added bonus, didn't even realize this when I put it on wait list but the book also includes "1984." I know I've read part of that before but I don't think I read it in it's entirety. Somehow I've never read "Animal Farm" previously.

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Ski
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PostMon Oct 31, 2016 5:08 pm 
just arrived in the mail from Galway, Ireland (first edition, never been read): Exploring the Olympic Mountains © 2001 Carsten Lein - Mountaineers Books, Seattle - 483 pages this volume was recommended to me by several people, among them Jacilee Wray, author of River by the Sea - an Ethnohistory of the Queets River Valley - 2014 Jacilee Wray - NPS - which is available for download in *.pdf format here.

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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Pyrites
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PostTue Nov 01, 2016 12:11 am 
Grizzly Bears and Razor Clams- Walking America's Pacific Northwest Trail, Chris Townsend Halfway through. Based on 2010 through walk. Written more like a travelogue than trail narrative.

Keep Calm and Carry On? Heck No. Stay Excited and Get Outside!
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Abert
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PostMon Nov 21, 2016 2:43 pm 
Having been born in Los Angeles, I decided it was finally time to read something by John Fante. All the North Olympic library system has is his posthumously published novel "The Road to Los Angeles". It blew me away. It sounded like Jack Kerouac but was written in the mid-1930's. I had no idea someone was writing like that before World War II. Although Fante did some screen-writing and it's kind of reminiscent of some of the sharper dialogue in movies from that period. So I ordered another Fante book on Amazon. The cheapest price available, with $3.50 shipping charges. It arrived today, six days after I ordered it. From England. How long has that been going on?

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RichP
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PostMon Nov 21, 2016 4:40 pm 
Abert wrote:
I decided it was finally time to read something by John Fante.
I am a fan too. He's an underappreciated writer in my view and was big influence on the Beat Generation, Bukowski and others.

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Toni
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PostMon Nov 21, 2016 5:54 pm 
"Settle For More" by Megyn Kelly

There is no Planet B
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Stella
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PostThu Nov 24, 2016 11:56 am 
On a friend’s recommendation I bought “The Bond – Survival on Denali and Mount Huntington” by Simon McCartney (published by Mountaineers Books). I could go on and on about what a delightful read this is. I could hardly put it down but did because I wanted it to last. It’s classic mountaineering adventure narrative, so much so that last week it won the 2016 Boardman Tasker award for mountain literature. It’s very well written. It’s gripping. It’s inspiring. It’s also bittersweet at times but in the end it’s a life affirming story full of class-act people leading rich lives in the mountains.

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lookout bob
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PostThu Nov 24, 2016 1:05 pm 
"All the Wild that Remains" by David Gessler. "Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner and the American West. Great so far, but I just started it. I was inspired to get this book from the library after reading Sean Prentiss's great book, "Finding Abbey" which is about a search for Edward Abbey's grave. Lots of good insights into these wonderful "fathers of environmentalism in the west" and written very well. cool.gif

"Altitude is its own reward" John Jerome ( from "On Mountains")
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zephyr
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PostThu Nov 24, 2016 4:28 pm 
lookout bob wrote:
after reading Sean Prentiss's great book, "Finding Abbey" which is about a search for Edward Abbey's grave.
Thanks for pointing this book out. I never knew it existed. (I just now placed a hold on it with SPL. 'Gotta love our library system.) I remember reading a few of his books years ago--especially The Monkey Wrench Gang. Then at some point I recall something about his friends burying him in a remote secretive location. There's some great reviews of Prentiss's book here at the University of New Mexico Press. Sounds like a great read. ~z

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Jumble Jowls
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PostSun Nov 27, 2016 11:23 am 
Just read Minus 148. Highly recommend. One of the things I found remarkable was that some of the members you would expect to summit (e.g. Gregg, the expedition leader) didn't, while the one member who seemed clearly unqualified and never should have been accepted (Pirate) did summit and proved to be a very capable member.

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostFri Dec 09, 2016 2:35 pm 
I've had a hard time getting into the last several books I've had. Haven't finished the last 3 I started. Finally got a page turner I'm enjoying: "The Woman in Cabin 10" by Ruth Ware. Paranoid/claustrophobic crime drama taking place on a small luxury yacht in the North Sea. I think there's a genre emerging with female narrators as unreliable narrators. I really enjoyed "Gone Girl" but didn't finish "The Girl on the Train." This is along the same line.

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Toni
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PostFri Dec 09, 2016 9:00 pm 
olderthanIusedtobe wrote:
Finally got a page turner I'm enjoying: "The Woman in Cabin 10" by Ruth Ware.
You'll enjoy this book, easier read than 'Gone Girl' or 'Girl on the Train' which I also did not finish. Enjoyed the movies tho. up.gif Currently reading 'The Winter Fortress' ~ The Epic Mission To Sabotage Hitler's Atomic Bomb The movie, The Heavy Water Wars is definitely worth watching, English subtitles! Intense!!

There is no Planet B
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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSat Dec 10, 2016 11:06 am 
Toni have you read Ware's other book "In a Dark, Dark Wood"? I put that on my list too. I think I read that Reese Witherspoon bought the rights to it and is developing it into a movie.

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