Journal of a Sabbatical

2000 Reading List

 

 

The Snark Out Boys and the Baconburg Horror by Daniel Pinkwater

The Worms of KuKumlima by Daniel Pinkwater

Yobgorgle: Mystery Monster of Lake Ontario by Daniel Pinkwater

Borgel by Daniel Pinkwater

Tin Tin in Tibet by Herge

Autumn from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake

Tall Trees and Far Horizons by Virginia Eifert

 See December 23 entry

Escape from Kathmandu by Kim Stanley Robinson

See December 5 entry

The Story of the Stone (Dream of the Red Chamber) : Volume 5: The Dreamer Wakes by Cao Xueqin and Gao E

See December 4 entry

The Story of the Stone (or Dream of the Red Chamber): Volume 4: The Debt of Tears by Cao Xueqin

The Story of the Stone (or Dream of the Red Chamber): Volume 3: The Warning Voice by Cao Xueqin

Circling the Sacred Mountain by Robert Thurman and Tad Wise

Coming Home Crazy by Bill Holm

The Story of the Stone (or Dream of the Red Chamber): Volume 2: The Crab-Flower Club by Cao Xueqin

The Story of the Stone (or Dream of the Red Chamber): Volume 1: The Golden Days by Cao Xueqin

The Outermost House by Henry Beston

Thoreau's Garden by Peter Loewer

Leap by Terry Tempest Williams

The Sea and the Ice by Louis J. Halle

Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit

Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufman

On The Road with birds - I read it in three days, which at the speed I've been reading lately is astounding. I got really into watching the teenage Kaufman grow up as he hitchhiked back and forth across the country in pursuit of a "Big Year".

 

Cape Cod by Henry David Thoreau

A really long walk on the beach with the master of long walks in nature. I couldn't stop reading this. The momentum carries you along. Surprisingly modern prose style too. It really doesn't sound 19th century except in a few short passages.

The Herring Gull's World by Niko Tinbergen

One of the seminal works in the field of ethology (animal behavior), this is surprisingly easy reading. Proving, I guess, that science writing can be lively and accessible. It sheds light on behaviors I've observed in herring gulls and other gulls too, and Tinbergen throws in analogies from his studies of fish behavior (sticklebacks) that are fascinating in their own right.

Shallow Water Dictionary by John R. Stilgoe

A lively essay that rambles through words as a boat named Essay rambles through a salt marsh. Far better that Outside Lies Magic. But where did a guy who knows this much about salt marshes come up with Fragmenties?

Outside Lies Magic by John R. Stilgoe

Fragmenties? What the heck are Fragmenties?

Summer from the Journals of Henry D. Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake

Summer in the H.G.O. Blake universe inexplicably ends on July 10. I'm in Thoreau withdrawal now.

Henry Hikes to Fitchburg by D.B. Johnson

See June 30 entry

Hokkaido Highway Blues by Will Ferguson

See June 23 entry

Traces of Thoreau: A Cape Cod Journey by Stephen Mulloney

Mulloney retraces Thoreau's 1849 walk along the Great Beach from Orleans to Provincetown. It's a surprisingly good read, right up there with Thoreau's Cape Cod and Henry Beston's The Outermost House.

Birds of Concord by Ludlow Griscom

Plum Island and its Birds by Ludlow Griscom

A 24-page booklet published in 1955 listing all bird species that had been reported on Plum Island or seen there by Ludlow Griscom (Dean of the Birdwatchers) himself. It's fascinating reading filled with little tidbits like that a Great Auk's bones were found at the south end of the island in 1869 or that the jetties (at the Merrimack River end) were built in 1881.

The Birds of Brewery Creek by Malcolm MacDonald

The adjective that leaps to mind for this book is "charming".

Uttermost Part of the Earth by E. Lucas Bridges

On Agriculture (third volume only) by Columella

Trees by Columella

Pawing Through the Past by Rita Mae Brown

Geography of Home by Akiko Busch

Discovered Alive: The Story of the Chinese Redwood by William Gittlen

Gleanings from the Merrimac Valley by Rebecca I. Davis

Penguins of the World by Pauline Reilly

Thoreau's Country by David R. Foster

Cat on the Scent by Rita Mae Brown 

Early Spring in Massachusetts from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake

The Plant Explorer's Guide to New England by Raymond Wiggers

The Cat Who Robbed a Bank by Lillian Jackson Braun

The Cat Who Saw Stars by Lillian Jackson Braun

The Wandering Albatross by William Jameson

The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

Endurance by Alfred Lansing
Beach Grass by Charles Wendell Townsend