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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Informative and beautifully written, essential reading for the Northwest. It's a bit out of date, having been written 30 years ago, but still relevant to PNW culture. I'd love to see a 30 year anniversary edition with a new chapter or two on how things have changed since then. The profiles are sometimes a tad reductive, almost to the point of comedy (the chapter on Victoria for example made the whole town sound like a British cult), and it's depressing as hell to read all the reminders of how humans are murdering the natural world with no regard for the future. But overall, stellar writing and highly recommended. 4.5 stars.
I enjoyed the stuff I learned in this book, but the writing was dense enough to make it hard to get through. 45% finished and the second time it has had to go back to the library. Maybe time to stop trying.
Timothy Egan writes about the northwest with a poetic grace. I first read this shortly after it came out (purchased at Tower Books!), shortly after I moved to the west side of Washington. The author says this hasn't aged well and unfortunately I agree.
The book is a series of articles, loosely following in the footsteps of Theo Winthrop, descendant of John Winthrop (the first governor of Massachusetts Bay). Young Winthrop wrote a book ([b:The canoe and the saddle|8074602|The canoe and the saddle|Theodore Winthrop|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|3345256]) about his experience, and some quoting and contrasting occur. Egan's descriptive language is amazing and often poetic - e.g. instead of describing the omnipresent light rain, he instead repeatedly uses drip, drip, drip.
This beautiful setting is not today's, however - it belongs to a time after eight years of Ronald Reagan and James Watt. Large companies are (and have been) having their way with the land, taking resources and leaving waste. In the late 1980s, it seemed like this was leading to a dystopia of epic proportions. This narrative reflects on this rather dirty mirror, and makes for (at times) quite depressing reading.
Finally, I found the book a bit more scattered (and more like a series of articles) than I remembered it. Western Washington and the Oregon coast take center stage, with only the Columbia and Okanogan showing any of eastern Washington. Young Winthrop probably didn't go that far, but I wanted more from eastern Washington and Oregon.
Taking this down a peg from my original five star rating, I will probably recommend this to fewer friends than before. Glad I reread it, though, and looking forward to reading more from [a:Timothy Egan|40820|Timothy Egan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1270092404p2/40820.jpg].
The book is a series of articles, loosely following in the footsteps of Theo Winthrop, descendant of John Winthrop (the first governor of Massachusetts Bay). Young Winthrop wrote a book ([b:The canoe and the saddle|8074602|The canoe and the saddle|Theodore Winthrop|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|3345256]) about his experience, and some quoting and contrasting occur. Egan's descriptive language is amazing and often poetic - e.g. instead of describing the omnipresent light rain, he instead repeatedly uses drip, drip, drip.
This beautiful setting is not today's, however - it belongs to a time after eight years of Ronald Reagan and James Watt. Large companies are (and have been) having their way with the land, taking resources and leaving waste. In the late 1980s, it seemed like this was leading to a dystopia of epic proportions. This narrative reflects on this rather dirty mirror, and makes for (at times) quite depressing reading.
Finally, I found the book a bit more scattered (and more like a series of articles) than I remembered it. Western Washington and the Oregon coast take center stage, with only the Columbia and Okanogan showing any of eastern Washington. Young Winthrop probably didn't go that far, but I wanted more from eastern Washington and Oregon.
Taking this down a peg from my original five star rating, I will probably recommend this to fewer friends than before. Glad I reread it, though, and looking forward to reading more from [a:Timothy Egan|40820|Timothy Egan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1270092404p2/40820.jpg].
I find Egan to be one of the best non-fiction writers of my time, and this beautiful in-depth tour of the Pacific Northwest, its history and geography and people and accomplishments and challenges, is another great read. I have learned so much about this area from Egan, and his descriptions of hikes through western Washington and southwestern Canada make me want to pick up those trails and see those sights. Thanks for the great writing and lessons!
This book is one of the most depressing books I've read in a long time. In this book Egan set out to follow in the footsteps of Theodore Winthrop, a 19th century American writer and traveller, who wrote a deailed book about his travels around the Pacific Northwest of the North American continent. Egan talks about the differences he found 137 years after Winthrop wrote his book.
And as I said at the start it's very depressing. The sheer amount of damage and devestation caused by man is horrendous. Forests and rivers that had lasted thousands and thousands of years were destroyed within decades. Mankinds insatiable greed and stupidity has butchered so much that is irreplaceable. But there is hope, though this book doesn't show much. Written 20 years ago environmentalists back then were seen as druggies and hippies, people on the fringe. Since that time environmental awareness has grown throughout the world. It's still nowhere near good but it's the most aware Western civilization has been for an extremely long time.
I can't wait to travel to the locations Egan talks about to see how they have fared since the book was written. Internet searching shows most of the threatened forests have survived and are starting to prosper. Native populations of grey wolves, sea otters, salmon and orca are slowly building back up. We may unfortunately never go back to what it once was but we can stop it from disappearing altogether.
And as I said at the start it's very depressing. The sheer amount of damage and devestation caused by man is horrendous. Forests and rivers that had lasted thousands and thousands of years were destroyed within decades. Mankinds insatiable greed and stupidity has butchered so much that is irreplaceable. But there is hope, though this book doesn't show much. Written 20 years ago environmentalists back then were seen as druggies and hippies, people on the fringe. Since that time environmental awareness has grown throughout the world. It's still nowhere near good but it's the most aware Western civilization has been for an extremely long time.
I can't wait to travel to the locations Egan talks about to see how they have fared since the book was written. Internet searching shows most of the threatened forests have survived and are starting to prosper. Native populations of grey wolves, sea otters, salmon and orca are slowly building back up. We may unfortunately never go back to what it once was but we can stop it from disappearing altogether.
informative
slow-paced