Book Report

I believe you all were promised, when Colin introduced his tour de force (see Mr Hippity Hop, somewhere to the right), "dueling perspectives," was it? Better make it dueling ukuleles, actually. But this is quite true, in a scrappy His n' Hers kinda way. Some dueling (I'm switching to "differing" from now on; sounds less violent & hokey) perspectives come from how I'm lazy vs. he's slightly less lazy, i.e. actually exercises occasionally. I used to be at least vaguely athletic, back in my hulking crew days. Colin has a highly technical vocabulary, regularly saying such things as "techwik", "nipple wrench" & "thinsulate" I, however, talk like a sensible person. Colin also has some sacred books listed over at the Hippity. Here they are, for your ease:
Roughin' It - Mark Twain
Travels with Charlie - John Steinbeck
Desert Solitaire - Ed Abbey
Into the Wild - John Krakauer
A Walk In The Woods - Bill Bryson
The Innocents Abroad - Mark Twain
Life On The Mississippi - Mark Twain
Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
Now I love all these books- with a special nod to Travels With Charlie because it has a poodle. I mean, can you not without hating America? But they're all a little...dude-y? Like the lyrics to any given Modest Mouse song. So the lady books, where they at- not necessarily travel, but expeditionary? The best I could come up with is Annie Dillard's "The Living", which actually is maybe the most androgynous book I've ever read. It's amazing, and partly for the incidental deaths its filled with- poison gases, log fume collapses, fires, brain fevers. And faux coffee made from burnt crumbs, ughh, worse than death. But it's why I want to visit the San Juan islands off Washington coast. It was the story of settlers, trying to farm around the stumps of redwoods that they had cut down, and eating a lot of dried salmon. Pretty much a team effort.