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The Long Goodbye

We’ve already talked about One Book, One Chicago. My wife just checked it out from the library, unbeknownst to me. She let me read it first. Thanks honey.

The Long Goodbye is private investigator Philip Marlowe’s first person account of his run-in with cops and gangsters after he assists a down-on-his-luck acquaintance, Terry Lennox. Marlowe just gives Lennox a ride to Tijuana, that’s all. But shortly thereafter Marlowe finds out that Lennox’s millionaire wife has been bludgeoned to death with a bronze statue in their guest house. Marlowe suspected nothing less anyhow, oh well.

This is gritty. It’s like sleeping on sandpaper. It makes L.A. Confidential feel like a romantic comedy; makes the City of Angels feel cold and rainy all the time. It’s full of dark jail cells, cops that slug you, and dry, humorless commentary on the state of the justice system in Los Angeles. And paragraphs like this (page 249, chapter 35):

The other part of me wanted to get out and stay out, but this was the part I never listened to. Because if I ever had I would have stayed in the town where I was born and worked in the hardware store and married the boss’s daughter and had five kids and read them the funny paper on Sunday morning and smacked their heads when they got out of line and squabbled with the wife about how much spending money they were to get and what programs they could have on the radio or TV set. I might even have got rich – small-town rich, an eight room house, two cars in the garage, chicken every Sunday and the Reader’s Digest on the living room table, the wife with a cast-iron permanent and me with a brain like a sack of Portland cement. You take it, friend. I’ll take the big sordid dirty crooked city.

Just look at that second sentence in the cited passage. It’s huge, but it feels the same now as it did when I first read it. Marlowe could not survive outside of the LA trenches. But in the trenches, he rises above the greed, corruption, lies, and ugliness associated with the city.

Chandler certainly got a load off his chest with this rant. It’s a glimpse into the psyche of Philip Marlowe and probably Chandler also. When I read it Gail was a few feet away and I couldn’t wait to have her to take a look. She was impressed. I really hope she reads it so we can talk about it.

This is such a cool book. The ending rocked. The title makes perfect sense. If you have any affinity for the crime novel, give this one a whirl.

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Woe is I

It’s time to revisit the craft – the craft of writing. Yes, I’m a craftsman. Actually, I’m not, I’m a hack. So I’m reading this book to make improvements. In fact, I’m adding Woe is I to the list of books to have around if you want to improve your writing.

Right now, if I look at this little space on my shelf that I keep reference materials, I have:

  • The Elements of Style (aka Strunk and White)
  • The Chicago Manual of Style
  • On Writing Well

I will add this to the shelf because it’s worthy. It’s short and has bulleted hints, tips, and explanations. It has a Strunk and White feel but is more focused on grammar, spelling, usage, and punctuation. They’re good complements, I’m glad I have both.

In fact, I may get Strunk and White in hardcover, just because.

I loved the chapter on clichés. In fact, I had a tag line for my business that encapsulated all aspects of Steffen Consulting that I wanted to convey, but the tag line was listed in the cliché chapter as overused. And you know what, O’Conner was right; it is overused and I’m not going to use it (btw, it was “leveling the playing field”).

The question is, how do I use these books in real time while writing? I do most of my writing when they’re outside of my reach, so even though I have questions, I usually just reword the sentence or jump through hoops to avoid the issue. This needs to change. Also, I haven’t gone through the The Chicago Manual of Style yet. Gail seems to think that one encompasses all of the books. Maybe I just haul that one around, but it’s massive.

I need time, time to concentrate. I need to rework things.

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The Shape Shifter

I’m about a year behind on Tony Hillerman. My reading has really bogged down as of late. I’ve been busy at work and I’ve been consumed with uploading all my digital photos to flickr. I was unmotivated, so it was a no-brainer to bang through a short Hillerman that has been sitting around for awhile.

It was another great effort – crime fiction in a particular setting that I gobble up. Besides the mystery, Hillerman always tosses in some cultural surprises. He is clearly infatuated with the belief systems of all peoples and cultures. In this book the main character, a retired Navajo Tribal Policeman named Joe Leaphorn, uses his knowledge of the Hmong deity to befriend a potential enemy.

** PLOT KILLERS FOLLOW **

Let me back up a bit. The bad guy is a Vietnam vet and he has a Hmong servant named Tommy Vang whom he met while serving in Asia. At first you sense that Vang is an evildoer with special, far east killing skills. In the end it’s clear that Vang is an innocent who was taken advantage of for most of his life. The way Hillerman builds the rapport between Leaphorn and Vang after the two meet in a potentially contentious situation is pure genius.

Leaphorn uses a combination of kindness, firmness, and understanding (Leaphorn majored in some sort of anthropology) to break down the barriers between the two cultures and it really worked well. The slow, methodical, question and answer session between the two men as they make their way towards a potentially violent conflict with a third party is very rewarding for the reader.

The conversation was about their individual belief systems, basically their religions, and how they’re different but the same. It was about listening rather than telling – two adults from opposite ends of the world finding a common thread in a topic that few agree on, and the result was trust. In the end, they team up and emerge alive.

I need Hillerman to keep churning these out but he seems to be slowing down (no new hardcover in 2007). It’s difficult to explain why they’re so great. The cultural commentary, the human drama, or the seedy crimes on the reservation. It’s all good. Maybe I’ll just read crime dramas all year, screw it.

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Heaven’s Prisoners

This is book two of Burke’s crime novel series. I wasn’t so sure that I was completely sold on Burke when I read The Neon Rain last year, but when I reflected on it at the end of the year it was clear that I was going to press forward with the series.

This is more crime noir than just crime. The main character, Dave Robicheaux, is a dark and self-destructive alcoholic ex-cop. But he doesn’t sit in a dark room and brood, he actually has someone who loves him and a relatively stress free life (he runs a bait shop about an hour away from New Orleans). Stress gets added though in short order when he and his wife see a plane go down in the bayou while they’re out relaxing. They are lake people so they slap on the diving gear and manage to save a young girl from certain death. But the other stuff they see in the submerged plane leads Robicheaux back into the world of law enforcement, and puts him and his family in grave danger.

**PLOT KILLERS FOLLOW**

Burke throws tension into his writing more than any of the crime writers I read. Every time Robicheaux leaves his house I think someone is going to come in and kill his family. And that’s what happens. About a quarter of the way through the book, Robicheaux steps out in the middle of the night to clear his head and two hoods break down his front door and blow his wife away. This sends him on another bender, described by Burke in searing detail. I was shocked by the alcoholic binge in the first book, and this one was just as bone jarring.

So Robicheaux seeks vengeance. While doing so, he reforms a drugged-out hooker and takes care of the young girl he rescued from the plane. The violence carried out between Robicheaux and the bad guys is strongly in contrast with the loving relationship between Robicheaux and the women in his life. It’s a vengeance story and a love story. Burke plays both almost to the extreme. Sometimes it’s an absurd extreme and it’s almost too much to cover in 274 pages.

I can’t wait to read the next one, mostly to see if they pick the storyline up with the ex-hooker and the young girl. Plus, how does Burke weave this guy’s life into crime dramas? He was a cop in book one, then quit. In book two he was an ex-cop that got deputized then quit again, so what’s next? Does he go private?

Like I said, pretty extreme. But good stuff.

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The Pillars of the Earth

I cleared the decks for this thing. One book, about 1,000 pages – complete focus. I’ve had good experiences with Ken Follett. Triple was one of the earliest thrillers that I recall reading. I read it back in the mid 1980’s and enjoyed it, then I read it again about five years ago. I didn’t enjoy it as much the second time around but still thought it a solid thriller. I’ve read a few other Follett books and I’ve always considered myself a fan, but I’ve never felt compelled to read ’em all.

But in the last few months or so, I’ve heard a lot of people talking very favorably about The Pillars of the Earth – people I know and trust. Additionally, especially with the Oprah publicity, it seems to be popping up in the front of bookstores a lot lately. Which is odd because it was first published in 1989 and I could have sworn that this thing spent years in the discounted section. In fact, I actually think I owned this book in hardcover sometime in the 1990’s, but gave it away without reading it. This longevity made me curious, so I grabbed it in January with a Christmas gift card from Borders.

Let me go off topic a little right now. For some reason, I like English period pieces. Earl this, lord that … kings, queens, bloodlines … Elizabeth Bennet, Queen Elizabeth, Cate Blanchett. It makes for a good story or two. In fact, as long I’m being forthright, I will admit that every Sunday this winter I’ve been watching the Complete Jane Austen on PBS with my wife. I’m just saying … try it.

So these forces aligned and I devoted my singular focus to reading The Pillars … starting on March 1st.

It lived up to expectations. To use phrases from reviewers (and the book jacket); it’s a “sweeping epic” of “gripping readability” with “majesty and power.” I’ll tell you, it didn’t disappoint.

Not to keep going off topic, but this type of book makes you understand why we read. I spent 20 hours during the first few weeks of March reading this thing and it struck me that there is no competition in the entertainment world for books like this. There is no movie, TV show, play, game, opera, podcast, radio program, song, or sporting event that combines such an engaging experience with such a high level of convenience. A good book stirs your emotions as much as any of these mediums but comes with much less baggage. You don’t need much electricity. It’s highly portable. It’s inexpensive (or free if you go to a library). You can do it any time, in any place, at whatever pace you choose. The book will never die. It may change in its form, but it will not go away. I digress, this booklove is material for another post. We’ll get to that.

There are five protagonists in this book and any one of them is worthy of their own book. Their names are Tom, Ellen, Philip, Jack, and Aliena. Follett combined and intertwined their fictional stories with some historical fiction from 12th century England. Follett uses the friction between church and state as the backdrop. In fact, this book spans a period almost identical to the life of Saint Thomas Becket, who figured prominently in the often bloody battles between (and within) the Catholic Church and English royalty.

But it wasn’t only an apparent fascination with 12th century history driving this work, it was Follett’s love for cathedrals, castles, and stonework in general that provided most of the back-story. He has a touching forward (in the edition I read) and it’s clear that this book was truly a labor of love. He loves writing and he loves touring cathedrals, and it’s fitting that this labor of love is finally yielding some fruit after about 19 years (copyright date is 1989).

The central part of the book is Philip’s quest to build a beautiful cathedral. All of the action and antagonism comes back to the cathedral, time and again. I’m not a big epic reader; I usually get confused or frustrated with all of the characters, times, and places. That didn’t happen here because the cathedral keeps things simple. The characters keep coming and going, and each of them partake in some act of violence, treachery, kindness, greed, or heroism. But I was able to keep them straight because Follett tethered everything to Philip’s quest to build the cathedral. It was also helpful that Follett used the reflective nature of Philip’s thoughts to review and realign things.

It was a very fast and enjoyable 1,000 page read and I look forward to reading the sequel sometime over the next few years.

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Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer

Let me bounce a few things off of you. Columbia is an Ivy League school, right? The New York Times sports page is about the size of the Chicago Tribune book section, correct? And New York City is in the northeastern United States, huh? So, are you thinking college football yet? I figured not. So it’s somewhat odd that the author, Warren St. John, is such a college football junkie. He writes for the NYT, he lives in NYC, and he went to CU.

But don’t worry; he comes on strong with the college football cred. Check this out, he once made a three-hour phone call to his parents during college. He didn’t say much to them during the call, he just had them set the receiver next to the radio so he could listen to the Alabama vs Auburn game. This was in the early 80’s, before big TV contracts and ESPNU. It was also during the time of $0.25/minute long distance calls (New York to Birmingham). Nutty.

That sets the scene for St. John’s study of sports fandom. If you think this phone incident is a little over the top, then just imagine what his college mates at Columbia thought. They had never seen anyone quite like him. To St. John, this didn’t make sense. He couldn’t believe that all of his fellow students, who had so much in common with him, didn’t share his same love for college football.

This haunts him well into his adult years. So what’s a guy to do? How about revisiting the fandom of your youth and trying to figure out how a completely normal human can lose all sense of rationality on fall Saturdays? In fact, maybe hitching a ride with one of those crazy, RV owning, crimson clad, ‘Bama fans on every Saturday during the 1999 season would do. But, you wouldn’t actually go to the level of buying your own RV and queuing up every Saturday for a spot in the RV lot? Would you?

Well, St. John would. And did! And what ensues is hilarious, disturbing, touching, and enlightening.

Hilarious is saying “Roll Tide” every time you meet a fellow Alabama fan. Hilarious is missing your daughter’s wedding because she had the audacity to plan it during the Tennessee game, then telling everybody in Alabama about it on the 11 PM news. Hilarious is vomiting before the game because you’re so nervous, just to watch.

Disturbing is racism and hypocrisy within the fan base. Disturbing is being afraid for your physical safety because you pull for the other team or disagree with the fan base. Disturbing is fans with guns.

Touching is bonding with fellow humans through the small thread of this common interest. Touching is realizing that a Saturday on The Grove at Ole Miss is so beautiful and special, that it doesn’t matter who wins. Touching is noticing that the things that made you happy as a kid, still make you happy as an adult.

Enlightening is finding out that I may not be so weird after all. Enlightening is knowing that it’s okay not to be dejected after a loss because everybody deals with disappointment a little differently.

This was a great audio book experience. Fun, not too intense, about a topic that really interests me (so I don’t have to think about it that much), and read by the author.

St. John is still a huge Alabama fan and it appears that he stays in contact with a few people that he met during this season of RVing. For example, he bought two tickets to a Yankee’s game from John Ed, the Tuscaloosa ticket broker. He also went to a game the next year with the Bice’s (spelling?), the people who generously invited him on his first RV trip to start this project off.

St. John seems like an approachable, likable, interested sports fan. I could see hanging with him, despite the fact that he still relishes in one of the Alabama victories over Notre Dame (I think it was the 1985 drubbing).

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The Coast of Chicago

What a perfect Christmas gift. I’ve been picking up books of short stories in the bookstores lately but haven’t pulled the trigger. The author, Stuart Dybek, is a Chicagoan now living in Kalamazoo and teaching at Western Michigan University. His collection of his short stories was critically acclaimed and chosen for One Book, One Chicago in Spring 2004.

I can’t remember the last time I read a book of short stories. I had Interpreter of Maladies in my hands at Borders the other day but put it down (also a One Book, One Chicago choice in Fall 2006). I may grab it now that I’ve enjoyed this book.

I have to go into short stories with a different mindset. There just isn’t time for the author to plate things up for me. I was at times frustrated with the symbolism and darkness, but it grew on me. I think it grew on me because of the Chicago connection. Each story incorporates the sights and sounds of Chicago as observed through a born and bred Chicagoan; kind of like Back to Earth incorporates the sights and sounds of the backcountry through a man born and bred with a huge respect for the outdoors. These reading experiences had similarities and differences.

In the last paragraph of my take on Back to Earth, note that I was inspired to “live smaller, to minimize my impact on the globe, to find beauty in nature even if I don’t live in the woods.” Yes, I was inspired, but the inspiration was shallow because I can’t duplicate Temple’s outdoor experiences while living through this cold, dark, and depressing Chicago winter. Temple regularly viewed massive, snow-capped peaks outlined against a brilliant blue sky. I get to view the Chicago skyline. Well, at least the bottom half of it below the low hanging clouds. But what Dybek taught me is that there are plenty of sensory experiences in this great city, even in the dark of night, that can enlighten and inspire.

In fact, I did have an observation the other day that wouldn’t have been there had I not been a reader. And after reading Dybek, I am all the more respectful of the experience. Let me dig into it.

Listen, and don’t forget this, the winter of 2008 was nasty. Not because of any great, single-day snowfall or record breaking cold. But because it just kept coming at you. It just kept throwing wind, rain, snow, cold and darkness at you. Day after day, week after week. It started on New Year’s Eve and it’s now mid February – still nasty. We only had 11 minutes of sun the whole first week of February.

A few weeks ago there was a one-day respite from the cold and the temp spiked up into the high 30s. During this time, I had occasion to walk from the heart of the loop to the west loop before rush hour. I had just left a good meeting and my spirits were high, which was in complete contrast to the moist, quiet blackness that enveloped me as I trudged through the loop. Somewhere, above the fog and clouds, the sun was providing just enough light to make it feel like it was daytime. Plenty of snow was sitting around, but its whiteness was just a memory. My jacket was open, my hat was off, but it was not a refreshing warmth. I was struck with a feeling that I had while reading The Road. The feeling that the light may never come back.

But I knew it would come back, which allowed me to appreciate this day more; to revel in the beauty of the city even in the bleak landscape. Which is what I think Dybek does. It seems like much of it takes place under viaducts, on gray concrete, and shrouded in clouds. Which, from living here, is for real. But he finds the good in this. If you’re an urban dweller, these stories will hit home.

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First, Break all the Rules

Management books and the practice of management are kind of mushy. Think about the premise; Jack Welch managed GE – GE had good returns while he was there – you can become a better manager by reading Straight from the Gut and acting like Jack. This seems sensible to me. But what if my persona and skills don’t line up with Jack’s? Can I reasonably expect to be able to incorporate his policies and practices? Or worse, what if his management skills had less to do with GE’s success during his tenure than the corporate culture, the economy, and the great line managers that made their way through the legendary training ground in Crotonville? Or more subtly, does reading a management book by a rock star CEO really give a line manager the stuff needed to build a rewarding work environment that churns out great financial results?

I don’t have answers to these questions. I can’t really even take credit for asking them because these are effectively the questions that Buckingham and Coffman (B&C) ask (and answer) in their fine book. They didn’t focus on one great manager, or even a group of successful managers. They used statistical techniques to compile the results of thousands of interviews of both managers and employees over the course of a few decades, and it ends up being a pretty impressive body of work.

B&C work for the Gallup Organization, which sponsored this huge study. The study ties together employee satisfaction, management practices, and business unit results in a quantitative manner. First they figured out how to measure the strength of the workplace. Then they linked the strength of the workplace to performance in the areas of productivity, profitability, employee retention, and customer satisfaction. Then, after being certain that a strong workplace means stellar business unit performance, they honed in on the management practices that build a strong workplace. Quite fascinating for a digit head like myself.

To assess the strength of a workplace, one that can “attract, focus, and keep the most talented employees,” you just have to ask twelve questions. The more yes answers you get, the stronger the workplace. They know this because they talked to over a million employees over some 20+ years. Here are the questions:

  1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
  2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
  3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
  4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
  5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
  6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
  7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
  8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
  9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
  10. Do I have a best friend at work?
  11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
  12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

But that’s just the start. They took these twelve questions out to the field and posed them to employees of about 2,500 business units in 24 different companies. They matched up the answers (1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree) with business outcomes (profits, productivity, employee retention, customer satisfaction) and reviewed the data. Yes, you guessed it, positive answers to the twelve questions correlate strongly with great business unit results.

So then, as a manager, what are the best ways to get yes answers to those twelve questions? That should be the goal, since yes answers mean great results, right? Additionally, are certain questions more important than others? Great managers have the answers to these questions, so Gallup went out to the managers to document them. Once again, they interviewed thousands of managers. They “listened to the tapes, read the transcripts,” and compiled answers. The result is a treatise on “what great managers know” and “what great managers do.”

Great managers know that there is an order and a grouping aspect to these twelve questions. B&C put them into a mountain climbing analogy.

Base Camp (questions 1-2): What do I get?

Camp 1 (questions 3-6): What do I give?

Camp 2 (questions 7-10): Do I belong here?

Camp 3 (questions 11-12): How can we all grow?

If you answer yes to all 12, you’ve passed the Camp 3 level and reached the Summit of employee satisfaction and productivity. The most important levels are Base Camp and Camp 1, these questions are more closely correlated high performing organizations than the others; they build a strong foundation for happy employees that consistently deliver great results.

As they say, to be the catalyst to get positive answers, especially to Base Camp and Camp 1 questions, “a manager must be able to do four activities extremely well: select a person, set expectations, motivate the person, develop the person.” But there is another ingredient underlying all of this is that they discovered; an insight that came out on top as the most “revolutionary” and the “most common.” Here it is in the manager’s words (collectively):

People don’t change that much.

Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out.

Try to draw out what was left in.

That is hard enough.

B&C have only been setting the table at this point, we’re at about page 70. They take all of this information and settle on “the Four Keys” of great managers. The rest of the book delves into each of those Four Keys of great management in detail. They are:

When selecting someone, they select for talent…not simply experience, intelligence and determination.

When setting expectations, they define the right outcomes…not the right steps.

When motivating someone, they focus on strengths…not on weaknesses.

When developing someone, they help him find the right fit…not simply the next rung on the latter.

I’m not going to dig into these as part of this post, but I’m going to keep this book around as a reference. I think it’s that good. I think it’s the kind of book you keep in your office and bat around every time you think about your employees and if you’re doing right by them.

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The Hostage

Just last month I was voicing my frustration with the international intrigue/espionage thriller. Let me be clear, W.E.B. Griffin is an exception to that rant. His Charley Castillo books have sucked me in. They blaze at a breakneck pace and are chock full of great characters.

Underlying the multitude of characters is the constant clash of politics versus progress, of bureaucratic protocol versus cooperation. But Charley Castillo gets around it because he’s working directly for the President, which doesn’t always guarantee him the cooperation of the CIA, FBI, NSA, or State Department, but makes for a ton of fun. This book is jam-packed with dialog and the best parts are when characters from different agencies engage in macho verbal battles highlighting natural turf wars – wars that I’m guessing are pretty darn accurate based on Griffin’s cred as an insider. In fact, there is more oral sparring than gunfights, resulting in a very intelligent thriller.

The bottom line for me, and this Presidential Agent series of books, is that Griffin has developed a huge amount of interesting characters that I like. Let me give you some examples. Castillo’s boss will go to bat for him no matter what; he’s the type of boss you always want. Fernando, Castillo’s civilian brother, regularly gets dragged into government operations and is constantly giving his brother a hard time. The marine that shuttles Castillo around in Argentina has a freaky amount of knowledge of Argentinean history and won’t stop calling Castillo “sir,” despite Castillo’s pleading. Heck, Castillo has even befriended an international criminal from Russia, now living in Argentina, who shares much needed information with Castillo that Castillo can’t get through normal channels, in return for certain favors of course. This is just a cool group of people. Then there’s Castillo’s love interest, and her obnoxious brother, both of whom add more twists. The list goes on, and on, and on…

I’ve read two of them and they are near-perfect thrillers. I’m ready for the next one.

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Back to Earth

Kerry Temple was a married father of two grown boys when his life unraveled in his “middle years.” By unravel, I mean divorce and estrangement from his sons. So he moved into a secluded cabin in the Northern Indiana countryside and tried to make sense of it all. The subtitle of the book is “A Backpacker’s Journey Into Self and Soul” and it’s a recounting of much of that time in the cabin. It’s also an exploration of how nature and outdoor adventures can be positive, influential forces in one’s life.

Before we dig into this, I’ve said it before, some day I’m going to hike the Appalachian Trail. This is a desire harbored in the deepest recesses of my brain, but I’m comfortable getting it out there; it was a hook for this book. The author is also an ND grad and editor of the ND Magazine, providing another hook. And finally, this book was referenced years ago in Outside magazine, a publication that I usually enjoy reading (even though I don’t subscribe).

The cabin I mentioned brackets the beginning and the end of the book. He talks about his stay at the cabin in the first few chapters, switches gears and devotes the middle chapters to his most memorable trips in the backcountry, and ends with his eviction from the cabin and subsequent building of a golf course on the land (I really want to know which golf course).

He writes in an artistic style with many references to the mysticism of the outdoors. This isn’t exactly what I expected because I thought it would be more about how he resolved his family problems through thoughtful meditation in the solitude of the outdoors. But his divorce and the after effects are not part of this book. This book is about his general relationship with the outdoors. Here is one of his thoughts near the end of the book:

My time here [the cabin] has shown me again what I discovered as a teenager loose on the land but had forgotten in those intervening years – that the landscape does offer spiritual sustenance, a sense of grace, and an avenue to the divine. Perhaps those two – the land and its spirit – are not that different. And the human race, in order to find redemption, to locate itself, to be at rest in the world, must find again the union of the two.

I think Temple’s intention throughout the book is to expand on two points from the quote above. First, think about what was special – what you valued – when you were younger and if you’re not living those ideals, figure out why not. Second, the science and technology of the modern world may hinder your pursuit of living a happy and satisfied life, but contemplative time in the woods can offset the destructive aspects of our “technoindustrial” society.

The beauty is that Temple never tells you these things or beats you over the head with these themes. It’s not a self-help book, it’s not an environmentalist rant, it’s a philosophical look at his own life and how his meanderings in both the modern world and the backcountry have affected him. He poses thoughts and retells experiences with wonderment and introspection. I got used to the tone within a few chapters and really enjoyed it.

It inspires me to live smaller, to minimize my impact on the globe, to find beauty in nature even if I don’t live in the woods. I’m sitting in my living room right now with the lights off just watching the snow fall with the city lights as a backdrop. It really is beautiful. In fact, I turned off the golf (Phoenix), in HD, believe it or not.