View Full Version : eddwars abby's desert solitare
im reading and almost finished with edward abbys desert solitare and i was wondering what other people opinions were???
garlic08
02-03-2010, 21:08
Asking this question on this forum is like going to church and asking people what they think of the Bible!
I'm going to Oracle, AZ next weekend for the annual meeting of the AZT Association. Abbey died there and was buried nearby. Only a few people know where.
im reading and almost finished with edward abbys desert solitare and i was wondering what other people opinions were???
You must read Monkey Wrench Gang, also by Edward Abbey.
max patch
02-03-2010, 21:11
Boring.....
max patch
02-03-2010, 21:12
You must read Monkey Wrench Gang, also by Edward Abbey.
That one was good.
RedneckRye
02-03-2010, 21:41
Currently about a third of the way thru The Fool's Progress for the third or fourth time.
My personal favorite of his.
wanna know the ending? I'll save ya some time. Ends real bad. Book's to big for your pack, i know, i checked. No chance for a movie or a sequel or a part III. Trust me ,I know what I'm talking about. I the end the desert wins, sort-of. If you know what I mean wink-wink.
Desert Solitaire - a must read for anyone hiking in UT, AZ, SoCal, NM, or NV or for anyone who cares about the direction the NPs are heading. Every time I go to Arches NP I imagine Abbey in that trailer cooking beans or hunkering down under a sandstone ledge in inclement weather or enjoying a scene with JUST nature. He taught me so rightly that the desert is not deserted!
Lion King
02-03-2010, 23:56
im reading and almost finished with edward abbys desert solitare and i was wondering what other people opinions were???
loved it, and really made me want to see Utah, and hike canyonlands and arches, which I got to do last year.
Spirit Walker
02-04-2010, 00:04
I read Desert Solitaire after spending time in southern Utah. I loved it. It is one of my all time favorite books.
Abbey had two very distinctive styles. His fiction and non-fiction are very different, except for brief moments in his fiction where he would get quite lyrical describing the physical setting. It took a while for me to like his fiction. I agree, "Fools Progress" is a good one, mostly because it is so autobiographical. He has several books that are collections of essays from his travels, and some that include exerpts from his fiction. I really liked "Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast" I would have liked to meet him.
Read it a number of years ago, I liked it.
It was a bit uneven in places, but the chapters on Havasupai, with the story of getting himself into a pinch and the description of his elation over escaping, has stayed with me since I read it.
Toolshed
02-04-2010, 12:37
Read it a number of years ago, I liked it.
It was a bit uneven in places, but the chapters on Havasupai, with the story of getting himself into a pinch and the description of his elation over escaping, has stayed with me since I read it.
Ditto - I read it several times in the early-mid-90's. I always liked that chapter. I think that's the chapter that starts off he and his buds were throwing old tires over the rim watching them bounce away when he decided to go down - He told his friends he'd be backin an hour and cmae back like a month later?
I sometimes confuse some of his writings with Colin Fletcher's "The man who walked through time" Though I am aware the 2 are completely different, I just cannot remember who did what in the GC.
max patch
02-04-2010, 12:41
You must read Monkey Wrench Gang, also by Edward Abbey.
The sequel, Hayduke Lives, sucked.
If you liked Ed then read anything by David Peterson, a good read is "On the Wild Edge" if you are a bunny hugger don't because he is a hunter. In his book "The Nearby Faraway" he tells about his packpack in to Abbey's grave.