No Shortage of Good Days, John Gierarch
In No Shortage of Good Days, John Gierach takes us from the Smokies in
Tennessee to his home waters in Colorado, from the Canadian Maritimes to
Mexico—saltwater or fresh, it’s all fishing and all irresistible. As
always he writes perceptively about a wide range of subjects: the charm
of familiar waters, the etiquette 27.99 of working with new fishing
guides, night fishing when the trout and the mosquitoes are both biting,
fishing while there is still slush on the river, fishing snobbery, and
the delights of fresh fish cooked and eaten within sight of where it was
caught. No Shortage of Good Days may be the next best thing to a day of fishing.About John Gierarch
John Gierach is the author of several previous books, including At the
Grave of the Unknown Fisherman, Standing in a River Waving a Stick, and
Dances with Trout. His work has appeared in Gray's Sporting Journal,
Field & Stream, where he is a contributing writer, and Fly Rod &
Reel, where he is a columnist. He also writes columns for the Longmont
(CO) Daily Times-Call and the monthly Redstone Review. He lives in
Lyons, Colorado.
In the same charming style of his previous books, Gierach (Sex, Death,
and Fly-Fishing; Still Life with Brook Trout) offers plenty of
enthusiasm for nonanglers, but is also full of the firsthand knowledge
and sagely guarded secrets that keep fishermen coming back for more.
This collection of essays offers envy-inducing travelogues, such as
"Baja," "Tennessee," and "Atlantic Salmon," as well as others that focus
on the intricacies of "taking someone fishing," such as "The Perfect
Host"; others, like "Book Tour," explore the ups and downs of the
writing life and publishing business. The most personal look at Gierach,
who is both a bamboo-rod snob and free-spirited trout bum, comes in the
revealing "Cheating," which covers how anglers "fight over how the fish
should be caught" and allows the author to share his biases,
transgressions, and some secondhand gems about poaching. No matter the
subject, Gierach's prose, complete with catchy one-liners ("the river
you see is like a slide show run by a speed freak"; "fishing is like any
other quest in the sense that when you finally close the deal, you can
be at a loss about what to do next"), combines the naturalist poetics of
Norman Maclean and the nascent practicality of Benjamin Franklin. -- Publishers Weekly
"John Gierach is a master at spinning tales." -- The Denver Post
