Cooped Up? Get Uncooped.

Every time I scan my bookshelf I am tempted to at least pick up any of Wallace Stegner's books if not read through them again. A concrete writer and an avid historian, Stegner describes America's frontiers as they have grown and our responsibilities to them.

Stegner will not necessarily appeal to the romanticist in you, but will inspire you to go do something with the gifts you've been given (within and beyond) as he did a few of his students - Wendell Berry and Edward Abbey.

Recommendations: Two - 'Beyond the Hundredth Meridian' is the foremost biography of John Wesley Powell and an eerily prophetic description of our current situation in the west. On a slightly easier-to-read note, strongly consider 'The Sound of Mountain Water' if you run across a copy. Either will keep lunch and rests entertaining (if you're like me and hike with a book in your back pocket).

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