We’re book nuts around our camp, apparently to the point of being deemed odd by visitors to our home over the years. There are bookcases tucked in just about every nook and cranny and books stacked here and yonder.
Digital books have their place, without a doubt, though it will be a cold day in hell before we give up the tactile (and reading) pleasure of digging a book off the shelf, soaking up the cover art and turning one crisp, resonant paper page at a time.
Santa and his minions (one of which appears to be Jake) brought several great books this past season, one of my favorites has to be Pat Munday’s Montana’s Last Best River: The Big Hole and its People (2001, The Lyons Press).
The Big Hole River story is a profoundly impactful one in this day and age of the heightened awareness of the critical value of water to a state and its people, one we still hope to address at length before long.
Munday’s book tells the Big Hole story pretty damned well, with a respectful and detailed dose of regional history thrown in, and manages to reflect a number of perspectives even though the book’s origins stem from work related to the Big Hole River Foundation, who receives the profits from sales by the way.
You need this one.
(Posted another great read on our Instagram feed here yesterday.)
