I'm looking at almost 160 days of solitude in a fire lookout on Oregon.

[DemoTex]

I already have about 50 books in a milk crate for the lookout. Twenty of those are bird/tree/flower books. Without showing my hand, what books would you take to an isolated fire lookout in the Deschutes National Forest for a long fire season?

[babylonsister]

1. For a long fire season? Nothing riveting if the

fires start.

No fiction at all?

[DemoTex]

5. Fiction/Non-Fiction/Short Stories/ Essays

Right. Fires are the focus.

[babylonsister]

12. Have you ever tried any fiction by Nelson DeMille? I like him, and

I read a lot of fiction.

Greg Iles can be good, too.

What do you like?

[Catch22Dem]

16. Big Nelson DeMille fan here...

I think either Up Country or Spencerville were my favorites. Oh The Charm School was really good too. Oh, and Cathedral. Ok, those are my 4 favs. :D

[babylonsister]

17. Ha! See?! I hear ya!

:toast:

[eShirl]

2. Moby Dick

[DemoTex]

27. Yas!

A re-read on the Kindle.

BTW: "YAS!" is an affectation from so much reading of Jack Kerouac. Yas indeed!

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. "On The Road" you can read about Kerouac's experiences

doing what you are doing.

[DemoTex]

7. It's in the box .. the scroll version with the original names.

As is "Dharma Bums" and "Desolations Angels".

[Vanje]

4. Take a lot of warm clothes

It can freeze hard in the Deschutes N.F. , even mid July.

Have fun!

[DemoTex]

9. August 1 mean low = 45

Brrrr! Thanks.

[Lithos]

6. The obvious answer

_Beat Generation_, _Dharma Bums_ and _Desolation Angels_ by Jack Kerouac, which were either partially written or have roots from when he was a firewatcher on Desolation Peak in Washington State. .

[DemoTex]

8. All .. in the box already!

Also, the poetry of Philip Whalen and the poetry and essays of Gary Snyder .. in my box.

[Lithos]

11. How about...

_Lord of the Flies_? A nice novel of being stranded... Maybe also _Robinson Crusoe_ as well...

I would also suggest

Bolano's _2666_
Khalid's _The Kite Runner_
John Laurence's _The Cat from Hue_

[DemoTex]

13. Oh, man .. "The Cat From Hue"

Great book, a re-read.

[peace13]

10. Cold Mountain, if you haven't read it.

Good luck on your watch!

[BridgeTheGap]

30. Good rec - way better than the movie...n.t

[BridgeTheGap]

31. 2666 - by Robert Bolano' n.t

[peace13]

32. I'll have to check that one out! Thanks. n/t

[Captain Hilts]

40. I thought the movie was good too, actually. nt

[Captain Hilts]

14. Something about Churchill. He's batshit crazy and fascinating. You'll laugh, you'll cry!

You'll feel sorry for Clementine!

?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=1F4B849CA9F88243674860F83B6E72D3284831B75F48EF45

[enlightenment]

15. Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' -

Rushdie's 'East, West'
Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart'
Samuel Pepys' Diary
Paul Theroux 'The Mosquito Coast'
Robert Burns - the complete works (once you get a handle on the Scots, there are some really excellent pieces)
DH Lawrence 'The Rainbow' (if you haven't read it) and 'Women in Love'
TE Lawrence 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom'

Seuss 'Horton Hears a Who'

[DemoTex]

37. I'm throwing "Mosquito Coast" in the bag, too.

Because I have a copy I've never read and I love Theroux.

[Loki]

18. I'm a non-fiction junky and highly recommend all of these

1. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan - story of the Dust Bowl and the people that stayed and rode it out in the panhandle of Texas and Oklahoma.

2. The Discovery of the Titanic by Dr. Robert D. Ballard

3. Longitude - The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel

4. The Terrible Hours (The man behind the greatest submarine rescue in history by Peter Maas

5. My Old Man and the Sea - A Father and Son sail around Cape Horn by David and Daniel Hays

6 Three books by Jon Krakauer: Into Thin Air (about his Everest climb known as the 1996 Everest Disaster, Into the Wild, and Under the Banner of Heaven ( his revealing trip into the heart of Mormonism via a murder trial involving three brothers)

[Captain Hilts]

20. Those are excellent suggestions. How about April 1865, the month that saved America?

I'd also suggest The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Beevor.

How about a book by a WWII sub skipper? Clear the Bridge by O'Kane is a good, quick read.

For women's history I'd recommend Blanche Wiesen Cook's Eleanor Roosevelt Vol. I. There is a lot here about the end of the suffrage movement, the beginning of social welfare advocacy after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, ...All sorts of stuff I knew nothing about until I picked this up. And there's all that stuff about the various Roosevelts. You don't feel like you've been pulled through a wringer as you do after reading Lash's Eleanor and Franklin.

[DemoTex]

26. Read all three Krakauer books.

Beck Weathers (the Dallas MD in "Into Thin Air") is from my hometown (Griffin. Ga.). He married a very good friend of mine ("Peaches" aka "Indian" Olson). I know them well. Small world.

"Under the Banner of Heaven" is a must-read, but it will not be on my re-read list.

[Adsos Letter]

19. If you feel up to a bit of 17th century history...

Try The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution. by Christopher Hill. I found this book very interesting because Hill's thesis is that the lifting of censorship during a 20 year period of the English Civil Wars allowed all types of "interesting" behaviors and political/religious ideas to emerge, that were just as quickly suppressed or moderated after the Restoration in 1660.

It sounds terribly dry, but Hill offers some very interesting reflections on the meaning of popular beliefs/movements during the period.

I read it twice; once for school, and once for pleasure.

BTW: My grandfather, all of my uncles (except two) and my dad were CDF. The two exceptions were US Forest Service firefighters. I can remember visiting my dad when he was doing the lookout thing in Northern California (Mt. St. Helena, and Goat Mountain).

I envy you your experience. :)

[Adsos Letter]

28. oops..

[Captain Hilts]

21. Okay, I'll do it, 100 Years of Solitude. How about Thoreau? nt

[DemoTex]

24. 10-4

[pscot]

22. Thucidides, Pelopponesian War

Xenophon's March Up Country and Caesar's Commentaries. Also Grant's Memoirs and Sherman's Menoirs. Nothing like reading history written by the guys who lived it.

[DemoTex]

23. OMG! In the bag already! Stamped my name in it today.

[DemoTex]

25. STOP! FREEZE! IMAGINE THIS THREAD AT FREEREPUPLIC.COM

It would never happen. That's why DU and liberals are so damn great. Thanks for your input. But keep it coming! Open thread.

[Adsos Letter]

29. "Dispatches" by Michael Herr..."The Proud Tower" by Barbara Tuchman,

[DemoTex]

36. Dispatches

Read twice. Great book (along with "The Cat From Hue.")

[Sabriel]

33. How about a couple of sea-oriented books while you're up in the trees?

Isaac's Storm

Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea

The latter is particularly well-written.

[Captain Hilts]

34. Two Years Before the Mast. nt

[DemoTex]

35. Was not "Issac's Storm" about the Great Galveston Hurricane?

Read it .. great book!

[laststeamtrain]

38. Poets On The Peaks by John Suiter

http://www.poetsonthepeaks.com/index.php

[eppur_se_muova]

39. "Lost in the Taiga" by Vasily Peskov seems kind of appropriate.

The Last Algonquin by Theodore Kazimiroff -- one of the saddest books you'll ever read, but best read when you have time for contemplation.