Wild Birding Colorado: The Big Year of 2010
by Cole Wild and Nicholas Komar

Cole Wild is a young, local birder that you run into occasionally if you spend any time at all around this area looking for birds. Nick Komar is one of the local gurus who has taken Cole under is wing and taught him a thing or two about birds and where to find them. And, obviously, Cole is motivated enough and bright enough to risk everything to learn more on his own. These two guys are inspiring, if not the most eloquent and polished of writers.

This is an account of Cole's attempt to find more bird species in one year in Colorado than anyone before him. It is a reminder that you don't have to be rich to chase birds all over to Hell and gone if you are passionate enough about them. If you are a Colorado birder, this book should probably be on the "must read" list.

The Bourne Identity
by Robert Ludlum

I give away used books as Christmas presents, and I found this old favorite on a shelf and gave it to my non-reading youngest, hoping to spark a file. He had already read it, he said. (Although I think he was remembering the movie, which is nothing whatsoever like the book.)

Anyway, it was sitting around on the coffee table the day after Christmas and, naturally, I picked it up and ... Well, you know the story. Interestingly enough, this was a much better book when I read it 20 years ago!

Tenkara: Radically Simple, Ultralight Fly Fishing
by Kevin C. Kelleher

Over the past several years, I have been radically reducing the amount of weight I carry backpacking. I generally carry on the order of 18-20 pounds these days, fully loaded for a long weekend trip. But, I have pretty much eliminated any extraneous gear and, yet, one of the things I still envy about my heavily loaded friends is their fishing gear. Tenkara may well be the answer. You can put together an entire fishing outfit for about 6 ounces. The Zen-like simplicity of Tenkara really appeals to me. I haven't bought my rod yet, but I have a feeling its going to be my next major purchase.

Lighten Up! : A Complete Handbook for Light & Ultralight Backpacking
by Don Ladigin

I am co-teaching an ultralight backpacking class next month, so I have been gathering resources and materials. This is a reasonably good book for people who are new to ultralight backpacking. It can easily be read in an evening. Mike Clelland is the illustrator of this book, which makes it fun. Clelland has his own book (Ultralight Backpackin' Tips), though, which I think is even more useful than this one.

No Shortage of Good Days
by John Gierach

I'll say this about John Gierach. You know what you are getting when you start a Gierach book. Good times, a few laughs, great insight into fishing and life, and a most pleasant and enjoyable few hours killing time rather than fish. This book is no different, and that is maybe the best and worst that can be said of it. Sometimes I wonder if Gierach doesn't have more to say, but it's just too much trouble to push it a bit. Or maybe he really is just a fisherman who writes fun, entertaining books and he is happy enough with that.

Ultralight Backpackin' Tips
by Mike Clelland

I've spent the past couple of months combing the Internet for information for an ultralight backpacking class I was planning to teach to a group of hikers I belong to. For a long time I avoided this book because it didn't appear serious enough to me. Then, I sat down and read it, and I learned more about ultralight backpacking in a couple of hours than I did in nearly a month on the Internet! Maybe this book makes more sense once you have actually struggled to reduce the weight of your backpack, but my pack weight was reduced another couple of pounds just by the new ideas alone. I didn't have to buy a thing. My pack base weight is now about 14 pounds and heading lower!

Curtis Creek Manifesto
by Sheridan Anderson

As the title has it, this is a "Fully Illustrated Guide to the Stategy, Finesse, Tactics and Paraphernalia of Fly Fishing". And, I would add, it is wonderful! If you are just learning to fly fish, or you are like me and coming back to it after a long time, this is the book to get you in the mood to fish! Like Cleland's book on ultralight backpacking, this book is fun, witty, and chock full of good and useful advise. Highly recommended.

A Fly Fishing Guide to Rocky Mountain National Park
by Steven B. Schweitzer

This is not only an extensively researched and well written book, but it is absolutely gorgeous! It is done in full color on high quality paper, and if the sight of those views of Rocky Mountain National Park's miles of fishable streams and lakes doesn't get you off the couch and into the mountains, nothing will. This book has it all. Which streams and lakes have fish, what kind of fish you can expect, the best way to get there, and what flies to use once reach your destination. In addition, you are given 100 fly patterns used and tied by many of best fishermen locally. Great book! I've spent a lot of time in RMNP, but I can already tell I'm going to be spending a lot more.

Floaters: Three Short Stories
by J.A. Konrath and Henry Perez

J.A. Konrath writes a most interesting blog about writing, and he mentioned this book as a free e-book he and Perez were giving away for a week or so as a promotion. I snapped it up to see if he was as good a fiction writer as he is a blog writer. But, truthfully, I'm not sure. I'm going to have to read more to make up my mind. This book was a bit of an experiment between Konrath and Perez, with the two of them writing the book in a give and take fashion. It reminded me of a storytelling class I took years ago, when you were required to "go" with the story as it came to you, embellish it, then pass it on again. It's probably not their best work.

The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life
by Ann Patchett

I have never read any of Ann Patchett's books, and I don't really know how I came to read this one. Except that I was poking around one day trying to learn how to create e-books, and I found this book offered as a Kindle single. These are books that are too long to be a magazine article, but too short to be a full-fledged book. However I came to find it, I'm glad it did. This is a most entertaining and enjoyable book about the writing life. If you are an aspiring writer, I highly recommend it for its good advice and companionable tone. Now, I'm looking for an Ann Patchett novel.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
by Daniel Quinn

I am not sure what to say about this book. It was given to me by one of my children and described as one of the best books my son had ever read. I did not think it was a well written book. In fact, the style annoyed me a great deal at first. But, after working my way through the first 80 or so pages of the book, I found I really wanted to keep reading. I was extremely disappointed with the ending. I kept wondering what a really good writer would do with this material. I guess I think the ideas were compelling, and that the execution was deeply flawed.