I did some reading on vacation, and after I got home. It's kind of cute that I brought books with me, because I bought 16 of them on the road. I usually do both of those things.
The Grand Canyon of the Colorado: Recurrent Studies in Impressions and Appearances, by John C. Van Dyke
Don't let the dry title fool you. This is the best book about the Grand Canyon I've read, ever. Van Dyke was an art historian, and he looks at nature through those eyes. This is an amazing book, and I successfully timed it. I was well into by the time we got up to the Canyon from Flagstaff. It changed the way I look at the Canyon, which is in my top 5 places on this planet. I was in the middle of the chapter on Desert View, my favorite part of the Canyon the day we went. Perfect. He talks about the structure of the rocks, the colors and their different looks during the course of the day and the course of the year. Just amazing. It was first published in 1920, but is easily available today. Read it before, during, and after your Canyon visit. It will change how you see things.
Then I read
Looking Back Around the hat: A History of Mexican Hat, by Doris Valle.
I had picked this up last year in Cortez, Colorado, because I love the area around Mexican Hat, Utah, and wanted to know more about it. I brought it with me to read because I was finally going to get to stay overnight in Mexican Hat, rather than just pass through. It's written by a local citizen who is not really a writer, but she knew the town and its history. It was really interesting to read. Those small desert towns are full of people if you know where to look, and the "neighborhood" can stretch for 20 miles in all directions. It was fun to know what some of the buildings were as I drove into town, and know the history of the motel where I stayed. On my way out of town, I saw the Valle RV Park.
Next was
Hayden Survey 1874-1876: Mesa Verde and the Four Corners, by Jackson and Holmes.
This was also bought in Cortez last year. I brought this with me because I was going to take a small, back road into Cortez this year through McElmo Canyon, which is just what these two men were describing in their reports from 1874 and 1876. They found countless Ancestral Puebloan ruins back then. They're almost all gone now, but it was really fun to drive pretty much their route, but backwards from the Bluff, Utah, area into Cortez. This book did get a little dry towards the end. It is a government report, so the tiny details about which potsherds were found where was a little much. But I enjoyed the first accounts of finding the ruins.
Next was a book I bought in Flagstaff at a ridiculously reasonably-priced antique mall.
The Grand Canyon: Early Impressions, edited by Paul Schullery.
Schullery has collected early writing about the Canyon from 1869, with Major Powell's account through pretty much the last wild river run in 1941. I loved this book. The account of the first automobile trip from Flagstaff to the Canyon in 1902 is insane. It took seven days and they all damn near died.
My Canyonlands, by Kent Frost was next. I picked this up at the John Wesley Powell River History Museum in Green River, Utah. (Go there. It's bitchin'.)
Kent Frost was a pioneer river runner who ran with Norm Nevills (who also figured quite prominently in the Mexican hat book, since he lived there for nearly all his life). Kent grew up around Monticello, Utah, and literally hiked all over eastern Utah. he was the first into many canyons that no white man had been in before; he was most liekly the first man into these canyons since the Ancestral Puebloans had abandoned their cliff dwellings. Kent, like Doris, isn't a professional writer, so the writing's a bit plain and choppy, but what a life this guy lived. If you love eastern Utah, and you should, this book will interest you.
The Desert is Yours, by Erle Stanley Gardner. This one was also bought at that antique mall in Flag.
Yes, it's the Perry Mason guy. I knew before I read this that he loved to roam all over the deserts of California, Arizona, and Mexico. He had money to spend and steam to blow off. He hires helicopters and airplanes to look for lost mines in this book, but much of the narrative is about the people and machines he knows and loves in the process. While he was a lawyer, he started a writing career that took off, but he started that writing career as a hack, and boy can you tell. He writes these books just like he writes the Perry Mason books: why use one word when three will do, and why use "car" when "automobile" sounds more educated. It gets amusing after a while, then you get used to it.
Now you're all caught up on my fascinating reading so far this summer. Most of my books are in boxes due to our remodel, but Ikea will be visited Tuesday afternoon and preliminary steps will be taken to get the books back on shelves. I feel a bit like Linus when his blanket was being laundered.
Disappointed and scathing review coming soon.
