Welcome to Litsy!

★★★★☆

First read in 2010. My wife Amy and I started the audiobook of this American nature classic last June while driving home from Moab, Utah, a place that is very special to us. Acknowledging Abbey's ableism, racism, sexism, and hypocrisy, one can't deny that he's a compelling writer. I wish all readers of this book could also read Robert Macfarlane's introduction. ⬇️

Started listening with my wife while driving back from visiting Moab, Utah, USA, celebrating 25 years since our engagement there. My second time reading this.

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

By page 33 when Abbey chronicled his killing of a rabbit with a rock (just to do it), I‘d had my fill. I don‘t bail often, but this book about Arches National Park is about as boring as looking at postcards.

Assigned reading for a college course in Environmental Ethics I took as a undergrad in the late 90s, this book inspired me to new heights of ecological appreciation. I have since read a few other things by Abbey, including a collection of correspondence. Living as I do now in a different part of his beloved desert, I understand a little more with each rereading. (Lost count.)

#Alphabetgame #LetterD

Part memoir, part nature writing. A quiet and gentle book that transports you into the American desert. I enjoyed this very much. 🏜

My family is planning a two-week road trip through several western states. We all enjoy listening to audiobooks on road trips, and now that my kids are both (just about) teenagers, it opens up possibilities beyond our standard fare (Jim Dale's Harry Potter, Stockard Channing's Ramona, etc). We have Under the Whispering Door, but I'd like one or two more particularly good audios as backup.

Suggestions?

(Photo from our 2009 trip to Arches NP.)

I do not recommend reading this book unless you want to have an exercise in learning about the horrid things people used to be super vocally open about. For me there was no celebration of the wilderness or living in the rough conditions of the desert, it was just a thesis about how horrid specific type of people are. Only reason I continued reading was for the 1000 Books You Must Read Before You Die challenge I set for myself.

Here are the things Abbey does in this manifesto:

1. Kills a rabbit with a rock just to see if he can
2. Fantasizes about moving to "grimy Oakland" and getting a "chocolate girlfriend"
3. Rants about how there are too many Navajo people, and proposes the idea that the US government should make Navajo birth control compulsory
4. Says that children, the elderly, and differently abled people should not come to the national parks
5. Denigrates women

Road trip to Moab must-read.

I couldn't really get into this book. And, frankly, some of the author's opinions about nature and the environment made me want to throw the book against the wall. The only things that kept me writing were the beautifully vivid descriptions of the Utah landscape and a few humorous sections that made me laugh out loud. I would give it two stars.

#7Days7Books Day 4

7 books that left an impression on me with no explanation.

Abbey writes of his summer as a park ranger in Utah's then-undeveloped Arches National Park. It's easy to see why this is a classic of American nature writing. Abbey illuminates the rich, stark beauty of the harsh desert terrain. Unfortunately, Abbey's passionate plea to protect the wildness from development and industrial tourism was unheeded. Still, his love for the wild inspires.
A pick with reservation. Abbey's misogyny is a MAJOR detraction.

I finished this book on my last day in the desert. How timely. I really, deeply appreciate Edward Abbey's gorgeous detailed descriptions and meditations on the desert. I respect his fierce environmentalism (and can't help wondering what he would think of things now). His racism towards Native people, his attitudes towards women, his disdain for the old and disabled was really grating and made this book a slog at times. Picking it for the poetry.

Reading about the desert in a hot tub in the desert. Doesn't get much better than this! 🌵😍📚

🌵😍

😍

🌵

😍

🌵😍

🌵😍

Morning in Utah

Beautiful day hiking in Snow Canyon State Park now curling up with a book about the area 📚⛰️

In Utah. Reading about Utah. Glorious!

Edward Abbey, writer and environmentalist, was born on this day in 1927.

"We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to go there. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope.

--Desert Solitaire, 1968

Yes, Abbey is a very gifted writer and whenever he writes about nature and its beauty I enjoyed his essays very much, but OH! the ranting, the endless ranting and snobbery of who should or should not be allowed into the parks, at times also the macho comments and sheer stupidity of arguments (mandatory birth control for the poor????!!!) spoiled it for me, I started skipping his polemics. To me this is a 3 out of 5. What a shame...

As much love letter to the southwest as book of philosophy, this has been a great summation of what I‘ve experienced living here in the southwest. I‘m leaving in just over two weeks, and this will be something I revisit when I find myself missing it.

Gorgeous nature writing about the beauty and solitude of the deserts and canyons of Utah and Arizona, complete with some healthy snark and cynicism about humanity and tourists in particular. I visited some of these places last year, visiting more of them next week - perfect pre-vacation read.

“This is not a travel guide but an elegy.”

Not really book related (other than I‘m rereading the tagged book), but my mom, sister, and I had a girls night out at Paint Nite! (I‘m in the middle.) We loved painting Delicate Arch so much we made plans for a girls hiking/camping trip there next summer! #PaintNight #DelicateArch #GirlTime

On a national parks reading kick.

My all time favorite book

Prefer river.
Prefer to float.
I've never RVed, though I want to try it sometime.

@Arcana #thisorthat

1. Winter. Summers are too hot here to be enjoyable.
2. Either, or, both
3. Technically, I think I just audit one #RtC
4. Either, or, both
@SilversReviews

"In the second place most of what I write about in this book is already gone or going under fast. This is not a travel guide but an elegy. A memorial. You're holding a tombstone in your hands. A bloody rock. Don't drop it on your foot- throw it at something big and glassy. What do you have to lose?"

#meetthelittens @maich
1. California
2. Desert Solitare, Ed Abbey
3. Hitchhiker's Trilogy, Douglas Adams
4. Somewhere in Time
5. MASH
6. Annie Lennox
7. Earthy shades of green
8. Science Fiction
9. Home, I guess
10. A little dog and a cranky Russian tortoise

Today is the birthday of Edward Abbey (1927-1989). Desert Solitaire turns fifty this year. My tattered paperback copy rarely left my side for much of my itinerant twenties and probably still has some grit trapped in the pages, along with Abbey‘s marvelous voice. I was lucky enough to find a used first edition last week. “Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.”

I have read this book many times. It is my favorite non-fiction book. But I cannot deal with this narrator‘s voice so I‘m moving on and I‘ll stick with my paperback version.

This book is incredibly poignant given the current times and uncertainties surrounding our nation's National Park system. Abbey's a little rough around the edges, but that adds to his authenticity. His philosophical musings are eerily prophetic and ring all too true. This book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in parklands and preservation.

There's no way in HELL I would use that bathroom!

I was going to start reading this today and now it's on sale on Audible. Now I have to decide if I want to read or listen. It's a tough life. 😜

Can't celebrate 🌏 day without Abbey #earthtonecovers #aprilbookshowers.

My classroom this morning. 💜

I have to say, I shared more of Abbey's feelings about nature and civilization than I expected to, given his deliberately abrasive and antagonistic delivery. Still, it's a lot of time on one author for a semester. If I could have one superpower... #80sKid #OutOfThisWorld

I wish there was an audiobook with the 😑 face instead of a 🙂 because that's how I feel about this book and Edward Abbey. Listening because I can't make myself read it otherwise. #requiredreading #dicklit #weneeddiversebooks

I should really look at how many pages read and how many questions answered are due on Tuesday, before Monday night. Here goes nothing... #schooldaze #litcrit

#JanuaryReads #Day7 #BooksAboutNature This was assigned reading in my Philosophical Literature class way back in college. Needless to say I don't remember much about it, so it's gone back on my TBR list.

It's winter time, the snow is falling, and I'm about to immerse myself in a poetic tale set within a desert!!