Holiday gifts at your Club bookstore
by Nada Kovalik
Desert Solitaire
The tourists have gone home. Most of them. A few still rumble in and ramble
around in their sand-pitted dust-choked iron dinosaurs, but the great majority,
answering a mystical summons, have returned to the smoky jungles and swamps of
what we call, in wistful hope, American civilization.”
Yes, that’s the gravelly grumpy voice of Edward Abbey echoing across
the years from 1968, when he first wrote that impudent masterpiece, Desert Solitaire.
If you’ve not read it since its publication 35 years ago, you’re in
for a treat. If you’ve never read it, an even bigger treat.
As a young man Abbey spent a season as a park ranger in Arches National Park
in southeastern Utah. His stories and ruminations on those days are sparks from
a fiery, protective love of nature.
Often Abbey was prescient. Even then, he was proposing what is now being hotly
debated as part of Yosemite’s future: a banning or large reduction of private
automobile traffic. Here’s what he said:
“Excluding the automobile from the heart of the great cities
has been seriously advocated by thoughtful observers of our urban problems. It
seems to me an equally proper solution to the problems besetting our national
parks. Of course it would be a serious blow to Industrial Tourism and would be
bitterly resisted by those who profit from that industry. . . . But such a revolution,
like it or not, is precisely what is needed. The only foreseeable alternative,
given the current trend of things, is the gradual destruction of our national
parks.”
Desert Solitaire in paperback, published by Touchstone Press of Simon and Schuster,
remains a jewel of a little book, easy to drop into a backpack.
Stikeen
Another small classic, Stikeen by that grand old man, John Muir, can be found
on the bookstore shelves. Originally published in 1909, the modern paperback edition
is published by Hayday Books. It will charm anyone from 8 to 80+.
Stikeen was a small raggedy dog which Muir picked up on one of his travels
in Alaska. (More accurately, Stikeen picked up Muir and stuck to him like a little
black bur through wild blizzards and horrendous glacial excursions.
The little mongrel is charmingly depicted with an attitude and a jaunty tail
in illustrations by Carl Dennis. The story is tempered with Muir’s musings
on “the unity and sanctitude of all living things.”
Trail Guides
And of course, be sure to get your new copy of the Trail Guide to Los Padres
National Forest and Popular Outings, which describes day hikes and bike rides
in the Monterey Bay area and beyond.
The Club bookstore is located on the south side of Ocean Avenue in Carmel,
midway between San Carlos and Dolores. Volunteers are on hand to help you from
12:30 to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
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