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Little Horse of Iron, Lawrence Scanlon
2007-01-26 15:41:01
The pedigree of the Canadian Horse goes back to the early part of the 1600?s. Originally a gift to New France from the Sun King, Louis X1V, the horse was known for its remarkable strength, endurance and hooves of steel. Habitants of Old Quebec called him, ?The Little Horse of Iron ?. I first became enamoured with The Canadian Horse some years ago when I saw them on show at an agricultural exhibition. At the time I knew nothing of its history or its near extinction and revival. Then a friend urged me to read ?The Little Iron Horse?, the story of The Canadian Horse. It?s a must read, she said, so I picked up a copy of the book and found the story of Canada?s National Horse as intriguing and fascinating as my friend had intimated. The author Lawrence Scan lon, known for his national best seller, ?Wild About Horses?, chronicles the glorious and rocky past of Canada?s heritage breed. The ?little iron horse? was used for ploughing, riding, pulling logs, pulling a carriage and a host of othe...

Sailing Alone Around the World, Joshua Slocum
2007-01-26 15:41:01
Don?t read this book. You will end up wasting away yours days day-dreaming of your own Spray, the sloop with which Slocum made the world?s first and most famous circumnavigation. Or worse, buy the book and risk departing on your own solo circumnavigation ? it?s happened to better people. Oh, all right, read the book.  It’s a prime example of the best of its genre.  Adventure Literature writ large.   Sail ing Alone Around the World : Excerpt “Mr. Stanley was a nautical man once himself, - on the Nyanza, I think, - and of course my desire was to appear in the best light before a man of his experience. He looked me over carefully, and said, ‘What an example of patience!’ ‘Patience is all that is required,’ I ventured to reply. He then asked if my vessel had water-tight compartments. I explained that she was all water-tight and all compartment. ‘What if she should strike a rock?’ he asked. ‘Compartments would not save her if she should...
More About: Around the world , The World

Seven Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrer
2007-01-26 15:41:01
Set against the backdrop of the Second World War and Tibet ?s impending invasion by China, Harrer pens an evocative account of a country suspended in time. Medieval in many ways, it is a place none-the-less, readers will deeply regret having missed.   Lhasa was not Shangrila. The capital city of Tibet was dirty and lacked sanitation; books and recreation were hard to come by; the diet was limited; medicine was more shamanistic than practical; and technology (even the wheel) was looked upon with suspicion. Even so, it was a city easy for the Western imagination to fall in love with; laughter was a constant; curiosity and pleasure were valued beyond industry; and inspite of a rigorous religiosity, the Tibetans were perhaps the least moralizing people of the modern era. It?s with a great breath of mountain air that Harrer references the guilelessness of his hosts; how for instance laughter was a constant and jokes, retold century after century, never failed to solicit mirth. Curiousity,...
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Arboretum, David Byrne
2007-01-26 15:41:01
Why Indeed?  What Indeed?  Byrne’s Arboretum As sensible beings we are constantly doing nonsensical things and making non-sensible connections.  Great strides in science have been made this way. Poetry relies on it. Peace makers and warmongers alike argue with irrational potency. I depend on it to find my keys every morning. With Arboretum, Davi d Byrne has penned a collection of similarly diagrammed mind maps which seemingly random ideas with other seemingly random outcomes.  To paraphrase, he argues that what we “think” is a rationalization of what we already “feel,” or our animal urges. And thus, if it can be succesfully argued that “we feel what we believe ’til the day that we die”, and that our brain is simply a rationalizing agent that chooses whatever language is at hand to prove the rightness of those immutable feelings or animal impulses, then all is nonsense.  Scientific method is as rational as poetics. Nonsense can move to s...
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Slowly Down the Ganges, Eric Newby
2007-01-26 15:41:01
Long a favourite of Adventure Literature fans, Eric Newb y records his, and his wife’s, attempt to navigate the Gang es via water during the winter of 1964.  The attempt falls to pieces in many different ways, but like Newby’s other adventures, the pratfalls are what make the attempt worth reading about. On his forty-fourth birthday Eric Newby, a self-confessed river lover, sets out on a 1200-mile journey down the Ganges River from Hardwar to the Bay of Bengal, accompanied by his wife, Wanda.  Things do not go smoothly as they run aground 63 times in the first six days, but gradually India’s holiest river, The Pure, The Eternal, The Creator of Happiness, lives up to its many names and captures them in its spell. Traveling in a variety of boats, most of them unsuitable, as well as by bus and bullock car, the Newbys become intemately acquainted with the river’s shifting moods an colorful history.  Slow ly Down the Ganges brims over with engaging characters and ent...
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