No comments about Vermont: A special Beauty.

No comments about Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont (AAA Road Map).

No comments about Great Hikes in Southern Vermont.

2 comments about Vermont river.

1. Wetherell is not a self-indulgent type of flyfisher. For him the joy is in the being there, and being part of the life that brings fishing to reality.



2. Wetherell is very good at avoiding overstatement as in each of his essays he muses on the joys of flyfishing. This is as much a book about a writer as it is about an avid fisherman. There is range here, and humor, and research, one of my personal favorites being the essay where he delves into which writers were fishermen and seldom wrote about the sport, and which writers and poets such as Chekov and Yeats wrote about the sport with elegance.

4 comments about Vermont Off the Beaten Path, 5th: A Guide to Unique Places.

1. Author Lisa Shaw lives in New Hampshire. And she owns a company that publishes marketing materials. That should have been my tipoff to avoid "Vermont: Off the Beaten Path".

   Shaw's guide reads like a promotional tract from someone who took a few days to spin through the state, eat at roadside diners and jot down cute facts from historical markers.

   My wife and I learned nothing about where we were going from her sketchy, vapid musings about the towns she only saw long enough to eat lunches in.

   And to judge from the way Shaw raved about each place she snacked at, we figured owners gave her free meals and slipped a $50 under the table.

   She spends four paragraphs telling us about the Snack Shack in Barre, but only three telling us about the state capitol in Montpelier.

   In Windsor, Vermont, we learn only that there is a Thai restaurant. What distinguishes this place so much that one should travel perhaps thousands of miles to eat there? Well, Shaw notes, as if revealing a unique custom known only to native Vermonters, "Place your order at the window, sit down at one of the picnic tables inside, and the dishes will be brought to you, as they're cooked in the order they're received."

   Shaw has a knack for saying nothing in many words. But I should have known; that's the mark of an advertising copywrighter. She exhaustively promotes places where one can get a "handmade burger", as if they're unknown in Des Moines.

   As for sights, Shaw wastes pages telling us about such gems as the vintage Eureka Schoolhouse, which, she notes, has a telephone and space heater inside. "The roof looks absolutely ancient," she breathlessly describes. After extolling the school's interior she ends by mentioning that it isn't open to the public, "but feel free to walk around and look."

   In Chester she tells us to look at a building reading "PUBLIC TOMB 1850". That's it. And there's the abandoned copper mine she suggests we visit, because we can "...see what looks like a heap of copper-colored dirt...."

   Shaw's ability to highlight the mundane is world class. Worth an award from the Clios, the advertising Oscars, I think. At one restaurant she writes, "Classical music played throughout our lunch." At another, "...water and coffee are available", and at a third, "Blanche personally takes your order and then goes back and cooks it." I guess I have a little Vermont near my home, too, if these things are the measure of the state.

   Moreover, the book's layout is abysmal. It has no maps, just outlines of regions with numbers plastered around, which are supposed to correspond with the "unique" sights she highlights in each section, except those numbers are never used in the chapters themselves.

   She appears to have attempted to structure the book's chapters as a series of tours, but achieves only a jumble of confusing point-to-point anecdotes, which we found impossible to untangle.

   "Vermont, Off The Beaten Path" does have one redeeming quality about it. If you are a true adventurer you can read this travel guide and rest assured you will still be surprised at what you find wherever you go in Vermont, because Lisa Shaw won't have revealed any clues.




2. Only someone with a personal vendetta against th eauthor would go to such lengths to trash someone's work. If you don't like it, just say so and move on. And by the way, bitter folks like you should be vacationing in Detroit, not Vermont!



3. I bought this book hoping it would tell me things I didn't know or at least things I knew presented in a new light. At the time I was doing a lot of Vermont travel. I found this book quite useless, and was put off by its dismissive tone. Vermont is a complex place, but you would not know that by reading this.



4. I have used several of "The Off The Beaten Path" books over the years and have found them for the most part to be accurate. However, I was greatly dissapointed in the Vermont one. I tried for hours to find several locations only to be told by the "locals" that there was no such place or that the structure had been moved several years ago. Some locations were found right off but I found that I have been spoiled but the authors of the New Hampshire book and their accuracy. I have noted that the Rogers are doing the updates. GREAT, now I'll find the places I want to see.

1 comments about Cows of Vermont (Postcard Books).

1. I was disappointed in this book of postcards. While it does, in fact, feature cows, the photographer does not seem to love, appreciate or enjoy his subjects. They look boringly bovine, not divine. You can tell when a photographer truly loves his subject. That affectionate touch is missing here and it hurts.

4 comments about Best Vermont Drives: 14 Tours in the Green Mountain State.

1. My wife and I recently toured vermont by car and we were very glad to have this book. It made the trip a unique and memorable experience. We were able to find lots of little places that we never would have discovered without it, and met people "off the path" that were genuinely glad to see us. I strongly recommend this book to anyone planning to drive through vermont, even if it's only a short trip. Great book and very funny in places, too!



2. This is the second edition of the original guidebook and while I didn't read the original one, I can say that this book was very handy to have when my wife and I toured Vermont. T The Schellers are very entertaining people who obviously have a sense of humor and they also have a good sense of what is interesting to visit and what isnt'. They also must have done a lot of driving. We tried out two of the drives they suggested and were amazed at all the things there were to discover along the way, not to mention the physical beauty of Vermont. Even looking at a map I doubt we would have discovered these drives on our own. We tried out some of their "finds" which I'd say were places we never would have found on our own and they made our trip truly special. The book is an amazing collection of information that covers history, hours of operation, interesting little tidbits and so on. Definitely worth the money.



3. I have used this book so much that it is highlighted on almost every page with the stops we've made while driving the roads of Vermont. In addition to the fourteen most popular drives the book offers interesting sidetrips with such detailed description, you can't resist the urge to check them all out.
   
   I highly recommend this book whether you are a traveller or a resident of this beautiful state. The guide offers many historical, funny, and informative facts.



4. This is a great book! It's just a shame that they forgot to mention The Barnstead Inn in Manchester Center! It is located in the center of town and sits back from the road just enough to help you forget that you are anywhere near town. Like I said the book is great! But do yourself a favor and do not miss this true piece of Vermont. The trips in the book are great and I have taken several of them!

5 comments about There's a Porcupine in My Outhouse: Misadventures of a Mountain Man Wannabe (Capital Discovery).

1. Michael Tougias, a well-respected outdoor writer, has written a wonderful book about his growth from a young novice outdoorsman to a competent expert. "There's A Porcupine in My Outhouse" is funny portrait of one man's experience learning about the natural world. After I finally stopped laughing, I realized that I had even learned a lot in the process of reading his book.



2. After putting my three year old to bed for the night, I collapsed into my favorite chair, picked up "There's a Porcupine in My Outhouse", and found myself welcoming the morning sun with a smile on my face, memories my own misadventures, and thoughts of childhood friends. A thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining book. Michael Tougias has the uncanny nack of combining an extensive knowlege of the outdoors along with Wit and heart of a great storyteller. I found myself longing for my own special place, and to share adventures with Michael, Boomer, and Cogs as they learn about the great outdoors and themselves. I will return to this book over and over to share their stories.



3. Michael Tougias's latest book, There's a Porcupine in My Outhouse, is a well-written, humorous account of some his adventures (and misadventures) surrounding his rustic camp in northern Vermont. Tougias bought the small A-frame when he was only 22 years old. Over the years, with the outdoors world as his teacher, he learns to live with nature, rather than by asserting dominance and control over it. Middle-aged suburbanites, such as myself, will readily see aspects of their own youthful development in Tougias's stories.

   Don't expect the eloquence and introspection of a Thoreau. Tougias's style is light and very engaging. Also, as a bonus, the book is filled with great recommendations for further reading about naturalists and mountain men. The pages turn very quickly, which is unfortunate, since there are only 160 of them, including lots of porcupine filler. I found myself wanting more after the tales came to a rather abrupt ending. Further development of the three characters might have added to the tales. Overall, I enjoyed the book immensely.




4. This was my first adventure into the world of author Michael Tougias and I haven't looked back. I admit, the title is what prompted me to pick this book up since I'd not yet had the pleasure of reading anything by this author. I sat down to read and was up until 2am finishing the last page. It'll have you laughing right out loud! I felt as if I were there sharing in all the antics of Mike and his friends through his delightful descriptions. This is one of those books I'll go back and read again and again.



5. This is a wonderful book and if you are familiar with backcountry anywhere you can appreciate it. I had a racoon in my chimney which was gotten rid of useing moth balls. Years a go we had an "outhouse" three sides canvas and the fourth open to the elements. We had no neighbors. We came up one weekend to find that a porcupine had eaten part of the seat. We were much more careful after that.

3 comments about The Nature of Vermont: A Year-Long Photographic Journal.

1. David Middleton is a great photographer\author, I have read all his books. he captures the beauty of vermont in this book.



2. David is a genius and his latest book is breathtaking. If you enjoy the backroads of Vermont, you'll love this book.



3. This book disappointed me. The book contains a lot of wildlife pictures and lot of great close-ups (They are absolutely great). But it does not have a lot about the scenic beauty of Vermont. And the landscape photos are not as great as the close-ups or wildlife. And its expensive.
   
   I loved the author's other book The Photographers Guide to Vermont.

1 comments about In the Land of the Wild Onion: Travels Along Vermont's Winooski River.

1. In The Land of the Wild Onion by Charles Fish is one of those rare and special books that educate and entertain us at the same time. It is filled with the same kind of wit and wisdom we find when we read Thoreau, and this comparison of Fish to Thoreau is apt. Both writers are great scholars, but good friends to us. They never talk down to us, but always educate us. When we put down their books we feel incomparably better for having shared their company. It would be better to talk with them in person sitting on a rocky outcrop overlooking Walden Pond or the Winooski River, but reading their books is an experience that can be repeated again and again, with notes taken, and thoughts tucked away for reflective observation.
   
   In The Land of the Wild Onion we meet trappers and hunters, fishers and farmers, friends and neighbors - all Vermonters and all with a story to tell. Fish brings them to life so truly and lovingly that we come to know and like them almost as much as he does. His book is not a novel - far from it - but Fish writes so well that we forget we are reading a history of Vermont's Winooski River and get lost in the story of some of the people he meets in his adventure canoeing and portaging down the river from its source to Lake Champlain. It is a leisurely journey with plenty of time to discuss the origins of the river, land, animals, and people.
   
   A Vermonter reading this book will respond with pride because Fish loves his state and shows why it is such a special place. The rest of us will want to head to Vermont for a long visit, perhaps in the fall when the trees and mountains that fill the state are in their autumn glory. Then, as Fish suggests, we can leave our troubles behind and take a deep breath as we attend to the beauty revealed in nature that is missing from so much of our busy lives. Fish tells us: "In its own meandering way, my book has been an attempt to attend." More than this, "We are the caretakers of the planet; we must attend. It is our fate."
   
   In the Land of the Wild Onion is a book once read not soon forgotten. Highly recommended.