When I bought My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir at the Muir Woods National Monument, I also purchased a second book of his: The Yosemite. It seemed smart to pick up a copy, since I was on my way to Yosemite National Park. Reading what Muir thought of the valley was definitely important to me, since I was trying to learn more about the man, but what I found in the pages was nothing close to what I expected.

The Yosemite by John Muir isn't so much a story of his time spent in the ...

Since I toured my first national park years ago, I've thought of becoming a National Park Service ranger. I toyed with the idea even so far as to go online and look at job openings and descriptions. I may have never applied, but I certainly gave it strong consideration. I mean, what would be so wrong with being outdoors all day, surrounded by beauty and wildlife, and occasionally giving directions to tourists excited to see where you live? Well, before I went any further, I'm glad I read An...

My talented sister-in-law finished the cover design for my book, The Drive North: A Swing Down Memory Lane. It is now with the publisher and the printing process will start once I see the final proof. One of the few things I wasn't able to do on my own, like the cover, was the synposis. I tried to squeeze what I wrote and rewrote in hundreds of pages down to a few paragraphs, but I couldn't do it. So, the publisher did and I wanted to share it with everyone here.

Some of the cover writin...

A while back I was shopping at a budget book fair. I wandered through the stacks, all laid out on giant pallets as though the books would immediately be shipped off to another sale if they didn't find a home at this one. When I found the travel section I was sadly disappointed because a lot of the books were destination guidebooks. I still use them on occasion, but I was hoping to find some good reading instead. And then, tucked away on the corner of one of the pallets, I found Brian Payton...

I purchased another book with my Christmas gift card in addition to Bill Bryson's African Diary. And just like it, I had also seen this one on the shelf at the book store several months ago. I passed on buying National Geographic's Complete National Parks of the United States at that time because it is more of a desk reference book, opposed to a guide I'd carry along with me on a hike. I'm glad I picked it up now, though, because it is one heck of a desk reference.

I have not yet read Co...

I had to do a lot of preparatory research before writing my book, The Drive North: A Swing Down Memory Lane. A lot of it was rather tedious and boring historical reading, something I thought I was over when I graduated from college, but there was an occasional gem that I really enjoyed. One of the books that helped me along the way was Lizards on the Mantel, Burros at the Door: A Big Bend Memoir by Etta Koch with June Cooper Price.

Etta Koch moved her family to the newly created Big Bend...

All of my present-day travels across the globe are grounded in those which I experienced with my family as a child. We drove everywhere - with the exception of one trip, if memory serves correctly - and it was always in the big, gray conversion van we nicknamed The Beast. I'm almost positive it ticked over 500,000 miles before my father sold it, and later found it abandoned, dead, alongside the road one afternoon. Well, to be upfront, I've been a bit homesick for those trips of late. I've t...

I'm getting more time to read as the months get colder. I'm going out for fewer hikes, as well as other things, and staying in more to curl up in a blanket on the couch and read. At times I'm even reading three or four books at a time, maybe one more than I usually do, and get getting through them faster than before. One such book that I zipped through was The Best American Travel Writing of 2010 - a collection of, well, the best American travel writing over the past year.

I loved readin...

I tend to find myself in a bookstore for a randomly justified reason. I really have no good reason to head in, as though I'm out of books to read, but I somehow make up a reason and go in there and buy something I don't really need. I did this a few months ago and picked up, among other things, Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World. And honestly, I'm not even totally sure why I bought it since I'm not exactly interested in sailing.

Like many books tend to do after I buy them, Sa...

Generally speaking, I've given up on guide books. I just don't use them any longer, and I don't see the need to thanks to our good friend the Internet. So much information is available for free here that it doesn't make sense to spend money on a book to give you the same information. But when I came across Stan Hoig's A Travel Guide to the Plains Indian Wars I felt a bit different. And after giving it a read, and putting it to some use, I'm glad I thought otherwise.

I've spent the better part of fifteen or sixteen months researching and writing a travel memoir, and now it's all on two little USB sticks on my desk. I still have a lot of editing to do, and things to change, but the better part of my first book is done and I couldn't be more happy. I'm pleased with the way the trip that I'm writing about went, as well as how I'm incorporating past travels into the story, and how it has come into being electronically. But now the hard part of fine tuning ...

A number of friends have told me that I need to write a book about my travels. They remind me of all the places I've seen, and encourage me to write a book about it all. So, after hearing enough of it, I've finally got the ball rolling and am about halfway through the story - something I've found to be much more difficult than I had initially anticipated.

I knew writing a book would be a lot of work, but you just pour so much of yourself into it that it's difficult not to fuss over every...

There are so many historic trails in the United States that it's difficult to pick just one to study. The Lewis and Clark trail though holds a special place in the hearts of Americans, largely because it's the only one most of us have heard of, as we learned about it in grade school. To further my very limited grade school knowledge, I thought it'd be a good idea to pick up The Journals of Lewis and Clark and give it a go as there didn't seem to be a better way to learn about such a trip th...