The Lost Joy of Reading

An unintended consequence of aging is the development and refinement of a perspective and if we are lucky, perhaps a tidbit of wisdom. Claiming wisdom doesn’t come easy for me, as I feel like I’m humble enough to allow that compliment to come from others if they see it as a trait they choose to apply. With thoughtful reflection comes this perspective, and only through brutal honesty with oneself can we self-evaluate this presence of any wisdom. Everyone has certainties they believe in, and when we have consensus on these beliefs, it’s fair to assign a level of importance to them.

Recently, I’ve become a bit nostalgic on many things because I am to the point in my life that I take stock and notice of the massive changes we’ve undergone. My lifespan starting in the 60s has allowed me to see and experience the technology evolution almost in its “to date” entirety. My kids who are now grown adults are the most obvious reminder to me of what we have seen develop and also lost. I have many friends in their 20s and 30s, and they also affirm in my mind what I am concerned about.

I worry that technology has stolen the joy of reading a book for generations to come, and possibly forever. As a son to a single mother, in my childhood my mom was always reading books. We had a television with a basic antenna and maybe 4-5 free channels but that was the extent of technology in our lives. I spent my youth outdoors, and when there were times we were in the house and bored as a kids, my mom would encourage us to read. She bought my sister and I books and fostered the love of reading in us.

What is interesting in my reflections is how much of an impact these books had on me growing up and into adulthood and possibly, unintentionally helped carve out the path I maneuvered down through in my life. I know I had many books as a kid, but there are a few that really stick out in my memory and also are books I still have to this day or have repurchased. I’m the weirdo that after some period of time, I will re-read a book that I enjoyed just because it was that good.

The Beginnings

The first book I have any recollection of is a strange one for a five-year-old boy from divorced parents with absolutely ZERO familial hunting heritage. It is Big Game Animals of North America by Jack O’Connor. This was a larger coffee-table-type book and was one I literally wore out by thumbing through the pages, reading and absorbing the color paintings of each big game species and the black and white line drawings of the book. I faintly remember the book finally losing its binding, falling apart, and me throwing it away, possibly in high school.

This book was published in 1961 and is relatively dated by todays hunting techniques. I’m guessing I had my copy before the age of five and probably struggled with understanding it even though I was an above average reader for my age. There was a chapter dedicated to each big game animal of North America, and this also included wolves and even jaguars! Each chapter had a full-page color image that was a painting of that species. The artist would frequently include a distant hunter involved in stalk on the animal or simply as a part of the painting. At one point when I was probably in elementary school, I remember cutting some of these color images out of the book to tack up on my bedroom wall – desecration of a treasured object thinking back on how much I enjoyed this book. Fear not. The idea of this article inspired me to track down a used copy, so once again this book is in my possession, and I consider it almost like a family heirloom.

Spine-Tingling Tales from Alaska

The second book that I consider highly impactful from my childhood is a book published in 1965 and written by the former director of Alaska Fish & Game, Frank Dufresne. The book is essentially six decades old, yet the writing and the stories hold up to this day. A polished and crafty writer, Dufresne goes through story after story of curious, alarming and deadly bear tales, and his prose is absolutely captivating.

The title implies a preservationist mentality by the author, but don’t let that dissuade you. It’s about his concern for the loss of wildlife habitat in the face of increased level of extraction of natural resources on public lands, in particular the potential logging at the time on Admiralty Island in Southeastern Alaska – an island purported to have the highest density of brown/grizzly bears in North America.

The one chapter that I found most memorable is titled “The Twenty-Fifth Bear.” The premise was put forth by a legendary guide in Alaska, Hosea Sarber, who felt that one out of 25 bears is set to do battle against a human in an encounter for reasons not easily explained; not the protective sow with cubs or the mature boar who’s guarding his moose carcass, but just a bear with a chip on its shoulder or one in a particularly bad mood. This chapter will grab your attention and paint a picture that even a photo could not match. A brief excerpt follows.

“Call it premonition, sixth sense, or what you will, Hosea, who was not in the habit of loading the chamber of his rifle until he was ready to fire, drew back the bolt and eased a cartridge into firing position. The operation was barely audible – a light oily snick. But it triggered an explosive roar, followed by a crescendo of trumpet blasts that reverberated through the forest. The spine-chilling outbursts seemed to come from everywhere. The instant he heard them Hosea mounted quickly to a windfall and ran upward until he stood on the leaning trunk fifteen feet above a dense patch of devil’s-club. He knew now that the beast had been watching him. With the hateful scent of man in its nostrils it had been silently closing in for the attack at the very second Hosea’s hunch had caused him to work the bolt of his rifle. Hosea thinks the grizzly still remembered the slight, metallic click that had preceded a rifle blast on another October day. (One year previous to the exact date)

In its baffled fury the bear thrashed about in heavy cover trying to flush out the man enemy. By climbing to a point overhead, Hosea had suddenly cut off his fresh scent. Air currents that had a tendency to swirl upward were all at once lost to the bear. Looking down on the crazed beast now, there was no longer any doubt in Hosea’s mind that this was the grizzly who had taken a man’s life. In all his years of working among bears in Southeastern Alaska he had never witnessed such rage; had never seen a bear so determined to attack. Unable to see its foe, its roars and rapidly ejaculated chuff-chuff-chuff of clashing teeth changed to whining eagerness.

Midway in its crashing leaps the bear froze motionless. A vagrant down-scent had carried Hosea’s location to its nose. It rose on its hind feet and for ten long seconds looked upward to study the face of its enemy. Hosea’s shot was cool, unhurried and accurate.”

This is a book I have re-read a few times through the years, purchased for others, and have recommended as a great read for lovers of wild places and wild things. It has been republished once in 1991 and is still not too difficult to locate a copy of though Amazon and other used book resources.

The Allure of Africa and Mbogo

When I entered high school, a pleasant distraction from school and social pressures was the library. It was my first introduction to the pages of Outdoor Life, Field and Stream and Sports Afield magazines. The current copy of each issue was displayed in a clear magazine binder with back issues on a shelf underneath – an unlikely scenario in this day and age with all the safe spaces needed for our sensitive members of society. Along with these hunting and outdoor magazines were copies of hunting-related books at the library. I’m guessing my name was on the sign-out card for every one of these books.

In the magazines could be found the contemporary gun and hunting writers of the day. Jack O’Connor was replaced on the pages of Outdoor Life by Jim Carmichael who was a prolific hunter and writer. In Sports Afield, there was Thomas McIntyre and, most importantly for me, Peter Hathaway Capstick. There might not be another writer who captured the imagination in a generation of young men reading these magazines like Capstick did, and I would bet that his writings were the inspiration for thousands of hunters of my generation to make their first pilgrimage to the Dark Continent.

Capstick wrote with an informal style that flowed with ease yet painted vivid images in the minds of readers like a painting from Rembrandt. Colorful analogies, metaphors and descriptions of encounters with dangerous game animals and the African bush were magical to almost everyone who read his writings.

The magazine articles were a gateway drug to his series of hardcover books of which the most notable is probably Death in the Long Grass. This book is broken down by dangerous species that had chilling moments and laugh-out-loud funny anecdotes from his time in Africa. Anyone who has read this is sure to have a few memorable excerpts that struck a chord, and some might recall the hilarious take Capstick had on a huge black mamba taking up residence near the camp latrine.

Cape Buffalo are the most legendary and storied animals on the African continent by hunters which would make them pretty high on the list of the most-written-about big game animals on the planet. Capstick writes in the Cape Buffalo chapter,

“The most impressive fact about the buffalo is he has virtually no weak points. Jumbo and rhino are myopic in the extreme, but a bull buffalo can read the want ads in dim light across Times Square. The talent of his big, scruffy, thorn-torn ears is incredible, fully the equal of both lion and leopard, which he outweighs by many times at no apparent cost in blinding speed and maneuverability. His sense of smell is practically supernatural when he stick his big black nose like a #10 jam tin into the wind – as good as elephant or rhino and much better in ambient air than any of the cats. He is a living arsenal of weaponry for use against jerkwater hunters or preoccupied Africans, offering a Chinese menu choice on your shortcut to Glory with horns that can disembowel a locomotive, hooves like split mattock-heads, and up to a ton of bulk that can roll you into a fair resemblance of shaggy tollhouse cookie mix. What’s more is if you cross him and get caught, he will display a singular lack of reluctance, regardless of race, color, or creed, to give you a nice, home demonstration of his talents. If you are planning on hunting the mighty buff, you had best give some thought to putting your affairs in order. In the thick stuff, where he loves to loaf away the fly-filled, hot afternoons, he has the edge, not you.”

It’s tales like this that captivated my imagination as a young man, and I honestly think they created a desire and stimulus to go hunt in Africa. What is without question is that many who have hunted in Africa will say much of their inspiration also lies within the pages of a Peter Hathaway Capstick or Robert Ruark book.

Mule Deer Country!

In the early 90s a series of books were published by Voyager Press featuring the writings of world-renowned wildlife biologist Valerius Geist. Dr. Geist, a Canadian, was generally regarded as an authority on ungulates and wild sheep, and his knowledge and experience with studying these animals made up a body of information that I devoured through this series of books. Voyager Press published quite a few wildlife photo books that carried a pretty interesting and in-depth look at various species, but the three that I purchased were part of a series that seemed to be hunter-friendly and provided solid information. At the time, I was obsessed with big mule deer at the expense of most other hunting, so Dr. Geist’s Mule Deer Country was a book I couldn’t wait to get my hands on.

The book was a bit of a compilation of Dr. Geist’s writings that also gave equal billing to the incredible color photos in the book by wildlife photographer Michael H. Francis. What I found interesting were the “whats and whys” of the species, and I honestly think that the insights into animal behavior gave me a competitive advantage and led to motivation and success as a hunter. Additionally, Francis’ photos fueled my imagination of the kind of bucks I hoped to find and hunt for myself someday. I read these books as I was coming of age as a hunter through trial and error and still have them in a place of prominence on my bookshelf to this day.

A poignant chapter in the book is the last one titled, “The Mule Deer’s End.” Geist writes a bit prophetically that the mule deer as a species is a bit of an evolutionary dead end and will eventually be taken over and replaced by the more vigorous species, the whitetail deer, in time. He saw and articulated some of the challenges mule deer face, but as we have seen since this book was published in 1990, challenges and threats to mule deer have amplified concerns for the species. Dr. Geist writes,

“What can be done to save mule deer? There are a number of responses possible, all hard decisions and none very palatable. Exterminating whitetail deer on mule deer ranges or manipulating habitat on a massive scale to deprive white-tailed deer of security are neither practical nor feasible solutions. Likewise, promulgating hunting regulations that would affect a decrease in the number of large white-tailed bucks and allow a relatively large number of large mule deer bucks is hardly a cheerful prospect for hunters. It would mean foregoing virtually all hunting of large mule deer bucks where mule and white-tailed deer overlap. Clearly, gaining public support for such a management policy would require a herculean effort. In the meantime, however, we can assuredly expect mule deer will continue to lose ground to the whitetail.”

The other two books from this series I have are Elk Country and Wild Sheep Country – from both of which I garnered great reading and natural history on the species. What I have learned in retrospect is that successful hunting is much more than a simple cookbook to rely on recipes from expert hunting writers but the ability to apply the knowledge you have acquired about the species and a reflection on the trial and error of hunting experiences to work for success. These books gave me some solid information as I came of age as a hunter.

A Sheep Hunting Legacy

The last book that I choose to profile is one that has had a profound impact on me as a hunter and fueled a fire within me that still burns hot. The book is Great Rams and Great Ram Hunters by Robert M. Anderson, published by Collectors Covey in 1994. It was in the late 90s and I was writing some self-described, amateur-ish pieces for Trophy Hunting Magazine, and I saw the book advertised in another publication. I contacted Collectors Covey owner and proprietor, the late Bubba Wood, and asked him if he would like to send me a copy to do a book review for the magazine. Mr. Wood obliged and soon enough, a tightly packed copy of the book arrived by mail. I opened it with the excitement of a kid on Christmas morning.

I literally devoured the book and absorbed the sheep hunting lore like a dry kitchen sponge. Robert, “Bob” as his friends call him, had a style and ability to write like very few I have ever seen. Conversational tone replete with some original colloquialisms made for some very comfortable reading, yet at times the sentences and writing craft were such that it made me stop, read them again, and pause for reflection. Nowhere have I ever seen sheep hunting lore played out with that level of reverence and romanticism, and that is high praise considering the peer that came before him in Jack O’Connor. Bob would be the first to admonish me for even suggesting this, but like the old axiom, opinions are like… you know. Everyone has one.

The book is laced with black-and-white photos from sheep hunts from the past to some hunts that occurred in the few years prior to Anderson’s astounding compilation of these images. One can only imagine the diligent letter writing, phone calls and time required to put together this 255-page coffee-table-style book and the hundreds of photos and stories that comprise the body of Anderson’s work – done completely without text and email communications!

The book is chaptered into nine stand-alone sections that take the reader into different locations and eras and also profiles men and women who obviously were driven to do what very few have. Bob writes in the preface to his book his thoughts and inspiration related to hearing about an old café on the outskirts of Dallas that was leveled in the name of progress and hearing that the sheep mounts that adorned the walls of the establishment were simply thrown in a dumpster,

“Gradually I began to realize that a very disturbing thing was quietly happening. Many of the old-time sheep hunters were passing from the scene, along with an enormous legacy of memories, accomplishments, photographs, and trophies, and there was apparently no way to preserve this heritage. Great Rams and Great Ram Hunters evolved as a tribute to those hunters from the past. Thus, a very significant part of this book deals with hunts and hunters who are gone forever. But we must also remember that today is the past of tomorrow. So, this book also includes many contemporary photographs, stories, and memories of today’s generation of sheep hunters in the hope that these can also be preserved for the education and enjoyment of tomorrow’s generation.

Let’s face it. Our world is moving away from sport hunting, and our children are less likely to become hunters than we were at their age. Just what the answer is to all this, I do not know. But I believe we can all do much to preserve the sheep hunting history of the past.”

Anderson’s body of work in sheep hunting literature is pretty much without equal. Three additional volumes of Great Rams have since been written and published after the first book, and Anderson has penned a book on Jack O’Connor, two volumes of Wind, Dust and Snow – Great Rams of Asia, and some private book projects profiling notable hunters.

Since reading the first book, I have come to know Bob and am lucky enough to call him friend. It was an honor for him to include photos and stories of some of my rams in the follow-up editions of the book and allow me to be a part of this treasured legacy of sheep hunting lore and tributes. I consider him a mentor in writing and hope not to embarrass him with this statement. Bob makes me want to become a better writer. Bob paid me a compliment once in regard to my hunting accomplishments. It is a statement that flattered me and one I’ll never forget. He said, “Duplan. If you were in a higher tax bracket, you’d be dangerous.”

Stepping back and looking at this group of books I feel were influential in my life, it is not difficult to see the path I have chosen. Does correlation equal causation? Would my life be the same without these books? It’s thought provoking, no doubt, but there really isn’t a way to prove nor disprove this theory. What is quite apparent to me is that my adventure and hunting dreams link up strongly to books that I consider memorable. I’ve pursued these imaginative and inspired dreams my entire adult life and will continue to do so.

Our world has changed massively in the over five decades I have been on this planet. Many children are exposed to reading at a very young age and still carry a love for turning pages and getting lost in the story into adulthood. Unfortunately, some are corrupted by electronics, thumb scrolling and a fast-food approach to information gathering that, in many experts’ opinions, are a detriment to society and human interactions. Reading has been shown to put our brains into a state of relaxation and induce a pleasurable trance-like state that is similar to meditation. It can bring the same health benefits as that of deep relaxation and inner calm. The joy of reading is something we must not allow future generations to lose.

What I do know is that I am grateful for my mother instilling the joy of reading within me. The unlocking of the imagination and the cultivation of dreams I have manifested to come true have followed. I encourage readers of this to go back and re-read those memorable books. Take a nostalgic trip down memory lane and allow yourself to be captivated by the writing and the joy of reading a book. After, pass it on and share the legacy.