Heat fires up review of summer reading list

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The calendar lies. Every year, I realize this fact anew, yet every year, I’m rudely surprised when it happens again.

The calendar lies.

Last week, we were dealing with chilly 60-degree days. On Sunday (with summer still a couple weeks away, according to our trusty calendars), temps topped 90, and we melted into the sidewalks.

Monday, we melted again.

Yes, the calendar lies. But since it does, it’s the perfect time to talk about summer … and summer reading.

I’ve found that in certain rustic venues – sitting outside a tent, near a crackling campfire or inside a camp, for instance – the addition of a good book about the outdoors can really enhance the experience.

Even a dog-eared copy of an old outdoor magazine can add a nostalgic feeling to a trip into the Maine woods.

With that thought in mind, I’ve got a couple of books for you to consider when you’re packing for your summer (or late-spring, if you’re bound to the faulty seasons delineated on the calendar) excursions.

First up is one that visitors to the North Maine Woods will likely enjoy. Those who have spent many years in those parts will particularly like reading Jack Ahern’s “Bound For Munsungan, The History of the Early Sporting Camps of Northern Maine.”

Ahern made his first trip to the Maine woods on a hunting excursion to Ripogenus Dam in 1947 and became a regular guest at Bradford Camps on Munsungan Lake in 1956.

He painstakingly researched his book, which introduces readers to the pioneers, families and guides who earned a living in some of the state’s most unforgiving territory.

“Bound for Munsungan” is a bit like the territory it describes: It’s a hard-edged, rustic, no-nonsense account.

You don’t find long, flowery passages full of adjectives and descriptions in Ahern’s work. The collected black-and-white photos take care of that brand of heavy lifting.

You do learn something new on every page, however, as Ahern walks you though the region’s history and introduces you to people like Will Atkins, Milt Hall, Walter Grau and the Libby family.

One of my favorite parts of the book is included as a lengthy appendix.

Ray Carter, the father of present Munsungan Hunting and Fishing Club owner Jim Carter, spent years in those woods, and his tales of the woods around Munsungan span 56 pages as the book’s first appendix.

Ray Carter’s year-by-year accounting of hunting and fishing trips take the reader back generations and shed light on the approach and experiences of those hunters during the early and middle 20th century.

Things were very different back then, and Ray Carter glossed over nothing. His journal entries take you back to a time when outdoorsmen were expected to be self-sufficient; he describes scenarios that would be considered harrowing by today’s hunters but were taken as a matter of course in the 1920s and 1930s.

Ahern, meanwhile, takes great care in explaining how and why various guides and families ended up in the woods of Maine and tracks the progression of the hunting camps they helped build.

Another option for your summer nightstand: “True Stories of Maine Fly Fishermen.”

For the record, the author, J.H. Hall, would not be considered a “Maine Fly Fisherman” by many Mainers; he makes no apologies for having been raised in the southern U.S. before moving here in 1975.

But you don’t have to spend much time worrying about Hall’s heritage: His writing is good enough that it just doesn’t matter.

Hall’s book is a collection of 20 short essays. That makes it perfect bedtime fare, I figure, since you’ll always be able to find a convenient place to stop when you want to nod off.

Hall is sometimes funny, often serious, and at times a bit acerbic. No matter the mood, his essays are full of life and describe the life of an avid fly fisherman aptly.

His first essay, “Scales,” is a whimsical look at what can happen when a fisherman takes the utmost care to accurately quantify the fish he catches, even when (or, especially when) no one else does more than estimate.

He takes you Atlantic salmon fishing on the Margaree and bass fishing on his favorite pond in central Maine.

He introduces you to his friends and fishing partners, some of whom are one and the same … and some of whom aren’t.

Hall, who also wrote the popular “Cover Girl & Other Stories of Fly-Fishermen in Maine,” covers a lot of topics and locales in his current effort.

No matter what the topic, he entertains.

And when you’re looking for some light summer reading, that’s a pretty good way to start.

jholyoke@bangordailynews.net

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