points north

i have found myself longing for the north of late. this is evidenced by today's splurge on reading material at chester county book company. i went in looking for a card (which i found rather quickly and really, i should have beelined it for the exit) and ended up leaving with a plethora of reading material, almost all about points north. or at least, points wild.

book #1 is about the doomed Polaris expedition to the North Pole, the first American expedition toward the pole and one that never made it. i have read a lot about the Antarctic expeditions but not a lot about arctic ones, and those are the ones that initially captured my interest as a five-year-old.

aside - i saw a slide show given by ann bancroft and will steger in 1986 following their unsupported dogsled expedition to the north pole and from that point on i wanted to go dogsledding for the rest of the years between five and nineteen, when i finally went dogsledding in the boundary waters of minnesota (see younger, perhaps smarter me above). o still want to go again, farther north, and with more snow, but that is another story for another time.

so anyway, that was book #1, and i will give a report once it is finished.

book #2 is one about the american northern-midwest, the culture, the people, etc. i don't know whether it will read like a text book or a story, but being from said geographic region i thought it would be a good read no matter what. plus, it mentioned state and county fairs, and i am a big fan of the minnesota state fair, where the chocolate chip cookie booth is conveniently located just next to the 25-cent all you can drink milk truck. there is nothing better, except maybe fresh air in the northwoods.

book #3 is about the search for wild america, which is not limited to the northwoods, but i am sure it will be talked about at some point... as much as i love the north, i love wild, open places, and i busied myself reading lots of books and papers on the subject in a different place in my life, and i've wanted to do more of it lately, so there i am. i have a book for my new undertaking.

i also splurged on a journal/day runner with exerpts from A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold. a favorite of mine.

that's the story for now. a quick one, just $100 worth.

big day tomorrow.

can you tell i am trying to keep my mind off it?