alaska-chronicles

A lot has already been said about this title, so I’ll just add this: The Alaska Chronicles is the best fly fishing book I’ve read in a long time.

Miles Nolte’s efficiency of prose is top notch. He has a good story to tell and doesn’t let useless words, thoughts, exclamatory hyperbole, or cliche bog it down. The result is a book that’s hard to set aside, one of those reads that make chunks of time–like the morning train commute or the fly time between take-off and touchdown–disappear.

If you don’t know the story, Nolte spent two-plus seasons guiding at a remote lodge in Alaska, and documented his second on The Drake message board. His daily journal provided a gateway into the guiding life and all that comes with it. Props to Departure Publishing for transcribing it into book form.

Every punk-ass guide wannabe should read this book. Every civilian fly fisherman with midlife-crisis dreams of getting away from it all should read this book. If the closest you’ll ever come to fishing in Alaska is via the pages of a book, this is an excellent choice to get there.