At Home in the Woods: Living the Life of Thoreau Today

This book is a true story. Not "based on a true story", but a real, live, no frills true story. If the title "True Grit" wasn't already taken for a cheesy western, I'd grab it for this book. It is about a couple in their 30's, living in Boston, romanticizing Thoreau and "Walden". One day, the husband says, "Let's do it. Let's find a location that will be condusive to living off the land, and go there."And so they do. Duffels full of axes, woolens, lanterns, and a few how-to books, they take a train to British Columbia, find an abandonded prospector's cabin, get it water-tight, and live there. Their nearest neighbor lives a half mile away, they're basically sqatting on this land, winter's coming, and they've got to live on oats and berries, and whatever Joe Boston (Bradford Angier) can kill out in the immense forest which serves as their backyard. It's wonderful. Very (to use that popular wine judger's phrase) approachable. Read: easy to read. You don't have to know anything about nothing to enjoy this book. Also, Bradford Angier (although this book is written by him and his wife, Vera)becomes sort of a back woods guru and writes some outdoor manuals on wild edibles and how to build your own moss-chinked cabin on someone else's land. Check it out.

I just finished this book tonight and must say that I loved every page of it. It was the first book of the Angier's that I have read, and I can tell you it won't be the last. The way both Brad and Vera describe in flowing detail and friendly, backwoods banter, how their first few years were like living in the mountains and off the land, will spark a fire in anyone who longs for such adventure. Read it. It is a wonderful story.