The Habit of Rivers

Leeson writes so well and describes his responses to rivers and fishing so clearly that you almost experience the rivers with him. I don't fish but I read it happily and then shared it with my brothers (who do fish).. If you fish, read it; if you don't fish but like Oregon rivers, read it anyway.

I received this book from my son. He knows me as well as anyone. He knows I'm struggling with my "fishing experience" and looking for direction. I don't need to catch the biggest fish or experience the newest destinations. I need to fish. I need to fly fish. Ted Leeson helped tell me why. This book spoke to my soul. It corrected my direction. I have read many fishing books, some technical some just good stories. The first time, and I'll read it again, I read this book I realized early on that I needed to read it slowly, introspectively. I was in this book. Mr. Leeson spoke to me. He answered my direction question when he said, "In the end, to fish well is to cultivate an arrangement of time and place, of circumstance and perspective. We arrange ourselves into the arrangement, and if the collusion is careful and lucky, we reap a kind of enclosed moment of some sharply felt beauty and significance." The Habit of Rivers is a special book and I recommend it to any fly fisher looking for direction or confirmation.

Well writtne and thoughtful, Leeson's book, along with his splendid "Jerusalem Creek", are just what the brotherhood of angling literature looks foward to - On teh same Shelf with Thomas McGuane, Bill Barich, Harry Middleton, Chris Camuto, R. Haig Brown, Russell Chatham - well, you get the idea. Highly recommended

Mr. Leeson's book is about flyfishing, but it is not your typical flyfishing book. It is much more well-written and insightful than anything else written on the subject. Read it; you will not be disppointed.

With the poetic delivery of Maclean, and the naturalist vision of Thoreau, Ted Leeson paints a beautiful,and sometimes comical, mosiac of fly fishing the Northwest. As I read this book I am reminded that the most noble and rewarding aspect of my sport is not the mere catching of fish, but it is the beautiful & mystical arena in which we are privileged to practice it.