Beyond the hill is the auburn-colored desolation of the desert: stony hills, lean peaks, narrow bands of olive-drab shrubbery winding along the waterless drainages and in the distance, on all horizons, from fifty to sixty miles away, the farther ranges of blue, magenta and purple mountains, where nothing human lives or ever did. I find this a cheery, even exhilarating prospect. The world of nature is faithful and never disappoints.
~from Beyond the Wall, by Edward Abbey (born January 29, 1927)
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A Fondness For Reading 
What a wonderful quote and acompanying photo. What did you think of the book of essays? This is an author I don’t know at all.
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Thanks, Cath, I had mixed feelings about these essays. Edward Abbey is a very revered western author and environmentalist, and he does write beautifully. His descriptions of the West that I know and grew up in (or near) are amazing, but I found myself getting tired of the male-ness (quite macho!) of these stories. I haven’t read his fiction, however, so I must give him another chance and see if I feel the same way when I read one of his novels.
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Thanks for that. Hmm, I’ll think about it, I don’t mind a bit of macho-ness but my patience runs out fairly quickly. My own pet hate in that same vein is the middle aged male author who creates a main character who is also middle-aged and who is madly attractive to women 20 or even 30 years his junior with subsequent ‘scenes’ if you get me. Tedious.
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Cath, I hope I haven’t sold him really short, but I did run out of patience with him. I must try one of his novels, though, to see if they are quite different. He wrote beautifully!
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