It's Only Slow Food Until You Try to Eat It: Misadventures of a Suburban Hunter-Gatherer

It's Only Slow Food Until You Try to Eat It: Misadventures of a Suburban Hunter-Gatherer by Bill Heavey 274 pages published 2013

I enjoyed this book a great deal.

Bill Heavey is longtime contributor to the Field & Stream magazine as well as other publications. 

Outdoor writing is filled with experts whereas Bill Heavey found the other end of the skill spectrum was “wide open”, and he made the best of it. 

I didn't realize it, but good eating can be found in your back yard, in the cracks of sidewalks, in ditches, and in other peoples' yard as well. With the help of a few colorful friends, and a good deal of humor, Bill finds an amazing wealth of nutrition in areas we all walk past. 

The best thing Bill Heavy finds, and falls in love with, is the lovely Michelle. Awwwww...

A good story with food, outdoors, humor, and true love. 

Into the Wild by John Krakauer

Into the Wild by John Krakauer, 207 pages

"Into the Wild" tells the story of Chris McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp, a young man in search of many things.  Fresh from college and inspired by the likes of Jack London and Henry David Thoreau, Chris abandons the luxuries of society, assumes the identity of Alexander, and backpacks around the American west, with his ultimate goal being to live off the land in Alaska.  Alex does fulfill his dreams, but only at the cost of his own life.

If I were to say that this book changed me, I wouldn't be lying entirely.  Reading about Alex's adventures planted feeling of wanderlust in me.  It filled me with a need for travel, and a simple stroll through the park would not suffice.  In a way, I envy Alex.  He had a dream of personal freedom and pursued it.  But at what cost?  Beyond the obvious of his premature demise, in his departure from his life he also left behind many friends and family who will never again have their brother/son/friend back.

I really enjoyed this book.  Krakauer did an excellent job portraying McCandless/Supertramp as not just a hard-headed stubborn youth but as a dreamer and an adventurer who wouldn't give up on his dreams.  It's inspiring in a way.  Not that I'm going to disappear one day only to end up starving to death in the wilds of Alaska, but rather in a never give up on your dreams kind of way.