I was just surfing Wikipedia and found that one of my favorite writers died last month.
If you aren’t familiar with Colin Fletcher, you should check him out. I seem to prefer genre writers who transcend their genre. Fletcher fit that category.
He was a walker and he wrote about walking and his walks. His first book was about his walk down the length of California. His most famous book, The Man Who Walked Through Time was about his walking the Grand Canyon from one end to the other – he was the first person to do it. He was a backpacking guru, author of four editions of The Complete Walker. The guy made comparisons of camp stoves and fly dope readable (and fairly regularly, compelling). He included humor, philosophy and a true appreciation for self-knowledge and human nature in his books.
He wasn’t the best known writer in the world, but he’s meant a lot to me over the years. I’m going to take a nice long walk this week and think about him.