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180th out of 249 books
—
144 voters
Abbey's Road
by
Edward Abbey
Abbey's explorations include the familiar territory of the Rio Grande in Texas, Canyonlands National Park, and Lake Powell in Utah. He also takes readers to such varied places as Scotland, the interior of Australia, the Sierra Madre, and Isla de la Sombra in Mexico.
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
January 30th 1991
by Plume
(first published June 25th 1979)
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I knew Abbey as the dusty sage of the Southwest, but I didn’t realize he was a travel writer with tales set in Australia, Italy, Baja, Mexico and Arizona until I picked up his collection Abbey Road. In Oz he gives a stark view of the Great Barrier Reef then on to a grisly life in the real outback on a cattle ranch. He spends a week on an uninhabited Island in Baja where he is mostly nude enjoying the pure sensuality of the place. Some of these stories are reflections from a man who was often in...more
Actually, the version I used was not listed. It was an audiobook and the reader was pretty decent other than a couple of mispronunciations. Of course since this was mainly an extended essay there were no requirements of voice variations and the reader did have an excellent voice.
Several portions of the book were excellent comments on gun control, overpopulation, animal welfare, and the environment. In other areas, his comments were sadly naive and simplistic. Also, I really don't have any intere...more
Several portions of the book were excellent comments on gun control, overpopulation, animal welfare, and the environment. In other areas, his comments were sadly naive and simplistic. Also, I really don't have any intere...more
One great book of essays. Perhaps his finest. This is Abbey reading with a laugh, a smile and a deeper knowledge of this complicated man. Great river ammo can library book.
He starts by saying how different he, the real Abbey, is compared to his fictional characters. Then he proceeds to disprove himself by sharing true stories that fit right into the fold with his fictional stories. Rafting down the Rio Grande, sitting naked in the dessert alone, destroying a rented car driving illegally through the middle of Australia. In his mind Abbey may not have been as interesting or as complex as his characters, but to be real is to be complex and a life of thinking about wi...more
It was a rather interesting series of essays, kind of reminded me in some way of a recent book I read - Hiking Through by Paul Stutzman. Also there is a perspective that reminds me to some extent of Jimmy Buffet, but Edward Abbey pre-dated both of them. I enjoyed his descriptions of the locations that he visited in Australia, the American Southwest but when he went to philosophical and spritual issues, he was way out there. He is certainly irreverent and sometimes a little raunchy, but does not...more
a book of essays composed of three parts (travel, polemics and sermons, and personal history), abbey's road is ed at his finest. candid and compelling (with humor omnipresent), his words excite the imagination, entice our integrity and elucidate our yearning for the natural world. reading ed abbey is a course in good writing.
science with a human face- is such a thing possible anymore? we live in a time when technology and technologists seem determined to make the earth unfit to live upon. accord...more
science with a human face- is such a thing possible anymore? we live in a time when technology and technologists seem determined to make the earth unfit to live upon. accord...more
So far: Interesting and entertaining to read Abbey writing about travel and landscapes outside the United States and the West in particular. I would venture to say that this book contains some of his most scathing diatribes. Being an avid Abbey nut I am used to his flame-tongued commentary, but some of the comments on women in this work are enough to make me blush a bit. Still I will always remain enamored of this man. He speaks directly to my heart.
apart from "Desert Solitaire," Abbey's nonfiction is rather indistinguishable to me, still I've read and enjoyed it, and always take some Abbey with me on trips to the desert--
"Few of us would be willing to exchange our place in European industrial culture for a place in that ancient and primitive society. We feel our world is more open, vast, and free than that of primitive man. Perhaps it is. But what we have gained in depth and breadth we may have lost in immediacy and intensity. For the sava...more
"Few of us would be willing to exchange our place in European industrial culture for a place in that ancient and primitive society. We feel our world is more open, vast, and free than that of primitive man. Perhaps it is. But what we have gained in depth and breadth we may have lost in immediacy and intensity. For the sava...more
He writes about many things in this book. Mostly he writes about his journeys and trips in the wilderness. This one sentence in "Science with a human face" struck me: "Only a fool, milking his cow, denies the cow's reality. Be true to the earth."
After I read this book, I loved it so much I loaned it to a bunch of friends (read forced them to read it) and had them all sign their names and write a review of the book. It was 1995, I remember that. I wonder where this book is, I hope it is in my storage.
great collection of essays from Abbey's published articles. My personal favorite is the one about the island in Mexico. Great to read if you only have a short time to read each day. Each article is a stand-alone story.
Ed's essays including Back of Beyond, A Desert Isle, Down There in the Rocks, and Merry Christmas Pigs! Also Death Valley Junk finds its way in here to boot.
Pretty good if you're an Abbey fan; if not, start with Desert Solitaire or Monkey Wrench Gang. It took me two reads to love the former.
The car......too fun.
Sep 29, 2010
Mariya
marked it as to-read
NO
This book belonged to my father - reading it makes me feel connected to him. He subscribed to Abbey's philosophy about wild things and wild places. Abbey stirs a deep appreciation for all things "wilderness" related. And he writes about booze & sex, too, like all the great authors.
i hadn't read any abbey for a while, so it is always fun to read. i read him religiously while in high school, and it is fun to analyze his writing now. none of the writing is too spectacular, though. i'd say i enjoyed his forward or introduction the best.
i'd walk down his road with him, if he'd be amenable. something tells me that he wouldn't. i'll have to settle for following in his footsteps, being ever-careful to not step on too much cryptobiotic crust.
Loved it.
Mar 08, 2008
Ashley
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
environmentalists, or those who wish to be
Recommended to Ashley by:
Brandon Butler
Shelves:
environment
Edward Abbey was ahead of his time. Yes, an eccentric, but hey, aren't we all when we believe in something passionately before the general public catches on??
Edward Abbey's humor never gets old! The book is slow in the beginning but picks up toward the end.
You can't go wrong.
May 14, 2013
Jamie Crockett
marked it as to-read
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Abbey attended college in New Mexico, and then worked as a park ranger and fire lookout for the National Park Service in the Southwest. It was during this time that he developed the relationship with the area's environment that influenced his writing. During his service, he was in close proximity to the ruins of ancient Native American cultures and saw the expansion and destruction of modern civil...more
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“The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. Not for nothing was the revolver called an "equalizer.”
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