Sportsmans Library: 100 Essential, Engaging, Offbeat, And Occasi

Stephen J. Bodio’s famous review column in Gray’s Sporting Journal (1981-1992) included discussions on everything from hook and bullet how-tos to modern novels and science writing. Continuing in that tradition, A Sportsman’s Library: 100 Essential, Engaging, Off-Beat, and Occasionally Odd Fishing and Hunting Books for the Adventurous Reader draws on the same wide-ranging curiosity and encyclopedic knowledge of sporting literature that informed “Bodio’s Review.”

From all the familiar, beloved classics—books by Izaak Walton, Robert Ruark, and Norman Maclean—to the hidden gems that no one but Bodio could have uncovered (ancient treatises on falconry, and modern considerations of the “catfish as metaphor”), each one of these short reviews is illustrated in color and presented in a browsable, easy-to-read format. Nowhere else could an explanation of the intricate beauty of a classic salmon fly rub elbows with a consideration of the craftsmanship of a Best London double. And rarely do you see the science of the hunt juxtaposed against the hunt’s depiction in art.

Introduction by television personality and outdoor writer Jameson Parker.

 

Stephen J. Bodio is a former book reviewer for Gray’s Sporting Journal and the author of several books, among them A Rage for Falcons, Querencia, and Aloft: A Meditation on Pigeons and Pigeon-Flying. He is a longtime resident of Magdalena, New Mexico.