The River Why by David James Duncan is in the 27th Street Book Box today, waiting for you to come by and bring it home for a read. This is a quest story, about a fly fisherman named Gus Orviston and his effort to come to terms with the world and his own life. It’s a beautiful book, which I’ve read several times over the years. It’s funny and lovely at the same time. It may be about a fisherman but you don’t have to like fishing to love the book.

Across the road from my cabin was a huge clear-cut–hundreds of acres of massive spruce stumps interspersed with tiny Douglas firs–products of what they call “Reforestation,” which I guess makes the spindly firs en masse a “Reforest,” which makes an individual spindly fir a “Refir,” which means you could say that Weyerhauser, who owns the joint, has Refir Madness, since they think that sawing down 200-foot-tall spruces and replacing them with puling 2-foot Refirs is no different from farming beans or corn or alfalfa

Like all books in the 27th Street Book box, The River Why is free for the taking. You can read it and keep it or read it and return it or read it and give it away. It’s all good. And if you have a book or two you think others would love, please drop them by the Book Box. They’ll be appreciated.

The 27th Street Book Box is located in front of our house, on 27th Street in Long Branch, on the east side of the street, a few houses north of the lake.