A Good Read

[Mark Reynolds]

I often hear mentors, colleges, presenters at symposiums/field days comment or say or recommend that you need to or should read such and such book written by John or Jane Doe. The unfortunate thing about that is that 95% of the time I can't remember the name of the book or the author later or I end up forgetting about the book all together, and then there is the issue of finding the time to actually read the book if you manage to remember the title, author, and manage to acquire the book.

I'll start this thread with a recommendation of a book that I got 28 years ago (October 23, 1997). I was a graduate student at that time at Oregon State University. I found evidence (proof) that my idea of "marrying" my Bachelor's degrees in Animal Science and Wildlife Science wasn't a pipe dream that many individuals, at least from the eastern half of the country, would look at me as if I just grew a third eye out of my forehead.

The book is "The Prairie Keepers" written by Marcy Houle. It's about the coexistence between grazing and wildlife. Not necessarily in complete harmony, but to the extent that all benefit from the coexistence, although at times uneasy, to the extent that co-existence may be necessary for to persevere.

Other books worth posting will include more well known authors like Jim Garrish and Alan Savory although I don't think I actually have books from either of them.

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

Well it doesn't have anything to a cattle but one of my favorite books since I was a kid is.
Where the Red Fern Grows. They made a movie of it I think back in the '70s.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

I read that book as a freshman at Purdue and did a book report on it. I absolutely loved it!

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

I read that book as a freshman at Purdue and did a book report on it. I absolutely loved it!

Growing up as a kid in the 60s in Southern Illinois coon hunting was a real big thing.
back then if you had a good blue tick or a red bone hound you were really respected.
We didn't have modern-day flashlights we walked around the woods with an old carbide Lantern on our head.
One day we came across an old mother with a bunch of kits.
Don't know what was wrong with her but she was sickly so we found the kits in an old hollow stump and I took two of them home and my buddy took two of them.
I used to play with those things all the time and they scratch the heck out of me.

 

[farmerjan]

Also the "part 2" of the Where the Red Fern Grows book... written after that young boy grew up... it was good also... some don't measure up but it was good...

 

[TCRanch]

Definitely not about cattle but West with Giraffes has been one of my favorite books.

https://www.amazon.com/West-Giraffes-Novel-Lynda-Rutledge/dp/1542023343/?tag=cattletoday00-20

 

[gcreekrch]

As time goes on I quote George Orwell’s Animal Farm more frequently.

 

[wbvs58]

Jon Sanders books on his double circumnavigation solo in his S&S 34 yacht and then a triple circumnavigation in a larger S&S boat, incredible seamanship especially in the first trip, all done by celestial navigation.

Ken

 

[sstterry]

I guess Superman and Batman comics don't fit in here.

 

[gman4691]

I guess Superman and Batman comics don't fit in here.

Or cereal boxes…sigh

Do herbicide labels count?

 

[tater74]

A book that made a profound difference in my life is called "Leadership and Self-Deception". I try to read it at least once a year. It really changed how I deal with people.

 

[Dave]

I have a lot of them but the wife is doing new floors. So all the book got boxed up and the book shelf taken down. Titles and authors.......... hmmm if only my memory would work.

 

[gman4691]

I've read "Interpreting Our Heritage" by Freeman Tilden several times. It is primarily aimed at giving interpretive programs in state & national parks but has some useful insights as far as explaining things to people in a way in which they can relate. I thought it was a great read while working in Texas State Parks but useful for a number of other situations as well.

 

[Spot & Bubby]

Well it doesn't have anything to a cattle but one of my favorite books since I was a kid is.
Where the Red Fern Grows. They made a movie of it I think back in the '70s.

View attachment 59579

Don't forget the tissues.

 

[Spot & Bubby]

I once worked for a temp agency that placed me in customer service with a rental reporting agency when I was about 22 years old. My department interacted with landlords, not renters. The first week on the job, before ANY training whatsoever was a reading assignment.

For 40 hours over 5 days I read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. I probably read it nine times or more. I have called upon the lessons in that book in every area of daily life for three decades and they have served me very well in all but one area of professional and personal living.

 

[sstterry]

I once worked for a temp agency that placed me in customer service with a rental reporting agency when I was about 22 years old. My department interacted with landlords, not renters. The first week on the job, before ANY training whatsoever was a reading assignment.

For 40 hours over 5 days I read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. I probably read it nine times or more. I have called upon the lessons in that book in every area of daily life for three decades and they have served me very well in all but one area of professional and personal living.

I read that when I was in High School. I was a pretty boring kid.

 

[Spot & Bubby]

I read that when I was in High School. I was a pretty boring kid.

HTWF lead me into that whole genre of productivity and time management. But for personal and professional growth and success, Carnegie and that book were the best. I was Get(ting)Things Done with David Allen, honing 7 Habits with Stephen Covey, and learned (or did I?) how to Eat That Frog from Brian Tracy, but nothing payed off like HTWF. I, too, was boring but my planner was fabulous!!

 

[4hfarms]

Never read a book (cover to cover for fun) until I was in Korea for a year. Read a LOT of Dean Koontz then. Lightning was my favorite for a long time. 20 years later, since retiring, I find that I read classics and history more than not.

I don't remember much of high school.

 

[Dave]

I have read a lot. A few years back I decided to read Moby Dick. I read it in HS and decided it couldn't be as bad as I remembered. I think it was just as bad the second time as it was the first. Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls was a good read both times I read it with 30+ years in between.