On the Spine of Time (ISBN 0871088924)

Amazon.com Review:
Harry Middleton had to endure hardships to find the queen mother of all trout streams in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. He had to live through treacherous mountain roads, the cloud of airborne industrial toxins that shrouds the range for most of the year, an occasional blast of lightning, and, worst of all, a helping of rancid potato salad at a roadside diner. Like Norman MacLean in A River Runs Through It, Middleton makes fly-fishing a religion with its own vision of nirvana, and if it takes an occasional descent into the nether regions to attain it, the author isn't afraid to supply the grisly details. This graceful, funny memoir belongs in every angler's library.

"I Am Haunted By Waters.":
If you recognize with reverence this closing passage from Norman Maclean's classic "A River Runs Through It", you will equally treasure "On The Spine Of Time". It is a story of finding one's self in the beauty and solitude of the mountain streams of the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. The stories are as much about the history of the area as they are about the experiences of one man as he seeks retreat from the trauma of everyday life in the city. It is a book you will read over and over. In decades of reading outdoor stories I have only found two other books that are as beautiful as this one. The first and greatest has to be Maclean's masterpiece from which I stole the title for this review. The other is John Hersey's "Blues". I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

Smoky Mountain Treasure:
I love the Smoky Mountains. This book captures the magic of these mountains perfectly. This is one of those books that I couldn't stop reading. I've hiked the Appalachian Trail through the Smoky Mountains and tasted the mountains intimately as Middleton did. His descriptions of the scenery are right on the money. The characters he meets and acquaints himself with are exactly the kind of people one meets while traversing the back country in the Smoky Mountains. I loved this book for the colorful characters Middleton describes. But, there is a whole lot more to the Smokies and it's all told. The geography, the invasive insects, toxic air, Cherokee Indians, founders of the park, and a whole lot more are part of his story, in addition to the subject of fly fishing. If you love the Smoky Mountains like I do you're going to love this book. If you have never been to the Smoky Mountains you're going to want to go after reading "On the Spine of Time". Also, if you like this book, and you enjoy the characters as much as I did, then I suggest you also read the book, "A Walk In the Woods", by Bill Bryson.

A Fisherman's Treasure To Read:
This book is about two of my most beloved things- the Smoky Mountains and fishing the streams of them. Sit back and relax while reading this book and let your mind and thoughts be with the author as he bring you into the world of wonderment and splendor that is the Great Smoky Mountains. His descriptive narration of the nature and beauty that surrounds him through his angling expeditions can only be experienced through the depth of one's own mind's eye. This is not imagination but, in fact, a reality that can only be truly experienced first hand. A truly great book for sitting back and getting away from it all and going back in time to one's own relative thoughts and experiences of familiarity.