I read this one last week while hunting. If you're interested in fishing, natural history, etc it's a pretty entertaining read. It's a true story about a man named Edwin Rist developing an autistic obsession with tying Victorian era salmon flies. He ends up robbing the British Museum of Natural History and taking hundreds of 19th century exotic bird specimens.

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Posted by DukeSilver

Member since Jan 2014

2948 posts

Posted on 11/26/24 at 8:59 am to Loup

I read it as well, really enjoyable.

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Posted by Gorilla Ball

Member since Feb 2006

12957 posts

Posted on 12/3/24 at 3:49 pm to Loup

Thanks for sharing- I’m picking this one up at the library

I discovered this one
The Birds That Audubon Missed:
Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness
by Kenn Kaufman

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Posted by hogfly

Fayetteville, AR

Member since May 2014

5120 posts

Posted on 12/4/24 at 9:47 am to Loup

Listened to the This American Life episode on this incident a while back. Really interesting stuff (especially since I tie flies.. but not THOSE kinds of flies, which is just weird).

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Posted by Loup

Ferriday

Member since Apr 2019

16033 posts

Posted on 12/4/24 at 10:01 am to hogfly

quote:
especially since I tie flies.. but not THOSE kinds of flies, which is just weird

Yup, same here. What was really strange to me is that the guy had never fished a day in his life. He just got obsessed with tying the flies. I have to be honest, the book did make me want some exotic feathers.

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Posted by hogfly

Fayetteville, AR

Member since May 2014

5120 posts

Posted on 12/4/24 at 10:25 am to Loup

quote:
Yup, same here. What was really strange to me is that the guy had never fished a day in his life. He just got obsessed with tying the flies. I have to be honest, the book did make me want some exotic feathers.

I definitely appreciate the artistry of the classic salmon flies... but the price of high quality hackle is high enough