Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape

When I first got my hands on this beautiful book, I'd barely read a page before I started to cry. Barry Lopez, Debra Gwartney, and more of the best writers of our day have saved what I didn't even realize I was losing. I've often felt, when near an exotic Asian or spicy islander that being an American, especially a Midwesterner, meant I had no culture. The United States was developed under the influence of a vast wild land, a land to conquer. We tore down and built up, paying little attention to what we destroyed. I wonder if that accounts for empty Americans trying to fill themselves up with stuff? But the U. S. isn't only about development and acquisition. Home Ground preserves the culture and language of our landscape."we will conserve only what we lovewe will love only what we understandwe will understand only what we're taught"Baba Dioum, SenegalThe marginalia literature quotations and the descriptive entries bind place to culture. Because I do feel a connection to the landscapes I have known, this book reminds me that I am a part of a culture that has a language. A language we might have lost.

I love all the definitions of words we use commonly or not so commonly about the natural environment that most of us cannot always experience. The definition for acre I’m especially obsessed with! This is the perfect “coffee table” book or “bedside table” book to just open and read a few entries.

This book is a must read for an avid outdoorsman/hunter/fisherman such as myself. When hunting all over the country, terms for many land features vary widely, and this helps navigate through local vernacular.

A perfect resource guide to the natural world.Wasn't a Lopez non-fiction nature writing treat that I anticipated, however.

Love this book. Not a book I'd sit down and read cover to cover, but nice to peruse when the spirit moves me.

The book defines (with illustrations) terms used to describe land features, such as barranca, grand bois, quaking bog. It is primarily a book to dip into for fun or to consult as a reference. If you like descriptive terms (e.g., meander scar) or puzzling friends with new words, you will like this book.

Well done

I have the original version of this book copyright in 2006. I see it was updated in 2013. I hope they removed the ridiculous desciption of Country Rock written by Jon Krakauer. He states that geologists and mountain climbers have a bias against any nonigneous rock. "This latter vastness of highly complex, nonigneous geology is summarily dismissed as country rock." It wouldn't surprise me if mountain climbers held such a shallow opinion of our planet. But geologists? Without nonigneous rock geologists would never have discovered fossils and the story of life on earth. Many working geologists work for extraction companies. They look for oil, coal, lithium, etc, none of which are found in igneous rock. I think his description is biased by his mountain climber's ignorance.I love everything else about this book. But when I recommend it I always suggest skipping the nonsense written by Jon Krakauer.