I am in the middle of this book and decided to go ahead and give it a 10 for those of you looking for a fun, light book that can be read in snippets.

I kind of rediscovered Gene Hill after someone posted one of his stories on Africa on another forum on AR. I had always like Gene's work when he wrote for various magazines. I lost track of him and have come find out he died in 1997 from cancer at age 69.

He has the gift to be able to write about common happenings in a hunter/fisherman's life and experience in a way that makes you think about what you are doing and why. He also puts a very humorous twist on the event as well.

This book is a series of 2 to 4 page essays on these events - such as "Losing Things", "Duck Hunters Wives", "Unpacking Some Memories of Africa". The reading is the type that you can read one essay in the evening and either "think yourself to sleep" or "laugh yourself to sleep". He is not a "how to" writer, but an observer of the human condition and he has unusual insights into our nature.

You will enjoy every story in this book.
I highly recommend it.

PS - He has written a bunch of books, which I have not read. I would appreciate any Gene Hill fans out there to recommend any of his other books to me.

My modest Gene Hill collection includes:

A Hunter's Fireside Book, Passing a Good Time, Mostly Tailfeathers, Tears and Laughter, Hill Country, & Outdoor Yarns and Outright Lies. My favorite is whichever one I read last.

I’ve been reading Hill’s work since I was a kid in the mid 1970’s. Every autumn when the leaves start to turn I open one of these books and visit his people and places once more.