where wednesday + book report [Sunk Without a Sound|2010 Wrap Up]

Where Wednesdays are a regular feature where I and a series of guest bloggers talk  about places that are  important to us, be they work spaces, outdoor  spaces, sleeping spaces,  places we visit, places we live, places we  drink coffee, etc. etc.

[do you want to talk about a place or space that's important  to you? let me know and I'll set you up with a Wednesday!]

For today's Where Wednesday, I'm cheating a little bit and combining it with a book report (it's been a weird month...cut me some slack).  It makes sense though because one of my favorite places has always been inside a book.  Well, the outside too...when I was 2 I would walk up to my Grandpa's bookshelf and touch all the bookcovers.  Before I could read I was content to flip thru an upside down TV Guide in the backseat of the car.  Okay, the TV Guide isn't really a book...but it used to look like one and I thought I was reading it.  I love love love to read...which definitely carries over into blogs and magazines, but there's nothing like a book.  

The last book I read in 2010 was...

I saw this in the visitors' center at Zion National Park many years ago and couldn't stop thinking about it...I finally grabbed a copy at Powell's this summer.  The author tells the story of Glen and Bessie Hyde, a newlywed couple who decided to raft down the Colorado River in 1928.  The river was still wild then (no dams) and only a handful of people had made the trip (Bessie was aiming to be the first woman to do it). When Glen's father did not hear from them at the expected time, a search was mounted.  Their homemade boat was found fully loaded and intact sitting in the water...but there was no sign of Glen and Bessie.  Glen's father searched for over a year for some clue...and years later the story became legend among river rafters.  Did Bessie kill Glen and start a new life? Did they both get tossed from the boat and drown in the cold November water? Did they try to walk out of the canyon but get lost? The author talks about all the possibilities, and about Glen and Bessie's lives before they met, plus he and his wife build a similar boat to see what the trip was like for the Hydes (that's the author+wife on the cover).  It was an interesting and mysterious story.  There are great photos (the camera and film were in the boat) that were a big part of what drew me into the book.

my hipstamatic pic of a pic

In 2010 I read 17.5 books (a dreadful total for me...I'm aiming for 30 this year. The 0.5 was a book I just couldn't finish). The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie was my favorite for the year...can't wait to read the next in the series!