What's your favorite fly fishing book?

"Charlie Choc" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 5 Apr 2004 17:44:11 -0500, "Wolfgang"
wrote:


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
If you saw my post last week, looking for comments on beginner's fly
fishing
outfits, you know I'm about to take a class. I offered my 14 yr old son
the
opportunity to join me. He said he wants to learn, but not from a
class.
"You taught me how to fish - how about you teach me to use a fly rod?"
Sometimes, arguing with a 14 yr old is like ****ing into the wind. He
will,
however, take a book to the bathroom for his daily "one hour on the
throne".
Anyone got a favorite book which explains tippets, knots, casting
ideas,
etc?

I know that what I'm about to say doesn't answer your question, but
others
have already done that and it gives me the heebie jeebies to see a thread
go
this long without morphing, so........

The information you are after juxtaposed against a literal interpretation
of
the question in the thread subject line suggests an interesting line of
rumination. Aside from providing information which, admittedly, is what
you
are after (and in which they obviously succeed in varying
degrees....hence
your question), "how to" books don't do much of anything very well. The
hallmarks of good instruction are clarity, completeness, factual
accuracy,
and not much more....or at least that seems to be the consensus among the
writers and publishers of "how to" works. Most of them, judged by any
other
standard (and there are plenty of other applicable standards for writing
and
reading), are abysmal. In other words, and generally speaking, apart
from
the more or less tedious to downright painful extraction of information,
there is no good reason on God's green Earth for anyone to read any of
them.
That said, optimism (if not reason) dictates that there must be
exceptions.
So, MY question is; are there any "how to" fly fishing books (good, bad,
or
indifferent) that are good books? What I've seen here in reviews of the
"Curtis Creek Manifesto" (which I have never seen) suggests this might
be a
candidate.....yes?, no? maybe so?

Yes.

Remarkable. Supercilious, vacuous, snide, obtuse, obstructionist, nasty,
anti-social, and thick-headed......and all in one short paragraph. Your
best work ever. Seriously.

Wolfgang