Desert Solitaire (1967) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 5 stars

“I read this book on my first trip to Arches National Park. The way that Edward Abbey describes the natural beauty makes this book worth reading, whether you agree with his naturalist views or not.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Just reread this book, and it's one of the rare ones that is as good at 36 as it was at 24. Just a really good read on so many levels.”

• Rated 4 stars

“For some reason I forgot to add this to my shelf. Anyway, beautifully written. This is another one of those books where you can read a sentence, close your eyes and feel the heat of the desert, hear the howl of the coyotes. Although I didn't agree with many of Abbey's opinions his writing was a treat and leaves a lot on which to meditate.”

• Rated 1 stars

“The whole book consists of Edward Abbey retelling his job in the Arches National Monument near Moab, Utah. In the park he worked as a temporary park ranger. Through out the book he poetically describes nature and shows the reader his knowledge of the plants and animals. However, he contradicts himself quite often. He says that he dislikes the tourists, that are 'destroying nature,' but he steals protected rocks and even throws tires off cliffs. He also makes it seem that he is an animal sympathizer, but he callously kills a rabbit as an "experiment." He even went out of his way to sabotage road building equipment to prevent the development of a road, but all he really did was just hurt the environment because the company is just going to replace the machines and leave the old ones to waste away somewhere. There was no plot in this story line. In short, I did not like this book. I can say that Edward Abbey should have lived in the romantic era in literature for he would have succeeded there, but that is all I can say positively about him.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Very good book!”

• Rated 0 stars

“Edward Abbey had a casually complete knowledge of the plants and rocks and people of the desert west, that make his stories more "full".

But the best things about Edward Abbey are his ornery, unrepentant love of the desert, and his absolute refusal to compromise. We could all learn something from him.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Abbey is the consumate wilderness writer of the West. Please, if you read nothing else on the environment, read this book.”

• Rated 5 stars

“One of the best non-fiction books ever written about the West in general and the Ed Abbey Southwest in particular. Truly a classic.”

• Rated 4 stars

“This book is good so far. Abbey really knows how to explain the world around the characters. He makes you feel like you are in the book with them.”