Back in 2010 Amato Books
published something I wrote about my home water, namely the book pictured on
the left, a collection of essays & short memoirs with a section on fly patterns that
pretty much reflects what I was thinking, tying & fishing twenty years ago.
Recent evidence indicates the book is
still in print & available from Amato or Amazon.
I know the book is still in
print because, a few days ago, curious, I checked. I was curious because in accord
with my contract with the publisher I’d received a modest royalty check about
six months after publication, but have never received one since. Hey, proof I’m
not in it for the money.
Have you ever googled
yourself? I never had until curiosity about the book got me searching for
reviews of it &, surprised, I found a few.
Also surprising, the reviews are pretty good. I’ve never heard of any of
the reviewers, & wondered if the publishers had actually paid these people
to write these things. One reviewer found the prose “cinematic” & “immersive”
& wondered out loud if the author wrote that way intentionally (as if the
writing is unintentional & accidently affecting). Most interesting &
mysterious though, was the latest review, which wasn’t really a review but a
mention in a piece about cult fly fishing books. Apparently, at least according
to the writer, my book has achieved ‘cult’ status.
That all got me thinking. Is ‘cult’
a label we give to obscure movies or books that do not sell very well though a
few people like them, or are there actual fly fishing book cults who are privy
to a secret network known only to initiates of the cult?
Jack Mitchell, owner of the
Evening Hatch guide service, bought a copy of the book & added it to the
library at Black Bear Lodge on the upper Columbia
Maybe the person who took the
book was a member of The Cult. Perhaps entry into the cult requires one to
steal the book. A pact sealed with a crime. Who knows. Maybe everybody but me
is in on it ~
