Customer Reviews

A Good Life Wasted: or Twenty Years as a Fishing Guide

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In A Good Life Wasted the author Dave Ames recounts his last twenty years as a fishing guide in the trout fishing capital of the universe, Montana. It is every true fly fisherman's dream to be reincarnated as a Montana fly fishing guide. As Ames aptly puts it in the opening line of the book, "With all my fingers and all my splayed toes I still can't count the number of millionaires who have wished out loud that they could be me."
They wouldn't wish it if they read on as Ames describes living in a rat infested trailer, bouncing checks and using a log in the great outdoors as a temporary outhouse until he can buy a toilet.
Ames' career begins as a hydrologist for the federal government who one day goes "postal" by punching a clock - literally. He bluffs his way into a job as a fishing guide working for a local Blackfoot Native American known affectionately as Kingfish. He plods his was through his early guiding days and his life becomes entangled in a contradictory world of haves and have nots.
The numerous stories Ames recounts meld seamlessly with each other and offer more lessons on life's moral and religious significance than on fishing.
Most books lose steam after the first couple of chapters - not this one. It becomes more intriguing and gets better as it goes. It is truly a page turner. The surest sign of a great book for me is when I am done do I tell myself I want more. The answer here is a resounding yes!
So, Mr. Ames, during the long Montana winters get cracking and put pen to pad and finger to keyboard and allow us to be temporarily reincarnated as you.

This is another fishing book that moves away from fishing, and into the life tale. I guess that might excite some, but it is not what I was hoping for in a book. I mean, really if I wanted funny stories I would call my dad, and not waste the price of this book. Pop is far funnier. What I wanted was stories about guiding sports through days of fishing. There is only brief mentions of this activity. The bulk of what is discussed is just his sad excuse for living. It's a lonely business and one in which he makes dumb decision after dumb decision. As it was, there was just not enough fishing to make me love this one. I wonder based on his other book if all this stuff was lived or just thought up now I think of it, but anyway it was not a favorite read of mine. Avoid!!!!!

If you enjoy fishing and are of an intellectual bent, you might thoroughly enjoy the author's tale of throwing away a boring (if solid) career in favor of pursuit of happiness through fly-fishing and guiding.

The tales strike multiple chords and share experiences gleaned from the wild west.

I picked up this one on a recommendation and thoroughly enjoyed it. Dave Ames is such a wonderful story teller, I savored the last few chapters as I didn't want it to end. His characters are truly characters. Not just for fisherman/women. I wound up reading several passages to my wife who, quickly engaged, encouraged me to finish the chapter. Just get it...you won't regret it. Highly recommended!

I read David Ames, True Love & the Woolly Bugger, and I think this is much better. Its a very funny, easy read. He doesnt get to romantic about fly fishing or guiding. Some very good qoutes from himself and his clients. Would be a great gift for any one who has ever fished, tried to teach someone else to fish or guided.
Well worth the purchase.

I had this book pushed on me by a friend and didn't expect to *love* it, but it was so laugh out loud funny and so very well written that I just couldn't put it down. I read it in 2 days, after work.

If you have gone fishing only once in your life, you'll love the fishing stories, but this book packs a lot more than that. As a gift, *any* fisherman or woman (I am female) will really like it a lot, and they'll thank you for the laughs. You couldn't pay me to fly fish, but my pal is one of those nuts and he has good taste in reading material. I'm glad he suggested it.

I got this book a while ago and enjoyed it immensely! One of my favorite flyfishing books. A very entertaining read, and I'll read it again! Pick one up for yourself or for the person who fishs in your life.

Dave Ames connects with the soul of any would-be or wannabe outdoor professional with humor, irony, and a dash of metaphysics, but nothing too heavy. He makes us care about him and his friends through great character development and threads that run through the episodes that take place over the twenty years of his wasted life.

I had some laugh-out-loud moments here and there. Next, I'll back up and read his first book, True Love and the Wooly-Bugger.

Wasted Life is highly recommended (I save 5 stars for Harper Lee and T.H. White.)