Books Packed With Tips

New books on bird watching, fly fishing, Alaska, fly casting and handguns are now available at book stores. Here are a few of the most informative and helpful published the last few months.

Bird Watching for Dummies,, by Bill Thompson III, published by IDG Books, $19.99. If you own a personal computer, you likely know about the “Dummy” series of books on understanding the Internet, Word for Windows, Windows 95 and other things pertaining to computers.

I’ll confess that I’m one of the hundreds of thousands who learned from “Dummy” books most of what I know about computers.

When I saw one of the latest in the series, “Bird Watching for Dummies,” I knew that it would be a good one. And I wasn’t disappointed. Written by the editor of “Bird Watcher’s Digest,” the 385-page book is full of useful information on things beginning watchers need, feeders, nest boxes, various bird species and even bird myths.

The book even looks like a typical “Dummy” book. Its cover is yellow and black. It’s organized logically, with well-written, sometimes humorous headlines. It even has something the computer “Dummy” books don’t. It has color pictures of the birds.

Hatch Guide for Western Streams, by Jim Schollmeyer, published by Frank Amato Publications, $19.99. If I were to give a book to a youngster or even an adult interested in fly fishing, I would choose this outstanding guide. For good measure, I might include its companion book, published in 1995, “Hatch Guide for Lakes.”

The two 4x6-inch books contain all the information a fly fisher needs to know about insects, their imitations, how to tie them and techniques for catching fish in Western rivers.

Alaska Geographic has published three more outstanding softcover books about Alaska, including “Alaska’s Southern Panhandle,” “The Golden Gamble” and “Commercial Fishing in Alaska.” Each book, available from Alaska Geographic, P.O. Box 93370PR, Anchorage, Alaska, 99509-3370. sells for $19.95, plus $2 for shipping and handling. Some book stores stock the books.

Alaska’s Southern Panhandle explores the southern tip of southeastern Alaska, a beautiful, mountainous region that’s become a popular tourist destination the last few years. It’s home to thousands of native people, as well as non-Indians who control its fishing fleets and timber industry.

The discovery of gold along the Klondike River in 1896 changed a vast, primitive land into what would become a new state. The story of the gold rush and what it did for Alaska is the subject of The Golden Gamble. An estimated 100,000 gold seekers swarmed over the land but few got wealthy. In fact, the steamship companies, outfitters, riverboat operators, hotel and bar owners and other entrepreneurs made more money than nearly all the miners, who, one writer declared, spent 10 times as much as they earned in the gold fields.

Commercial fishing is the third-largest industry in Alaska. What it means to Alaskans is told in Commercial Fishing in Alaska. The book’s author, Joel Gay, has fished commercially and has been writing about commercial fishing for more than 15 years. His book is the first where all of Alaska’s fisheries have been combined in one volume. It’s a good reference book.

Joan Wulff’s Fly Casting , by Joan Wulff, published by The Lyons Press, $12.95. Scores of books and thousands of articles have been written about fly casting. Wulff herself has contributed to the growing list; her “Fly Casting Techniques,” published several years ago, is a bible for casters.

In her latest book, Wulff, one of the world’s premier casters, concentrates on techniques for achieving accuracy.

Jet Boat, a Complete Guide to Purchasing, Operating and Maintaining your Jet Boat, by Michael Kirnak, published by Frank Amato Publications, $14.95. Kirnak, a Northwest Airlines pilot and former Air Force officer who flew high-performance jets, packs a lot of information on jet boats, power trains and virtually every subject pertaining to jet boating in his 80-page book.

Complete Guide to Compact Handguns, by Gene Gangarosa Jr., published by Stoeger, $22.95. This may not be a “complete” guide to small handguns, but it’s the next thing to it. Gangarosa discusses and evaluates scores of small handguns in his 288-page book.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review