The Weekender: A Cottage Journal

by Roy MacGregor

In this delightful dockside reader, one of Canada''s great writers of the outdoors celebrates the Canadian cottage experience. Written in journal form, The Weekender takes us through a typical year -the pleasures, great and small, and the occasional pains-of cottage living. From that first, essential opening-day plunge into a still-frigid lake to the last leap in at the summer''s end, and everything in between, The Weekender reprises some of MacGregor''s classic writings from Cottage Life, The Globe and Mail, and the National Post, and includes some new material, too. It''s the perfect read for the cottage lover in all of us, a book to return to again and again, in summer and all year long.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Roy MacGregor is a Canadian author of fiction and non-fiction.

Reviews

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short journal style book that reviews a year of cottage living. The "tales" appeared in "Cottage Life" magazine or at various times in the Globe and Mail.
An easy read that reminds me of Stuart McLean's writing. (ie The Vinyl Cafe)

[Russell Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. So many stories that brought back wonderful memories of growing up at the lake.

[Greer Andjanetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvellous book. Written in journal form, it consists of 40 or so very short stories (some previously published as G&M columns, some as Cottage Life stories, describing life at a summer cottage. It will be enjoyable to anyone who owns or visits a summer cottage but particularly by anyone familiar with the area around Algonquin Park, Dwight, Huntsville and Dorset Ont.I read this book in perhaps the most appropriate place possible, in 3 early summer mornings sitting at the end of my dock on Raven Lake. I received as much pure pleasure and enjoyment from reading this book as from any book I had read previously (and there have been thousands). With familiar topics such as 'The First Long Weekend', 'Bears at the Dump' and 'Digging out the Outhouse' this book will strike a familiar chord with all those enamoured of cottage life. The presence of exotic but familiar names such as 'Oxtongue Lake', 'Limberlost Road', 'Muskoka' and 'Algonquin' helps add to the charm of this book. I would rate it 7.5 out of 5 but since there are only 5 stars available, that will have to suffice.