Good Life Wasted

by Dave Ames

Told through the eyes of a longtime Montana fishing guide and itinerant fishing bum, A Good Life Wasted offers a unique perspective on an implausible period in the recent history of human civilization. When Dave Ames started guiding, Rocky Mountain locals rode horses and dug camas roots; now they’re trading stock options on cell phones. The collision of stone and computer ages was short-lived, but the deep-rooted themes of this book remain.

A Good Life Wasted --a chronicle and celebration of the fishing-guide life--is poignant and spiritual; it’s Blackfoot Indians and copper miners’ daughters; it’s fiddles and guitars and the fabric of space; it’s about what happens to wild people when the wilderness is gone.

From the first chapter--in which Dave Ames recalls bluffing his way into a job as a fishing guide to the rich and famous (after barely managing to suppress the overwhelming urge to go postal at the federal agency where he suffered his first, and only, “real” job in a cubicle farm)--we’re hooked. We gladly follow Ames as he describes the rite of tasting clouds of mating midges to better match the hatch, tells the story of a fabled Blackfoot fishing guide, and shares his further adventures as a guy with no job, no office, and no stress. A Good Life Wasted spins a fascinating, compelling web--a web that entices the deskbound salary slave to make a break for it, and head west to big sky and fast, cold water, ASAP.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

Reviews

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have to like fly fishing to appreciate this book. If you’ve been to Montana you will appreciate it more. Some laugh out loud funny stories and outrageous characters .

[Dominique Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will remain a favorite book of mine until the end of my days. I continue to ritually re-read this book over the years, and it never disappoints. The characters in this book are rich with realism and the descriptions make you feel like you are transported to another place. I first purchased this book when I was 20 years old, thinking it would be a great adventure book about fly fishing. It was that, and so much more. Instead becoming a philosophical mantra to my life. Highly recommend!

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice read. I am guessing it's better suited for people who fly fish or have an interest in it. The side stories really make the book shine and the sentimental ending was a nice finish.

[Clinton Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Can’t recommend it enough.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rate all autobiography 5 stars

This was an interesting perspective and an interesting writing style

[Ryan Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for the fisherman or outdoorsman. I gave it only 4 stars because the author tends to be more verbose than you'd expected for a fishing book. He also takes some strange tangents into his "church of the reduced humanist," but overall I found it interesting and at times laugh-out-loud funny.

[Cameron Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ames picks up where salt of the earth Gierach puts down: in imagination, situational comedy, and the ability to make his fellow fly fishing guides laugh, Ames is unbeatable.

[SadieKate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Right up there with Scott Waldie and Seth Norman.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent. really enjoyed this, and it makes me realize that I need to start working towards doing what I want in life...

[Sam Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

wish he spent a bit more time talking about fishing and guiding rather than life in general but still well worth the read if you like flyfishing.