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Kurt Knebusch

Posted on | September 23, 2009 | 2,298 views |

Kurt Knebusch is an editor in the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, based at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster. He writes “Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick,” a science and nature column for children, as a part of his work.

What are your five favorite books and why?
The Fool’s Progress by Edward Abbey
Abbey’s semiautobiographical “Honest Novel.” Follows Henry Holyoak Lightcap, self-professed pig and lover of life, from the Appalachian hills to the Southwest deserts and back. There’s wilderness, whiskey, multiple wives, music (Waylon, Mahler), misanthropy, slapstick and memorable scenes involving his father, his second wife, a childhood baseball game, a kid named Leroy Ginter trying to suckle a sow and his ultimate going home — a slowly building, methodically marching, sad sweet beautiful climax. Greatest. Last line. Ever.

The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
Kerouac on the road and also now the trail, sparked by his new encounters with Buddhism, rucksacking and Gary Snyder (“Japhy Ryder”) — all eager, earnest and idealistic. Three great, long, joyous mountaintop scenes. I remember the first time reading it, thinking, “You mean you’re allowed to write like this?” — the enthusiasm and flow. It led me to most of the rest of his books and also to Snyder and Han-shan (to whom the book was dedicated).

The Way of Life by Lao Tzu
Taoism in a nutshell. I bought it at SBX on High Street back in 1982 or so. It’s faded and wrinkled from me spilling houseplant water on it. I like its directness. “Those who say, don’t know. Those who know, don’t say.” Ouch.

Cold Mountain Poems by Han-Shan
Small clear gems about mountains and impermanence. “Clack, clack, goes my wife at her loom / jabber, jabber, goes my son at play.” I like the sounds of the words, the pictures they paint (hermit as homebody!), and how they mix sadness, joy, melancholy and silliness often all at once. Old friends die, winds blow through pines, monkeys throw figs at your head — he sees it and accepts it.

The Practice of the Wild by Gary Snyder/ A Language Older Than Words by Derrick Jensen
Both changed how I see people and nature, people and other species and how we are together or can be. Both “speak for those who can’t speak for themselves” — other species, the oppressed, the planet. I think of Snyder as one of our wisest writers, Jensen as one of our bravest.

What is the last book you’ve bought?
Seekers: The Quest Begins by Erin Hunter
A birthday present for my daughter, with a talking black bear, grizzly bear and polar bear in the title roles, and that’s hard to beat. I preordered David Orr’s new Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Change the other day. Mostly I’m a big user of the Wayne County Public Library in Wooster and through it the Cleveland Public Library and have the fines to show for it.

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