Recommended readings

Looking for something to read during Goose Week?

Here are some pleasure reads from some library ambassadors. If you're looking for more book recommendations, be sure to check out our personality quiz.

Ferry Pilot: Nine Lives Over the North Atlantic. By Kerry McCauley. Kerry McCauley has the job most pilots can only dream of: delivering small used aircraft to locations around the world. In his 30 years as an international ferry pilot, Kerry has delivered almost every kind of airplane you can name to almost every location you can think of. In his long career Kerry battled fuel system malfunctions over the Atlantic, a total electrical failure at night over the Sahara, getting lost over Africa and getting struck by lightning off the coast of Portugal. Not to mention losing his engine and having to fly dead stick in a thunderstorm. Kerry found the answer to the question "What could possibly go wrong?" time and time again. His skill, ingenuity and a heavy dose of luck were what allowed him to survive the countless mishaps, catastrophes, close calls and a nearly fatal plane crash.

The North American Geese: Their Biology and Behavior. By Paul Johnsgard. The eight currently recognized species of North American geese are part of a familiar group of birds collectively called waterfowl, all of which are smaller than swans and generally larger than ducks. 

Our two most abundant waterfowl, the Canada goose and snow goose, have populations collectively totalling about 15 million individuals. This book describes each species' geographic range and subspecies, its identification traits, weights and measurements, and criteria for its age and sex determination. Ecological and behavioural information includes each species' breeding and wintering habitats, its foods and foraging behaviour, its local and long distance movements, and its relationships with other species. Reproductive information includes each species' age of maturity, pair-bond pattern, pair-forming behaviours, usual clutch sizes and incubation periods, brooding behaviour, and postbreeding behaviour.

The Goose Is Out: Zen in Action. By OSHO. There is a famous Zen story about a disciple, Riko, who once asked his master Nansen to explain to him the old Zen koan of the goose in the bottle. Namely, if a man puts a gosling into a bottle, and feeds the gosling through the bottle’s neck until it grows and becomes a goose — and then there is simply no more room inside the bottle — how can the man get it out without killing the goose or breaking the bottle? In response, Nansen shouts "RIKO!" and gives a great clap with his hands. Startled, Riko replies, "Yes master!" And Nansen says, "See! The goose is out!"

In this Zen-flavored series of responses to questions, the contemporary mystic, OSHO, cuts through the mad complexity of the contemporary human mind and its self-created "problems" with humour, compassion, and even an occasional shout and clap of his hands. The goose in the questioner's bottle may be a philosophical problem or an existential dilemma, a relationship drama or an emotional crisis — in each case, Osho's unique and transformational response sets the goose free, allowing us to rediscover the simple and innocent clarity each of us brings with us when we come into the world. From this space, problems are not solved but rather are dissolved: "The goose is out." This is a beautiful audio series giving an experience of a mystic working with people who are searching for themselves.