Dan Szczesny

Event: #ReadOnCamera to benefit Manchester (NH) City Library

/ Ellen Kolb

I’ve been invited to do something joyful and fun, and it’ll be online so you can join from anywhere. #ReadOnCamera is a 24-hour fundraising event to benefit the Manchester City Library Foundation. Around the clock on Wednesday, April 7, 2021, an assortment of readers including yours truly will take turns reading aloud, with a different theme each hour. Viewers and listeners are invited to make donations to the library as the reading marathon goes on.

The event kicks off at midnight with an hour devoted to Nature, and that’s my topic! At about 12:20 a.m., I’ll read a short selection from The Cohos Trail guidebook. Author Kim Nilsen included some New Hampshire natural history in that wonderful guide, and that’s what I’ll share.

Not a night owl? Go online to the project anytime on April 7. Different readers, different themes.

Follow the Manchester City Library Foundation’s posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to get the log-in link and to learn more about the featured readers.

New Hampshire author Dan Szczesny will be the featured reader during the hour in which I’m participating. Readers of this blog, take note: Dan’s currently working on a book about New Hampshire’s fire towers. I’m looking forward to some serious hiking inspiration when that’s published.

Image by Manchester City Library Foundation
Blogger Ellen Kolb reading Cohos Trail guidebook
The Granite State Walker getting ready to #ReadOnCamera

Introducing Buffalo and Tough Cookie

/ Ellen Kolb
cover of book entitled "Buffalo and Tough Cookie" with photo of two hikers, one an adult and the other a child

Update, 2026: Dan Szczesny has published several books since this post was written, and his current blog is called Day by Day.

I got to shake hands today with a pair of hikers I’ve been wanting to meet. Dan Szczesny and his hiking partner Janelle are better known as Buffalo and Tough Cookie. They were at the Hollis, New Hampshire library today with a slide show about their book, The Adventures of Buffalo and Tough Cookie, recounting their year-long quest of New Hampshire’s “52 with a View.”

52-with-a-view is a creation of the Over The Hill Hikers of Sandwich, New Hampshire who compiled a list of fifty-two peaks under 4000′, each featuring good views.

The audience in Hollis today consisted of an energetic group of kids who knew more about basketball than hiking. Dan didn’t worry about getting through the whole slide show as planned, cheerfully adapting his presentation to the everyone’s questions and comments. If he and Tough Cookie come through your area for a book signing or slide show, make a point of stopping by. You’ll enjoy the conversation and the wonderful photography.