Book Poll

Lizard · Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Posts: 200 Location: Phoenix, AZ

Inspired by this thread on the TLB website. I thought this might be an interesting topic. What are your top 5-10 outdoor-related books that you've read? Here is my list:

Desert Solitaire - Ed Abbey
Thousand Mile Summer - Colin Fletcher
The Great Divide - Stephen Pern
Into A Desert Place - Graham Mackintosh
The Advanced Backpacker - Chris Townsend
Long-Distance Hiking: Lessons from the AT - Roland Meuser
The High Adventure Of Eric Ryback- Eric Ryback
The Ultimate Journey - Eric Ryback
Along The Pacific Crest Trail - Karen Berger
Beyond Backpacking - Ray Jardine

azbackpackr · Posted: 10/27/2006, 10:49 am Post subject:

I've read most of these. I used to love that Eric Ryback book until I saw an article, this was many years ago, refuting his claim to have hiked the whole trail. There were various reasons, they had done some research--about 6 feet of snow on the ground at the time in some areas, etc. I"m sure you could find it on the internet.

My list would include some of yours above and also the following:

Arctic Daughter - Jean Aspen
There Was A River - Bruce Berger
The Telling Distance - Bruce Berger
Crusoe of Lonesome Lake - Leland Stowe
River, One Man's Journey Down the Colorado - Colin Fletcher
The Monkeywrench Gang - Edward Abbey
Frog Mountain Blues - Charles Bowden
Downcanyon - Anne Zwinger
Down the Colorado - Robert Brewster Stanton
Death in the Desert, 50 Years War... - Paul E. Wellman
First Through Grand Canyon - Michael Ghiglieri
Canyon - Michael Ghiglieri
Burntwater - Scott Thybony
The Doing of the Thing, the Brief Brilliant Whitewater Career of
Buzz Holmstrom - Vince Welch
Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico - E.L. Kolb

And many, many more!

Lizard · Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Posts: 200 Location: Phoenix, AZ

fairweather8588 · Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 716

Desert Solitare - Ed Abbey
A Fools Progress - Ed Abbey
The Monkey Wrench Gang - Ed Abbey (again...)
The man who walked through time - Colin Fletcher
Into the wild - Jon Krakauer (spelling?)
_________________
But let the mind beware, that though the flesh be bugged, the circumstances of existence are pretty glorious

Kerouac

Davis2001R6 · Joined: 12 Dec 2003 Posts: 5591 Location: Italy

Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
Addicted to Danger - Jim Wickwire

ck1 · Joined: 04 Jan 2003 Posts: 1331 Location: Mesa

I've got a few shelves worth of books, and have read a few mentioned above...here's what I pulled from the shelf for a top list....I'm sure there could be others...

The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher
Desert Solitaire - Ed Abbey
Into the Wild - Jon Jrakauer
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
In Search of Captain Zero - Allan Weisbecker
Surviving the Toughest Race on Earth - Martin Dugard
To The Edge - Kirk Johnson
The Falling Season - Hal Clifton
Seven Summits - Dick Bass
Seven Years in Tibet - Heinrich Harrer
Ultimate High - Goran Kropp
The Ascent of Rum Doodle - W.E. Bowman
A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
_________________
-Colin

"The Journey is the Destination"

BoyNhisDog · Posted: 10/29/2006, 6:33 pm Post subject:

Miles from Nowhere –Barbara Savage; an account of a neophyte bicyclist who with her husband, rides around the world. I found it fascinating. Read it when the book came out in 1983 and never got rid of it.

The Happy Isles of Oceana –Paul Theroux and most any of his travel essays such as The Old Patagonia Express, The Pillars of Hercules, Riding the Iron Rooster, Dark Star Safari etc. His observation skills and dry cutting wit win him over for me.

In Patagonia – Bruce Chatwin

Travels with Charley – John Steinbeck

The Snow Leopard – Peter Matthiessen

Last of the Breed – Louis L'Amour

Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

Deliverance – James Dickey (This is much, much more than that one horrific scene)

The Dharma Bums – Jack Kerouac (This was instrumental of starting many of the things you and I do today in modern backpacking)

The Monkey Wrench Gang and Into Thin Air of course!

Okay, that’s ten ( or a little more), I guess I better stop there.
_________________
Seize from every moment its unique novelty and do not prepare your joys
- Andre Gide

PageRob · Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 859 Location: Page, Az.

Digging Dinosaurs - Jack Horner
The Last River - Todd Balf
Into the Wild, Into Thin Air - Krakauer
Reaching Keet Seel - Reg Saner
In Search of the Old Ones, The Pueblo Revolt, Sandstone Spine - Roberts
Monkey Wrench Gang, Hayduke Lives, Desert Solitare - Abbey

Okay, so that's 11, but those are the ones I reread the most.
_________________
Anywhere is within walking distance if you spend the time.

azbackpackr · Posted: 10/30/2006, 6:26 am Post subject:

Oh, yeah, I just found my copy of In Search of the Old Ones this weekend. That's a good one. And yes, Peter Matthiesson--his books are great, although I like the one about flying around the Congo better--do you know the name of it? And I have read a Miles from Nowhere, but it was by Dayton Duncan, the historian, and is about counties in the US with less than 1 person per square mile. It's interesting, too. I liked the Krakauer books, too, and have read ALL of Colin Fletcher's books four or five times each! And also I have Reaching Keet Seel. Will have to re-read that one--I can't remember it very well. And I forgot to mention, All My Rivers Are Gone, by Katie Lee. Also, I have an autographed copy of Desert Solitaire.

I mentioned Bruce Berger because before he left AZ and moved to Colorado he wrote several good books, but the one called There Was A River tells how he and a group of his friends, including Katie Lee, and the original Seldom Seen Slim were the LAST party of river runners to run the Glen before the dam was completed, at least they thought they were. Their trip was in Oct. 1962, but he wrote the book in the '90's. I highly recommend this book to anyone the least bit interested in Katie Lee or Edward Abbey. Also, Bruce Berger's creative non-fiction writing style is very good, very well-crafted--I have enjoyed reading most of his essays. I never see him on these lists of everyone's "favorite outdoor writers," and I think it's because most of y'all haven't heard of him. It's a shame he's not better known! You can find his books on Amazon.com--I checked. Go look before you forget! Smile

I put Jean Aspen's book on the top of my list, because I think her adventure was one we can all relate to, and yet it's incredible. A couple of 20-year-old kids with no money, a canoe and northern Alaska at its toughest. She lives in Tucson with her husband--I've met them both (her real name is Jean Irons.) Her big adventure was in the 70's, but she went back there and wrote a sequel, Arctic Son, in the 90's. (The first book is much better.) Her mother also wrote adventure books in the 50's about Alaska: Constance Helmericks. If you can find them, that is--they are all out of print! Down the Wild River North, We Live in Alaska, We Live in the Arctic, etc. etc. Lots of them.

BoyNhisDog · Posted: 10/30/2006, 2:40 pm Post subject:

azbackpackr · Posted: 10/30/2006, 2:50 pm Post subject:

I looked it up on Amazon. It's called African Silences.

So, BoynhisDog, have you read anything by Bruce Berger?

BoyNhisDog · Posted: 10/30/2006, 3:16 pm Post subject:

No I have not but after looking I am intrigued by his book on the Baja and will get that one for sure. The one line "La Paz was one of those places that bored the tourist while whispering to a struck minority: here you must live.", that hits home for me. I like La Paz and noticed how the tourists don't. We have taken taxis way out over dirt roads to secluded beaches over the years there and then we swam on to other beaches only accessible by the sea. I would love to live there but this girl who lives here won't go where they don't speak English to live.
_________________
Seize from every moment its unique novelty and do not prepare your joys
- Andre Gide

azbackpackr · Posted: 10/30/2006, 4:02 pm Post subject:

Hey, I have read that book. It is pretty entertaining. Berger is also a pianist, and decided to find all the pianos in La Paz and play them, so that is part of the theme of the book.

LongStoryShort · Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 402 Location: Doha, Qatar

Trishness · Posted: 10/30/2006, 10:59 pm Post subject:

Some of this is more historical but good reading all the same:

Desert Solitaire- Edward Abbey
All My Rivers Are Gone- Katie Lee
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee-Dee Alexander Brown
Into The Hands Of The Great Spirit (a 10,000 year history of American Indians)-
Jake Page
A Walk In The Woods- Bill Bryson
Miracle In The Andes-Nando Parrado
The Trail's Philosophy- Jeremiah Johnson
In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse-Peter Matthieson

Mr. Green

_________________
~~~Trish~~~

"Eastward the dawn rose, ridge behind ridge into the morning, and vanished out of eyesight into guess; it was no more than a glimmer blending with the hem of the sky, but it spoke to them, out of the memory and old tales, of the high and distant mountains." ï¿½ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of The Rings.