View Full Version : Recommended reading?
I just received a Kindle Fire from my awesome wife (for just being a great guy, I guess) and I need to start filling it up with books! I'm reaching out to the Whiteblaze community for suggestions. What hiking/outdoor related books are your favorites? Inspires you? Makes you laugh? Makes you think? I'm looking forward to your responses! Thanks In advance.
Leanthree
02-12-2014, 02:39
http://www.amazon.com/A.-Digger-Stolz/e/B00BEHD4VU
Fiction but might as well be true. Light and humorous generally. The second book is better than a quite good first. Hat tip to The Trail Show for the recommendation initially.
DocMahns
02-12-2014, 02:44
hiking/outdoor have to go with Into the Wild, The Road is kind of like hiking/survival/make you think but deals with a post-apocalyptic world
my personal favorites that will make you think- Brave New World, 1984, Atlas Shrugged (I'm a big fan of Orwellian/Negative Utopian books)
4eyedbuzzard
02-12-2014, 02:48
Some of my favorites
Mountaineering
No Shortcuts to the Top - Ed Viesturs
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer (but if you read Into Thin Air, you MUST also read Anatoli Boukreev's "The Climb" as well)
Not Without Peril - Nicholas Howe
AT
Walking With Spring - Earl Shaffer
Appalachian Hiker - Ed Garvey
AWOL on the Appalachian Trail - David Miller
A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
Hiking
The Complete Walker - Colin Fletcher
Beyond Backpacking - Ray Jardine
Freezer Bag Cooking - Sarah Kirkconnell
futureatwalker
02-12-2014, 03:59
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson (gripping account of a trip that goes badly)
As far as the eye can see by David Brill (old-school AT; excellent account)
Sierra2015
02-12-2014, 04:05
I read Call of the American Wild by Guy Grieve last week and I really enjoyed it.
lonehiker
02-12-2014, 05:11
I'm a fantasy buff. Stephen R Donaldson's Thomas Covenant (10 books).
Lone Wolf
02-12-2014, 06:55
Ed Abbey.......
A few of the classics (some will be free)
Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey
A Sand County Almanac - Aldo Leopold
Walden - Henry David Thoreau
Silent Spring - Rachel Carson
Call of the Wild - Jack London
Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
Sailing Alone Around the World - Joshua Solcum
daddytwosticks
02-12-2014, 08:38
A Walk in the Woods...laughed my azz off. :)
Night Train
02-12-2014, 09:57
hiking/outdoor have to go with Into the Wild, The Road is kind of like hiking/survival/make you think but deals with a post-apocalyptic world
my personal favorites that will make you think- Brave New World, 1984, Atlas Shrugged (I'm a big fan of Orwellian/Negative Utopian books)
+1 Aldous Huxley...his essay "The Doors Of Perception" is a good read, even without taking Mescaline.
slbirdnerd
02-12-2014, 10:10
"Three Hundred Zeroes" by Dennis Blanchard:
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Hundred-Zeroes-Lessons-Appalachian/dp/1450557465
And pretty much everything else everyone else says. :)
Snowleopard
02-12-2014, 19:18
Keep an eye open for perrymk's postings on FREE kindle books for hikers. Often these are only free for a day or two then they go back up in price.
For example, here's a search for his postings, most of them free kindle books:
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/search.php?searchid=5228340
A current free book posted by fredmugs, Our Southern Highlanders, by Horace Kephart:
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?101599-FREE-FOR-KINDLE-Our-Southern-Highlanders
http://www.amazon.com/Our-Southern-Highlanders-Horace-Kephart-ebook/dp/B004TPFI5O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392139130&sr=8-1&keywords=our+southern+highlanders
Amazon shows you related books below the listing for the book you're looking at, and one is:
Camping and Woodcraft, by Horace Kephart for 99 cents! Highly recommended, but you ought to have the paper book.
http://www.amazon.com/woodcraft-handbook-vacation-travelers-wilderness-ebook/dp/B009P696F0/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1
Thanks for the suggestions! I'll keep an eye out for the posts about free books. I picked up (downloaded) Our Southern Highlanders. Looking forward to starting that one. I also got a few of the others that were recommended. Thanks again!!!
daimonpaul
02-13-2014, 04:15
A Walk in the Woods is probably the only real outdoors book I've read (I can't sit still long enough to read much at a time). But I know of a couple others that are great reads and environmental related:
The End of Country by Seamus McGraw - is about the Marcellus natural gas boom in Pennsylvania and the risks/rewards residents in the shale fields have faced
Coal River by Michael Shnayerson - is about the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining on West Virginia residents and the landscape down there
oldwetherman
02-13-2014, 21:30
Best humorous read has to be "Just Passin' Thru". It's by Winton Porter the previous owner of Mountain Crossings in Georgia. It's about some of the most colorful folks that passed through there early
in their hikes.
rocketsocks
02-13-2014, 21:48
http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Jon-Krakauer-ebook/dp/B000FC1ITK/ref=pd_sim_kstore_16
(http://www.amazon.com/AWOL-Appalachian-Trail-David-Miller-ebook/dp/B003JMFKRE/ref=pd_sim_kstore_9)http://www.amazon.com/Just-Passin-Thru-Appalachian-Unforgettable-ebook/dp/B004X19L84/ref=pd_sim_kstore_28
http://www.amazon.com/AWOL-Appalachian-Trail-David-Miller-ebook/dp/B003JMFKRE/ref=pd_sim_kstore_9
http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Woods-Rediscovering-Appalachian-Official-ebook/dp/B000S1LSAM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1392342692&sr=1-1&keywords=walk+in+the+woods
don't buy this, unless you want a real good tear jerk.
http://www.amazon.com/Old-Yeller-Fred-Gipson-ebook/dp/B002JXB8D4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1392342969&sr=1-1&keywords=old+yeller
Just Passin Thru by Winton Porter
Becoming Odyssa by Jennifer Pharr Davis
I got choked up just reading the title "Old Yeller". Reminded me of another tear jerker dog story, "Where the Red Fern Grows". Dammit! Need a feel good title, STAT!!! Baseball, Hiking, anything but sad, dog(s) die at the end stories!!!
Sierra2015
02-14-2014, 00:27
Read Racing in the Rain.
Man.... What a dog story!
DocMahns
02-14-2014, 00:32
Marley and Me?
rocketsocks
02-14-2014, 00:37
I got choked up just reading the title "Old Yeller". Reminded me of another tear jerker dog story, "Where the Red Fern Grows". Dammit! Need a feel good title, STAT!!! Baseball, Hiking, anything but sad, dog(s) die at the end stories!!!
Marley and Me?
oh I can't even see that movie.25939
Likeapuma
02-14-2014, 00:42
Following Atticus was fantastic, from a hiking & dog lovers perspective.
Three Hundred Zeros was a good read as well.
Currently finishing up Becoming Odyssa, after seeing it recommended on here.
Hikes in Rain
02-14-2014, 09:29
I got choked up just reading the title "Old Yeller". Reminded me of another tear jerker dog story, "Where the Red Fern Grows". Dammit! Need a feel good title, STAT!!! Baseball, Hiking, anything but sad, dog(s) die at the end stories!!!
Read the sequel, Savage Sam! Remember the ending of Old Yeller, when the little pup is scampering out of the cabin with the prized piece of corn pone? Ever wonder what happened after that? Hint: a brave, determined dog wants his stolen kid back, nothing in heaven or on earth is going to stop him, and he doesn't get himself killed in the process.
The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses by Robert Service.
Really inspiring stuff for the outdoors.
RedBeerd
02-14-2014, 11:12
Born to Run, Sea Wolf, A walk in the woods
icemanat95
02-14-2014, 11:58
My reading list on the AT was pretty much pure fiction. I stayed away from philosophy and much of the environmental philosophy etc. posted above...I was living that, so I didn't need to read about it. I stuck to light fiction, thrillers, mysteries and a little fantasy. Since then I've become a big fan of "juvenile" fiction written for a younger, transitional audience. When well written (as the following are) this stuff is funny, exciting, touching, suspenseful and just plain fun for the whole family.
For pure fun, consider Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson Series, (two series to date) and his Kane Chronicles. These are very light reading aimed primarily at teenagers but without all the BS angst of most "young adult" writing. The heroes are adolescent kids who discover that their peculiar challenges and troubles (dyslexia and ADHD, miserable dreams and weird luck), are the result of being demigods born from one human parent and another who is a Greek (or Roman) god. Great characters, tons of humor, etc. Like the Harry Potter books, Riordan's childrens work bridges the gap between adult and child readers very easily. I tend to get a lot of this stuff in audiobook format. My family listens to it on long drives. I listen while I work sometimes, or when I'm driving between job sites, etc. Riordan also writes adult crime mysteries that are fairly good as well.
Other choices would be the perennial JRR Tolkien classics The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Other authors of interest:
Jim Butcher (Dresden Files) light supernatural fantasy set in modern Chicago.
Patrick O Brian"s Aubrey and Maturin novels
George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones). These books are big, dense, detailed fantasy novels with a ton of grit and a lot of darkness. Martin kills off both villains and protagonists with wanton abandon, but also allows villains to redeem themselves and heroes to be corrupted. The HBO TV series, while extremely good and practically faithful to the series, is still only a shadow of the books.
Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn Native American cop mysteries are great as well.
Bernard Cornwell's heroes in his various series, are characters on the grand world stage, but not the ones getting the credit. Richard Sharp and his Riflemen fight their way through the Napoleonic Wars from start to finish in a large collection of Richard Sharpe novels. Then there is his irreverent take on the Arthurian period, His Saxon Chronicles, and his Archer's stories (set between the battles of Poitiers and Agincourt). There are a number of others. But all display a very solid working knowledge of mostly English history. Appropriate to the majority of the AT journey however, are his Starbuck stories, chronicling the adventures of a young northerner who joins the rebel cause during the Civil War.
An outdoor, non-hiking book I read a while back on a whim and really enjoyed was "In the Heart of the Sea" by Nathaniel Philbrick. It's about the loss and rescue of the whaling ship Essex in 1820. (Ooh! and apparently Ron Howard is making into a movie.)
Definitely not a funny book, but based on true events and I found it very engaging.
Sierra2015
02-14-2014, 12:24
Lots of people seem to really like A Walk in the Woods. I read that last week and was super disappointed. Haha. It's a fun read... but too much preaching and not enough practical information to balance it out.
I'm a fantasy buff. Stephen R Donaldson's Thomas Covenant (10 books).
I read the first two trilogies years ago. So dark and yet amazing. Loved them. I had no idea there were more books out there. Thanks!