View Full Version : Favorite Authors while hiking
I like reading Pat Conroy and Tom Clancey, looking for some other good ideas, I've read about all James Michener's. Thanks and happy trails!
Cindy
RITBlake
03-25-2006, 00:40
on my thru hiked I always had a book in my pack. The most meaningful and inspiring one I read was The Long Walk (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558216847/104-8438234-8933533?v=glance&n=283155) by Slavomir Rawicz. It's the story of a group who escape a Russian work camp and walk thousands of miles and eventually find their freedom. If you think you had it bad on a thru hike, believe me, it was nothing compared to what these guys went through. Any time I felt low on the trail, or didnt think I could take another step, I thought back to this story. Simply amazing. Pick it up, its unforgetable.
"One of the epic treks of the human race. Shackleton, Franklin, Amundsen. . .history is filled with people who have crossed immense distances and survived despite horrific odds. None of them, however, has achieved the extraordinary feat Rawicz has recorded. He and his companions crossed an entire continent--the Siberian arctic, the Gobi desert and then the Himalayas--with nothing but an ax, a knife, and a week's worth of food. . . His account is so filled with despair and suffering it is almost unreadable. But it must be read--and re-read."
--Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm
Gee, while hiking, my favorite authors are those other hikers that write in shelter registers.
Other than that, I look for a book that is less than 200 pages. While I certainly like authors like James Michener, his books are too long and heavy for backpacking.
My plan for this year's SOBO is to go through the uncollected works of Terry Pratchett. My daughter has them all and has generously offered to loan them to me one at a time. I will have a special silnylon bag to keep them dry.
Cervantes' Don Quixote. One of the funniest books ever written.
RE "The Long Walk".
A very good read. As one who wants to belive in Yetis, I hope its mostly fact rather than fiction. There is a whole lot of controversy about which it is, however.
The Desperado
03-25-2006, 11:34
Clancey, Hemingway, Joyce Kilmer & his wife Alines works,History "stuff"....
Rain Man
03-25-2006, 18:33
To the ones already mentioned, I might add Jean Auel, who wrote/is writing The Clan of the Cave Bear series.
I'll also second for sure The Longest Walk about escaping the Soviet stalag Siberian prison camp. WOW... what a book and what a "hike"!
Shackleton's expedition to Antartica, too. There are several books about him.
There's an entire thread on WhiteBlaze about good hiking books, and all these are mentioned there.
Rain:sunMan
.
Just about anything of Edward Abbey, except that novel, what was it? Two or three of his books are rather light. One last one is a bit heavier but a very good read.
RITBlake
03-25-2006, 18:59
The Longest Walk should be 'required reading' for all thru hikers in planning. Also it's light enough to carry w/ you on the trail.
<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" width="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">Krakauer's "Into the Wild" and "Into Thin Air" and of course Bryson!</TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on">
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
RITBlake
03-25-2006, 19:13
I really enjoyed Into the Wild. It's sad because you not its going to end well for that kid. He died a pretty lonely and cold death, not a great way to go. Kind of on the same line as Grizzly Man, when you play w/ fire, eventually you are going to get burned.
Into Thin Air is another amazing/sad story. Its hard to feel bad for those people though, I mean they know what they're getting in to. THe death rate on Everest is staggering.
on my thru hiked I always had a book in my pack. The most meaningful and inspiring one I read was The Long Walk (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558216847/104-8438234-8933533?v=glance&n=283155) by Slavomir Rawicz. It's the story of a group who escape a Russian work camp and walk thousands of miles and eventually find their freedom. If you think you had it bad on a thru hike, believe me, it was nothing compared to what these guys went through. Any time I felt low on the trail, or didnt think I could take another step, I thought back to this story. Simply amazing. Pick it up, its unforgetable.
for me, the ''i'm feeling sorry for myself'' book is "The Forgotten Soldier", by Guy Sajer... about a french boy who joins the german army in 1941 and spends his youth at war. like the long walk, deals with incredible physical hardships, danger, courage, hunger, rain, and cold...
i don't take it while hiking though... for hiking it's "THe Hobbit", almost every trip. never gets old, and i've been reading it for about 25 years now... Tolkien's other books are good too, as are David Eddings' two series "The Belgariad" and "The Mallorean"... (yeah, i like fantasy.)
louis lamour is pretty good, according to some... i've only read "The Walking Drum", and that wasn't a western.
religion/philosophy is a favorite too, if you can find a distilled volume that doesn't weigh a pound (the dummies series are good for that.)
the goat
03-25-2006, 19:22
anything by kerouac, hunter thompson, john krakauer....and yes, the long walk is among my favorites of all time.
<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" width="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">I 2nd Edward Abbey and especially "The Monkey Wrench Gang" and "Desert Solitaire".</TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on">
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
RITBlake
03-25-2006, 19:31
yah, gotta agree a lot of your guys choices. Its obviously personal taste, but on the trail I read Kurt Vonnegut jr, Abbey, Ken Kesey, Leon Uris to name a few. Then my dad started mailing me action adventure novels from Nelson DeMille. They're not really my style but I really enjoyed them. Very easy to get caught up in the story. I think reading is very important and I tried to get some in every night on the trail.
RITBlake
03-25-2006, 19:36
Have you read Haydukes Revenge? It didn't get great reviews on Amazon so I'm hesitant to pick it up. The Monkey Wrench Gang is one of my all time favorite books. Sometimes I would start my dad with Haydukes mantra "Chemicals chemicals, I need chemicals"
Book titles get underlined! ahh ;)
<table id="HB_Mail_Container" unselectable="on" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%"><tbody><tr width="100%" unselectable="on" height="100%"><td id="HB_Focus_Element" unselectable="off" background="" height="250" valign="top" width="100%">
</td></tr><tr unselectable="on" hb_tag="1"><td style="font-size: 1pt;" unselectable="on" height="1">
</td></tr></tbody></table>[/quote]
timhines
03-25-2006, 20:33
I can't believe no one mentioned Horace Kephart.
Dances with Mice
03-25-2006, 20:57
It's sort of a "If you were stranded on a desert island, what book would you bring?" question, isn't it? Nobody has mentioned Mr. Lao Tzu's work either.
Although I have a mini-book of the the Tao and frequently read it, when I'm out on a long hike I seldom look at it. I thought about it but still can't explain why ... which is somehow perfectly fitting, isn't it? In my library my favorite book is the Te Ching illustrated with photos by Ansel Adams.
My long time favorite hiking reads are (non-fiction) either "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" by Gary Zukav or "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking. Both make excellent reads under a big sky. My fiction choice would be "Dune" by Frank Hebert. With any one of those I can flip to any page and get lost for an hour or two.
icemanat95
03-25-2006, 21:28
I prefer fictional reading when hiking and nothing too heavy (philosophically speaking), I'm generally going for a "mushin" mindset, flexible and receptive, I don't want to set my mind rolling on some engaging intellectual subject when I'm trying to lull myself to sleep reading.
In no particular order.
JRR Tolkein, the hobbit & ring series.
Shakespeare, all but R & J, favorite is "The Scottish play"
Peirs Anthony, his Xanth series.
Assorted Sci Fi, almost every thing but Asimov (I call him a hack!)
Mark Twain.
But then again, they are my favorites at home too.
Doctari.
cloudparty
03-27-2006, 00:39
Abbey is always good; in response to one of the posters, "Hayduke LIves!" was not nearly as good as the original, though. I love "The Fool's Progress."
I remember reading parts of "Walden" at Blackrock Mountain shelter--my gf had it along--and it's a sublime moment in my memory. And I read The Hobbit and LOTR to her aloud at night. Heh. Always seemed to fit wherever we were.
Old Spice
03-27-2006, 01:21
Anything compact and lightweight. Well, not anything... probably Nietzsche or Dostoevsky. Well, probably not small or lightweight either.
anything from the $1.00 dollar rack at the dollar store:cool: neo
astrogirl
03-27-2006, 12:10
Terry Pratchett is very very funny. I hope you enjoy his work as much as I do!
Undershaft
03-27-2006, 22:28
Any of Douglas Adams' books especially the Hitchhiker's trilogy (all 5 of them). I also like books that feature the area I'm hiking in. Passing Strange by Joseph Citro, Mysterious New England series by Robert Cahill to name a few.
Lone Wolf
03-27-2006, 22:32
Ted Nugent, Michael Savage, Krishna Murti, and Abbey.
I have read most of the books listed, but my absolute favorite hiking books are by Carl Hiaasen. It is impossible to read a Hiaasen bok and not cheer up, he writes hilarious stories about environmental issues in Florida, the characters are often unbelievable yet so comical. I also like to read Hemingway's short stories, he writes a lot about the outdoors.
sdoownek
03-27-2006, 22:51
Ayn Rand. I first read Atlas Shrugged on my thru in 91 after finding it in a shelter someplace. It just seemed to fit at the time. Very good story with a very good message.
I ended up reading the rest of her stuff, including the Ayn Rand Reader in 97.
Also Crichton, for those mindless rainy zero days.
mambo_tango
03-27-2006, 22:58
Ayn Rand. I first read Atlas Shrugged.
Considering it is one of the longest novels ever written that isn't exactly lightweight backpacking! Good book though. Where is John Galt when you need him?
sdoownek
03-27-2006, 23:14
Considering it is one of the longest novels ever written that isn't exactly lightweight backpacking! Good book though. Where is John Galt when you need him?
Hm, interesting. I wonder how much that book weighed.
(time elaspes as I go find the book.)
Wow, this thing is pretty beat the fark up.
Let's see how much this thing weighs.
Scale's dead. Crap.
(install new batteries for the scale)
OK, Atlas weighs: 14.24 ounces.
All in all, well worth the weight.
mambo_tango
03-27-2006, 23:17
Hard cover or soft cover??
sdoownek
03-28-2006, 02:27
oh, old, old old paperback. 1084 pages. Printed in the mid 70's, I think.
Front cover is labeled with a price of $2.95, if that's any indication.
corentin
03-28-2006, 22:40
You could save 40 some pages of weight just cutting out Cisco's speech
sdoownek
03-28-2006, 22:43
Which one? Money, at the party?
corentin
03-28-2006, 22:52
Been a while since I read it, but I think that is the one, sometimes I think she needed a better editor, I do remember thinking it must have been some kind of record
sdoownek
03-29-2006, 03:11
Yeah, it was a long speech, but pretty key.
"Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants; money will not give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he's evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money."
Rather fitting to today's materialistic society, don't you think?
The Novel you are referring to is The Fools Progress. I agree, Abbey is an absolute must on the trail for me. William Least Heat-Moon is also a great author to take along. His books are long and cumbersome, so I copy the pages and mail them along the trail as I go. The only disadvantage to this method is you may run out of reading material before you get to your next mail drop. Another great topic to read is anything related to Lewis and Clark.
Peace, Love, and Happiness,
Vortex Ga-Me 95
Yes, I almost forgot about Bill Bryson. A Short History of Nearly Everything is a great read. I wish there was an electronic library which cataloged and made available manuscripts which backpackers read-Idea????????
Vortex Ga-Me 95
Undershaft
03-29-2006, 20:09
If you like Carl Hiassen, try an author named Tim Dorsey. Very funny and pretty quick reads. Outrageous characters and wild situations. Perfect for whiling away the time in a shelter.
EnviroNaut
03-29-2006, 21:28
dances with mice... you're my kind of hiker! and...i second Harpo's quote....
EnviroNaut
the electric kool-aid acid test by tom wolfe, traveling cross-country with the merry pranksters, circa 1960's, great fun, good entertainment.
mindlessmariachi
03-30-2006, 23:53
i read a ton on my thru hike. i started out toting "V" by Thomas Pynchon. It's a big fat book, and I thought it would occupy me for a while. Which it did. (I finished it in Atkins). But at about 600 pages, it also occupied a lot of space in my pack and weighed a ton! The lightweight solution was to tear the thing in half - i mailed the second half to myself at Gatlinburg.
Shiraz-mataz
04-03-2006, 07:23
If you like local history, especially if it pertains to your hiking experience, I would recommend "The Blue Hills of Maryland" by Paula M. Strain. It was published in 1993 and is available through the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. This would be especially good reading for a northbbound hike from Harpers Ferry to the PA state line as the book highlights little snippets of local lore, literally laid out as you would encounter them along the trail.
I found the first half of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Steven King in a shelter in VA. I carried it with me and finished it that night. It's about a 12 year old girl who gets lost while day hiking the AT in NH. I was so into it I was actually seriously considering hitchhiking something like 30 miles to get to a bookstore rather than wait for someone at home to send it to me. Luckily, the second half was in the next shelter. Great book to read while alone in the woods, and honestly not at all the scary stereotypical BS horror monster roar scream book.
Nearly Normal
04-04-2006, 17:30
Tom Robbins will make you feel like :banana
pete
If you like Carl Hiassen, try an author named Tim Dorsey. Very funny and pretty quick reads. Outrageous characters and wild situations. Perfect for whiling away the time in a shelter.
I agree..... Dorsey is Carl Hiassen on speed...... I picked up one at a used book store, read it, and went back for the rest the series.... All revolve around a manic, drug addled, serial killer who also happens to be a historian of South Florida.....
If you like Tom Clancy then try something by John Grisham, his books are alot better then the movies. Another good book is Flag of our Fathers.
cabeza de vaca
06-18-2006, 21:12
I only carry a small pamphlet ...the United States Consitution. I re-read it each hike to remind myself about the majesty of the thoughts and words that brought this nation into being.
Edward Abbey or anything adventure.
Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. In reading Walden, written in the 1840's, it's interesting how many correlations you can draw to today's society. Although Thoreau wasn't hiking, I think hikers can find many personal parallels in his writing.
berninbush
06-18-2006, 23:50
I'm rather surprised no one has mentioned A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins. Great story!
http://www.peterjenkins.com/books_profile_AWAA.htm
I'm rather surprised no one has mentioned A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins. Great story!
http://www.peterjenkins.com/books_profile_AWAA.htm
Wasn't there a follow up book, the Walk West, and then Walk Across China (or something) great reading both, the China also touches on some climbers attempts to summit Everest. I think Jenkins lives in Tenn now....
Brian R. Greene, Robert A. Hienlien, Neal Stephenson, Douglas Hofstadter, Robert Anton Wilson, Alan Watts, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard...
berninbush
06-19-2006, 23:19
Wasn't there a follow up book, the Walk West, and then Walk Across China (or something) great reading both, the China also touches on some climbers attempts to summit Everest. I think Jenkins lives in Tenn now....
I believe he wrote several more books, but "The Walk West" is the only one I've gotten to yet. The China one sounds interesting, though! :) If I'm not mistaken, he settled in Mississippi, but I couldn't swear to it.
Tom Robbins has worked for me!!!!