View Full Version : What books are you bringing?
For us booktworms out there, they are worth their weight. When I started my section hike from HF-> NYC last summer, I started out with 10 pounds of books! I lost a lot of that weight in the first week, but I still held on to a few. I copy of Shakespeare's Sonnets and a short collection of Keats poetry.
This coming march I am gonna bring the Sonnets again. I also have to read Don Quixote over the summer for school. The only copy I have weighs about 2 lbs!
Pedaling Fool
01-31-2011, 16:53
The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/24/132932268/a-physicist-explains-why-parallel-universes-may-exist
I love this stuff
:sun
strollingalong
01-31-2011, 17:28
any good books left in hiker boxes? as a kind of library system I guess!
swjohnsey
01-31-2011, 17:31
Yeah, I was curious about that. I am starting out with an old paperback and plan on including one in each of my seven mail drops. I will drop them off in hicker boxes as I go.
Any old paperback for me but I recently got hooked on Sudoku. I'll pack one on my next long hike that's for sure.
Anything by Steinbeck, Ed Abbey, some bukowski, Kerousac, and good travel books by writers like Theroux and Troost.
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/24/132932268/a-physicist-explains-why-parallel-universes-may-exist
Fascinating read...really crazy stuff.
"There are a couple of multiverses that come out of our study of string theory," Greene says. "Within string theory, the strings that we're talking about are not the only entities that this theory allows. It also allows objects that look like large flying carpets, or membranes, which are two dimensional surfaces. And what that means, within string theory, is that we may be living on one of those gigantic surfaces, and there can be other surfaces floating out there in space."
Trailbender
01-31-2011, 17:48
I reread a couple of the Wheel of Time novels, at about 1200 pages each, and some Isaac Asimov on my thru. I did find books on occasion in shelters, but town libraries usually had a book sale rack with ridiculously cheap novels, like a quarter apiece usually.
M1 Thumb
01-31-2011, 17:59
A Walk in the Woods.
Sassafras Lass
01-31-2011, 18:14
If the Harry Potter series didn't take up 10 square feet and weigh 20 lbs I'd gladly bring them - maybe I'll adopt a dog to carry my books on the trail ;)
The Weasel
01-31-2011, 19:15
Actually, it was interesting to finally read the Bible, cover to cover. Small tissue paper edition, light, lot of interesting stories in there. A few irritating things, too.
TW
Jack Tarlin
01-31-2011, 19:28
In recent years, I like to bring along books that resonate particularly well with specific areas of the Trail
Meaning, for North Carolina (Hiawassee maildrop) I've several times brought along and re-read Charles Frazier's "Cold Mountain."
Later on, in Harpers Ferry, just before heading over South Mountain into Pennsylvania, I send myself Michael Shaara's excellent Gettysburg novel, "The Killer Angels."
I'm gonna do the mid-Atlantic states this year for the first time in awhile, and unfortunately, it looks like I'll be doing them in July.
I think I'll bring a copy of "Heart of Darkness."
Until the Kindle craps out I'm taking most anything I want. I believe I'll start out with Dune. I've been meaning to reread it since the last time I was a sophmore in high school.
pafarmboy
01-31-2011, 19:38
If the Harry Potter series didn't take up 10 square feet and weigh 20 lbs I'd gladly bring them - maybe I'll adopt a dog to carry my books on the trail ;)
Download the kindle app onto your cell phone and you can carry as many book as you want.
hikerboy57
01-31-2011, 19:40
Im starting North in april2012, and hope mattys book is done by then.
runnergirl
01-31-2011, 20:06
A Bible is top on my list; I won't go without one. A paperback will always be found in my pack as well. I think I'm gonna start with the Hobbit and work my way through the Trilogy again. From there, who knows! Something good that I find in town!
Starting with this: http://www.amazon.com/127-Hours-Between-Rock-Place/dp/1451617704/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1296520167&sr=8-3
Delta-Dawn
01-31-2011, 20:45
If the Harry Potter series didn't take up 10 square feet and weigh 20 lbs I'd gladly bring them - maybe I'll adopt a dog to carry my books on the trail ;)
If you don't use some type of e-reader, go with the paperback versions and only one at at time. (Hardback copy of Goblet of Fire is almost 3 pounds!) Mail drop the next book to yourself along the way. I'm doing that for my daughter and I. I've read them through at least 12 times (because I am a serious Potter-head aka NERD) but the kid has only read some of the first one. I am looking forward to us reading it together on the journey. If we get through them all, then I'll go with another series that she and I can both get into. For me personally, I'll read whatever has words, so who knows what my personal book will be? Maybe Mitch Albom or another fave author will have a new book out by summer or I will re-read some of the classics. Too many books, never enough time. :)
I enjoy reading, especially in the winter months, when the days are shorter and I tend to hunker down.
But after 10 hours of hiking, and with chores to do when I stop, I'm too tired to do much reading on the trail.
Stearman
01-31-2011, 20:52
I will be carrying 1 soft cover at all times. Silence is okay. A world without books is just insane. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is my first. I will leave them in hiker boxes along the way.
Diatribe
01-31-2011, 21:00
big ups RVA (RICHMOND) !!!
I will be carrying 1 soft cover at all times. Silence is okay. A world without books is just insane. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is my first. I will leave them in hiker boxes along the way.
I'm starting with the sequel, Lila.
Kindle with anything and everything I could possibly want to read on it. Until my "book" runs out of batteries, stupid future.
I would like to recommend almost anything by hiker poet naturalist buddhist beatnik Gary Snyder. His compilation No Nature (it's the opposite of that) is terrific and very appropriate for being out in the woods. He won I think the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his book Turtle Island back in the 70s.
tirebiter
01-31-2011, 23:13
I'm not bringing any books, thereby forcing myself to write something so interesting that even I'll want to read it. :D
Sassafras Lass
02-01-2011, 09:11
Download the kindle app onto your cell phone and you can carry as many book as you want.
We don't have a cell phone. But I'm sure many people will utilize that.
I'm taking my iPod touch. I have many books & movies & games on it. I'm also taking a device that let's it run off of common store batteries. So, I'll be able to watch, read or play games with just by taking some extra batteries. That is, when I'm not exhausted to the point where I just want to eat and then :Dsleep.
If you want a good chuckle and have coffee shoot out your nose at times grab a copy of
"The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail" (http://www.amazon.com/Cactus-Eaters-Mindand-Myselfon-Pacific/dp/0061376930) by Dan White
Sickmont
02-01-2011, 10:31
"And the Hippos were boiled in their Tanks" by William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac
hikerboy57
02-01-2011, 10:49
"And the Hippos were boiled in their Tanks" by William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac
And I thought desolation angels was obscure!Dharma Bums is still my favorite kerouac though.
Dharma Bums is still my favorite kerouac though.
Mine too.
Did you hear about the movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337692/)? It looks like its going to be On the road and Dharma bums combined.
Sickmont
02-01-2011, 13:18
Mine too.
Did you hear about the movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337692/)? It looks like its going to be On the road and Dharma bums combined.
Hmmm......interesting cast. Definitely will have to check it out fo sure.
hikerboy57
02-01-2011, 13:29
Some thirty+ years ago these books defined my lack of direction for the course of my life.I've read both so many times I've lost count.
I'm brining a paperback and will have my husband send new ones as needed...I have a stack set aside. I'll be leaving them in the boxes if anyone is looking for a good read.
Hike On!
hikerboy57
02-21-2011, 17:22
Mine too.
Did you hear about the movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337692/)? It looks like its going to be On the road and Dharma bums combined.
I just watched fear and loathing in las vegas last night, and was reminded of On the Road. If they do make a movie, I can imagine it would be somewhat similar.
I'm bringing the official 'Thru Hikers companion' and some other book, i don't know what....just some novel that interests me. I would survive without one but its kind of a little escape from just hiking and camping day after day. I read pretty fast so i will just get a new one from hiker boxes or something when available. I consider it a luxury item on the trail. I wont die without a book to read , its just something i enjoy.
Maple_Sky
02-21-2011, 18:55
I'm going with the original ultralight literature: poetry. I took all my favorite poems/psalms/old songs and photocopied them in teeny print on one sheet of paper so that I can memorize them when I get bored walking.
Now by the path I climbed, I journey back.
The oaks have grown; I have been long away.
Talking with me your memory and your lack
I now descend into a milder day;
Stripped of your love, unburdened of my hope,
Descend the path I mounted from the plain;
Yet steeper than I fancied seems the slope
And stonier, now that I go down again.
Warm falls the dusk; the clanking of a bell
Faintly ascends upon this heavier air;
I do recall those grassy pastures well:
In early spring they drove the cattle there.
And close at hand should be a shelter, too,
From which the mountain peaks are not in view.
Undershaft
02-22-2011, 07:01
When I was section hiking a few years ago I decided to take the opportunity to read one of the classics. I chose Moby-Dick which I had never read, but always wanted to. Man, was that book heavy(in more ways than one). I bought the smallest version I could find and it still weighed over a pound. I also had to think when reading it. It's very dense writing and at the end of a long hot day I found that I didn't really want to think. I was in near ecstasy when I found an old Clive Cussler paperback in a shelter in Conneticut. I had read it before, but it was just the thing I needed: a quick, easy, entertaining story that was relaxing to read.
Having learned my lesson, this year I will bring some kind of fluff book; quick, easy entertainment. Don't know what yet, I think Carl Hiaasen has a recent book I haven't read and I just found out some guy wrote a sixth book in the hitchhikers trilogy so maybe I'll check that out. I also have a storage unit filled with several hundred books that I haven't read in many many years. I have no space for bookshelves in my present dwelling so the vast majority of my library is stored away and I don't even remember most of what I have. I'm planning to rumage through those boxes and pick out some old paperbacks to re-read along the trail. Maybe some Jules Verne or old Rick Boyer mysteries. I'm planning to include a paperback with each maildrop.
I'll start with a copy of The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham and The Spell of the Yukon (which is book of Poetry) by Robert Service. Both will go into Hiker Boxes at some point and I'll probably have a buddy send me the books from Bruce Canton's Civil War Trilogy. One week and counting to Amicalola Falls !
Mill-Haus
zombiegrad
03-07-2011, 11:48
I'll be starting with Thoreau's Walden, or Life in the Woods, and then I'll pick up anything good I can get my hands on along the way.
swjohnsey
03-07-2011, 14:32
That ought to get you to sleep. I've tried to read Walden about half a dozen times.
zombiegrad
03-07-2011, 14:40
lol howcome? Let's see. I probably can read stuff most people opt out of :P I'm big on philosophy and have been thinking about which text to bring. Perhaps something psychological and anthropological like Ernest Becker. Learning about epicurus would be interesting, too. Anything existential, because that's where I am these days :) I've really enjoyed kierkegaard and nietzsche up until now, but Thoreau's Walden speaks to me for obvious reasons. I hope I enjoy it!
That ought to get you to sleep. I've tried to read Walden about half a dozen times.
Slo-go'en
03-07-2011, 17:19
I usually don't carry a book, but it is nice to find a good novel in a shelter when you need something to kill time with.
But I just bought a Kindle, so copious amount of reading material will not be a problem this year. The only down side of this is not being able to hand off a novel to someone else to enjoy.
So far, I've loaded the Kindle with a bunch of free Si-Fi novels from Baen books. I think I might download some of the top 100 pre1923 classics too.
BTW, if you find a book in a shelter and decide to use some of it to start a fire, please use the first chapters, not the last. Its a real bummer to start reading a book, only to find out the ending is missing!
I like reading short stories while I'm on the trail... that way I can read one each night instead of starting a novel one night then rushing all day so I can get to camp and continue the story.
Jack London for adventure, Kurt Vonnegut for philosophy, and Woody Allen for humor.
takethisbread
03-07-2011, 18:54
I read The People's History of The United States by Howard Zinn and i also read Cormac McCarthy The Road during my hike
Stearman
03-09-2011, 09:35
BTW, if you find a book in a shelter and decide to use some of it to start a fire, please use the first chapters, not the last. Its a real bummer to start reading a book, only to find out the ending is missing!
BTW: Unless you are in danger of hypothermia or death by some other calamity, keep your pyro hands off the books! I know at least 1 hiker that will take off heads for burning books.
I recently found a very small but full version of the Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov. I love this guy's work, but have only read one of the foundation books. This will give me a chance to get to the others. Sadly, it does not contain the prequel or the last book in the 'trilogy' just the middle three as he originally intended.
A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES By John Kennedy Toole
No matter how many times I read this book it always makes me laugh. If I'm feeling down the first few chapters will bring me out of it.
I enjoyed trading paperbacks up the trail on my hike. I never knew what I was going to get. Some were good, some were awful. Often I chose my book based on whether it was lighter than another book.
For a really big and heavy book like Don Quixote I'd suggest tearing the book up and carrying only parts. Mail the rest forward.
I have enjoyed John Wyndham novels in the past on backpacking trips. They seem go along with the surroundings and circumstances, plus it's the sci-fi genre that I love. Others I might recommend are the great Nevil Shute novels, and any anthologies of travel stories, like There Is No Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled, or Alaska Stories.
I recently found a very small but full version of the Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov. I love this guy's work, but have only read one of the foundation books. This will give me a chance to get to the others. Sadly, it does not contain the prequel or the last book in the 'trilogy' just the middle three as he originally intended.
I don't know if it's fair to say he only originally intended there to be three. I read them way back before he started writing more of them in the 80s (and did read some of those, maybe all). They stand just fine on their own, but it's not like Lord of the Rings where it's pretty clearly meant to be one complete story. There's a lot left hanging at the end of the trilogy, it isn't one of those cases where anyone should be upset about him "cashing in" or the like, like some other series I could name.
Anyway, seems like a great choice to me, enjoy!
superman
03-09-2011, 20:29
One of my neighbors has published a book about hiking the LT. www.cuckooandme.com (http://www.cuckooandme.com)
Ladytrekker
03-09-2011, 21:38
My public library has ebooks online so I have been downloading some to my mp3 to listen at night when I am snuggle in my bag on the FT. Minimal weight.
Snoring Sarge
03-09-2011, 22:13
Strange things are done in the night sun by the men who mole for gold.
I have Robert W. Service on my DriodX
i also read Cormac McCarthy The Road during my hike
That's a hell of a book to read while hiking.
seabrookhiker
03-12-2011, 10:22
I don't have a lot of time or spare light for reading, but all during my thru last year I listened to audiobooks. Bill Bryson on Shakespeare, some kids books, paranormal chick lit, classics.. And they weigh nothing!
trainhopper
03-25-2011, 17:01
R.L. Stein is a must.
hikerboy57
03-25-2011, 17:11
R.L. Stein is a must.
need to read the cover first.... its R L Stine
shaman.in.a.yurt
03-28-2011, 14:11
I plan on reading some Muir, Abbey and Emerson. Also the book Ishmael (daniel quinn) too...