View Full Version : whats a good book to bring?
appgrad22
03-14-2005, 17:45
no, no guides or handbooks or data books. what a good one to read for fun to bring on the trail? i like all kinds and am open for any and all suggestions. the new harry potter book is being delivered to me at the start of august! size is an issue though for the first part of my hike. thanks!
andrew
no, no guides or handbooks or data books. what a good one to read for fun to bring on the trail? i like all kinds and am open for any and all suggestions. the new harry potter book is being delivered to me at the start of august! size is an issue though for the first part of my hike. thanks!
andrew
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Anything by Edward Abbey
A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dilliard
That's a good start.
smokymtnsteve
03-14-2005, 19:05
Jeffery. I thought I read everything that Abbey had written,,,
don't remember 'ANYTHING". Is this a new collection of Abbey essays?
(Dessert Solitaire is an Excellent first Abbey read)
PLEASE STAND FOR THE GOSPEL OF ABBEY!
"The basic question is this: Why should *anything* exist? *Nothing* would be tidier."
THANKS BE TO ABBEY!
The Pioneers, by J.F. Cooper.
Lord Jim, J. Conrad. (or anything by Conrad)
Steppenwolfe, by H. Hesse. (or anything by Hesse)
The First Circle, by A. Solzhenitsyn
The Awakening, by K. Chopin
To A God Unknown, by J. Steinbeck
The Republic, by Plato
These all have some faint (maybe nonexistent) tie to long distance hiking, and are all of, shall we say, a different quality than Harry Potter.
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. One of the funniest, most relevant, and most inspirational books ever written. All us thru hikers are knights errant, as it were...
smokymtnsteve
03-14-2005, 19:19
aHH,,,J. Steinbeck...*anything* by Mr. Steinbeck
particularly " THE MOON IS DOWN"
TJ aka Teej
03-14-2005, 19:44
Try re-reading one of books you "had" to for school.
I never "got" Jack London until I read him as an adult by the light of a candle lantern in a small tube tent days from anywhere.
appgrad22
03-14-2005, 19:47
a sand county almanac sounds like a good start. ive been meaning to read that for about 4 or 5 years now. thanks!
Edward Abbey - Desert Solitaire or The Journey Home
Why just one book? Go here and you can print out some of the classics and take a whole library.
http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/classics.shtml
:D
SavageLlama
03-14-2005, 20:48
There are some great book threads over in the media forum.
The Old Fhart
03-14-2005, 20:56
Why add all the weight of the printed page? I carried a palm top computer on my thru in 1998 with over 20 classic novels loaded on it-total weight 11 oz. Go here (http://www.promo.net/pg/) to check out Project Gutenberg that has thousands of free novels available in electronic format.
The palm top I used also had the entire data book loaded and was my journal so I actually saved quite a bit of weight. Two AA batteries powered the computer for a few weeks.
Smooth03
03-14-2005, 21:34
James Fennimore Cooper's The Deerslayer helped me start a fire to keep the mosquitoes away in Maine. So....yeah....I'd recomend that one.
WALDEN
ON THE ROAD
THE DHARMA BUMS
THE WASTELAND
TAO TE CHING
ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE
THE TAO OF POOH
NAKED LUNCH
SAID THE SHOTGUN TO THE HEAD
JUNKIE
THE SUBTERANIANS
QUANTUM PHILOSOPHY
:-? i.e. ANYTHING THAT WILL MAKE YOU THINK
AND ANYTHING THAT WILL EXPAND YOUR MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SalParadise
03-15-2005, 00:40
Hog, good call with Don Quixote.
any Kerouac
Tropic of Cancer
The Hagakure
Shakespeare's sonnets
Fear and Loathing
On Walden Pond
......try a search. There was a great thread with some good titles maybe a month back.
any Kerouac
Tropic of Cancer
The Hagakure
Shakespeare's sonnets
Fear and Loathing
On Walden Pond.
"Fear and Loathing On Walden Pond"
WOW. I gotta read THAT book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
schwenkler
03-15-2005, 01:25
The best book I read on the trail was "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" - James Joyce.
Also enjoyed "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel.
IMO, "Siddhartha" is a better Herman Hesse read than "Steppenwolf."
bannister
03-15-2005, 03:08
Cannery Row by Steinbeck
I'll second both Steppenwolf and Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
I recently read and reread A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols. It's about the first solo sailing race around the earth. A hard book to put down.
bannister
no, no guides or handbooks or data books. what a good one to read for fun to bring on the trail? i like all kinds and am open for any and all suggestions. the new harry potter book is being delivered to me at the start of august! size is an issue though for the first part of my hike. thanks! andrew
"Walkin' on the Happy Side of Misery" by J.R. "Model T (http://www.modelt.net)" Tate
he's one of us....& its a HILARIOUS book! :D
take a couple chapters on your first section....& mail the rest to yourself in your MAIL Drops
What a good book to tote along? A short book, say 200 pages maximum. The choice depends on your preferences.
While no one has mentioned it yet, my own preference is civil war history. Plenty of that in the mid Atlantic states.
slabfoot
03-15-2005, 10:02
any "light" reading.
rocket04
03-15-2005, 11:22
"The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran.
Sleepy the Arab
03-15-2005, 11:39
You know, there's a lot of heavy material here, and one thing I found is that there is nothing worse than hiding from the rain in a shelter/tent and trying to plow your way through some heavy, intellectual tome. Nothing like hiding out from a hurricane with Macchiavelli to make you wish for John Grisham.
Go for the literary equivalent of junk food, like Along Came a Spider and make fun of it in the margins. The most enjoyable reading I ever encountered in a shelter was a dopey D&D book by R.A. Salvatore.
The best book I read on the trail was "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" - James Joyce.
Also enjoyed "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel.
IMO, "Siddhartha" is a better Herman Hesse read than "Steppenwolf."
Yeah, I think Siddhartha is a better read also, but it is a little short for a hike lasting longer than a few days. Steppenwolf takes a bit longer to get through, and is also quite nice.
I carried "Days of War, Nights of Love", written by the friendly folks from CrimethInc. After I finished it for the 4th time, I passed it on to a hiker named Beast. And thanks to Bucket for lending me his copy of "Ishmael". That book should be required reading in our schools.
A.A. Milne (sic) would also be pretty good. Ya gotta love Winnie The Pooh (and Tigger too).
The River Why -David Duncan.
books are to heavy,i read shelter journals for entertainment:cool: neo
MedicineMan
03-16-2005, 00:11
which by the way should be standing beside your Bible, assuming you have a Bible, if not then you probably wouldnt like Atlas Shrugged anyway, which is ironical since the author is a noted atheist...but if you like the American way of life and that is in itself Capitalism then you'll appreciate the world's greatest book on its virtues.
Jack Tarlin
03-16-2005, 04:34
Personally, I think that years after their hike is a series of memories, most folks will be happiest if the one book they decided to bring along with them was a blank one.
NECKBONE
03-17-2005, 11:04
anything by Stephen King. NECKBONE
minnesotasmith
03-17-2005, 12:27
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=7106&highlight=atlas
Myself, when 'Lint' finally passed me, I had the registers to read with his unusual and entertaining rantings. Looked forward to seeing a register he was at.
Then, if there was a book in the shelter I would read a portion of it, never finishing it, just left it for the next hiker to read/pass on. (stayed light that way:)).
Finally, writting my own book as Jack suggested was always a nightly ritual. I always seemed to find time to write in my journal when I was on the trail but when I got to town ,I never seemed to have the time to do it. Why is that?
MYST, I'm glad someone enjoyed that gibberish I scribbled! I wish I could see that register where the topic of having a vasectomy was brought up. I heard later down the trail that it started up some interesting rants from other hikers, both pro and con.
appgrad22
03-24-2005, 14:12
thanks for everyone's suggestion. i got siddhartha. dawned on me too that a good one that i have read in the past was the "tao of pooh". i would recommend that one to anyone.
icemanat95
03-24-2005, 14:38
"The Silmarillion" by J.R.R. Tolkien
It is fairly heavy reading, but that just means it'll last a bit longer.
"The Odyssey" Homer (many translations) Talk about your epic journeys.
Any and all Douglas Adams
The Old Fhart
03-24-2005, 17:36
iceman95-"Any and all Douglas Adams" best read whilst drinking an intergalatic-gargleblaster--or a gin and tonic if you can't find all the ingredients for an ig-gb on earth. :D
http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/trailers/
Chesapeake by James Michener (in paperback). A little heavy but ought to be good for a thousand miles...
appgrad22
03-28-2005, 12:36
has anyone ever read "the alchemist" by paulo coelho? its a great book, very easy to read, and very short. i would highly recommend this one.
Footslogger
03-28-2005, 12:58
I brought one in 2003 and ended up sending it home after a couple weeks. Between the weather and being tired at the end of a day's hiking I found that reading wasn't really all that enjoyable. I did however, keep a current written journal just about every day. Later on during the hike when I was in better shape and was managing my mileage better I found that reading was something I missed and was much more enjoyable.
If I had it to do all over again, I personally would not carry a book in the beginning but I would have one or two good ones stashed in my bounce box or sent to me in a mail drop.
'Slogger
AT 2003
Stoker53
03-28-2005, 13:08
If you are a baseball fan I suggest "The Great American Novel" by Phillip Roth. LMAO funny.
Good trail books are those that can be read in short passages. Trails are busy times. I like to read snippets while resting after lunch, or while my supper water is coming to a boil. And during those few moments between sleeping bag and sleep. Walden is great for this. Henry wrote fabulous sentences, many with multiple layers of meaning. Each rereading reveals new insights.
Trail books should also not detract from the trail experience. I go to the woods to be embraced by the woods. A book that jars me out of the woods, if only mentally, is a poor choice. Walden, of course, is ideal. Few other books fit as nicely into the natural world.
I frequent used book stores and library sales from time to time, looking for interesting paper backs that meet these demands. I don't bring scales, but I heft copies of Walden to buy the lightest. Yes. I have to buy new copies periodically. If any hiker expresses an interest in my reading material I usually just give 'em the book.
Weary
Dances with Mice
03-28-2005, 14:42
Stephen Hawking 'A Brief History of Time', if you get into that sort of thing. It's not for everybody, no book is. It's not one that you can burn through real fast, though, definitely not page-flipper kind of reading. At least not for me. But then I'm no Einstein, uh, so to speak.
I've read it but I can still pick it up in the morning, read just a little before packing it away, and have food for thought until lunch. I need time (heh!) to absorb the concepts and a trail is a good place to spend that time. But if you don't get into that kind of stuff, which might mean that you're "normal", and you're carrying the book anyway, it'd probably feel as heavy as...oh, I dunno. A black hole in your backpack?
But if you did have a black hole in your backpack, wouldn't the trail would come to you? Oh, nevermind.
I find a wilderness walk combines well with meditating on how the Universe works. I'm probably not the first.
thebruiser
03-30-2005, 19:11
one thing to watch out for on the trail is there is no where to buy good books and i thouthg the trail was a good place for reading books too so you will have to find a way to get them. "a diet for new america" (john robbins) phenominal book and goes well with the spirit of the trail i'd say
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (or the AT)
Red Storm Rising, Tom Clancy: A little heavy
1984, George Orwell
A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula LaGuine
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (Not the Michael Moore fiasco)
The 13th Valley, John M. Del Vecchio
Bravo Two Zero, Andy McNab
To Build a Fire, Jack London (short story)
Winter Prey, John Sanford
Bright Flows the River, Taylor Caldwell
All good reads in my opinion. :welcome:clap