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

**MOWGLI** · 03-14-2005, 18:49

Originally Posted by appgrad22

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!

**chris** · 03-14-2005, 19:15

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.

**The Hog** · 03-14-2005, 19:17

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!

**Tractor** · 03-14-2005, 20:13

Edward Abbey - Desert Solitaire or The Journey Home

**TDale** · 03-14-2005, 20:18

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

**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 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.

**Jeremy** · 03-14-2005, 23:03

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.

**Frosty** · 03-15-2005, 00:42

Originally Posted by SalParadise

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

**Jaybird** · 03-15-2005, 08:10

Originally Posted by appgrad22

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" Tate

he's one of us....& its a HILARIOUS book!

take a couple chapters on your first section....& mail the rest to yourself in your MAIL Drops

**Peaks** · 03-15-2005, 08:53

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.

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