Essential Books?

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Tony

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I was inspired by Roadtripper's thread on essential adventure/exploration movies. I'm more into books but I didn't want to hijack that thread so I was wondering if people could recommend their favorite reads along this line.

One of my favorites was just turned into a movie: Lansing, Alfred (2001). Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-02978-2919-5.

If you're not familiar with the story of the 1914-1915 trans-Antarctic Expedition, you've got to check it out. Their ship got stuck in the ice and they had to abandon ship in November. For a couple of months they camped on a large ice floe and then successfully brought his crew out in a small open boat to South Georgia Island crossing many hundreds of miles of stormy ocean to do so. It is an amazing story.

Others?
 
I loved the Shackleton book too.

"Into the Heart of Borneo" Redmond O'Hanlon
"A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush" Eric Newby (one of my top ten)
"The Odyssey" Homer
"We Took to the Woods" Louise Dickinson Rich (If you love the Rangeley
area,this takes you right there)
"Coming into the Country" (about Alaska) John McPhee
"Skeletons on the Zahara" Dean King (12 shipwrecked American sailors sold
into slavery in 1815) :eek:
"The Worst Journey in the World" Apsley Cherry-Garrard (600 pages! by a survivor of Scott's expedition)
 
I can't get enough of the adventure books... especially South Pole expeditions. Here are a few of my absolute favorites....

"The Worst Journey in the World" by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. He was a member of Scott's ill-fated attempt to be the first man on the South Pole. This books focuses on a trip to the penguin rookery... lots of adventure and well written.

"Mawson's Will" By Leonard Bickel.. another great south pole epic. Mawson went out to chart the coastline of Antartica and nearly died after losing his men, most of his supplies and his dogs.

"Desert Solitaire" By Edward Abbey. If you're into adventure books you've probably already read it... definitely deserving of its classic reputation as Abbey describes the landscape of the southwest.

"West With the Night" By Beryl Markham... she was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to West and some of this book focuses on her adventures as a bush pilot. But the parts that always stand out to are her childhood stories of growing up in Africa.

"Wind, Sand and Stars" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery -- about the author's experiences as a pilot, flying across Africa and South America. For some reason, everytime I start reading through the first chapter or so I think "Why do I like this book again?" But the later chapters are just amazing and engrossing.

"In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods" By Galen Rowell... about the failed 1975 American attempt at K2. I really like reading the nitty gritty and infighting of these expeditions... even though Rowell's works have been kind of ruined for my due to his treatment of Arlene Blum following her Anapurna expedition.

And finally, of course, Nicholas Howe's "Not Without Peril" is great for tales of misadventures in the White Moutains. Just don't let your non-hiking friends and family borrow it. :)

- Ivy
 
"The Long Walk" by Slavomir Rawicz a story of pow escaping a prison camp in Siberia and walking to freedom in India.

"Touchin the Void" Joe Simpson, great survival story
"Between a Rock and a Hard Place" Aron Ralston, could you cut your arm off?and then hike out a canyon?
"Endurance" by Lansing one of my favorite books
 
poison ivy said:
I can't get enough of the adventure books... especially South Pole expeditions. Here are a few of my absolute favorites....

...

"Desert Solitaire" By Edward Abbey. If you're into adventure books you've probably already read it... definitely deserving of its classic reputation as Abbey describes the landscape of the southwest.

"West With the Night" By Beryl Markham... she was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to West and some of this book focuses on her adventures as a bush pilot. But the parts that always stand out to are her childhood stories of growing up in Africa.

...

- Ivy
Click to expand...

Oh wow, I forgot about these two. They're great. Thanks Poison Ivy!
 
I was completely enthralled by "Ghosts of Everest," the story of the expedition that found Mallory's body. Great mystery story, and wonderfully creepy. (Slight squick warning on some of the photos.)
 
Jason Berard said:
"Savages" by Joe Kane. About living with the Houarani tribe in the Amazon as they try to survive missionaries, Big Oil, and geopolitics. Not sure if that exactly fits, but it is a great read.
Click to expand...

"Running the Amazon," by Joe Kane is another really great book - it's about the first source-to-sea expedition of the Amazon.
 
Last edited:
On the subject of polar exploration:

In the Land of White Death by Valerian Albanov is the story of a 1912 Russian expedition to the north pole. Led by an incompetent commander on an inadequately prepared ship, they lacked charts, sufficient fuel, or proper provisions and eventually became trapped in the ice in the Kara Sea. After a year and a half adrift, the navigator of the ship (Albanov) led a party across the ice in search of rescue. The book is based on his diary.

Farthest North by Fridtjof Nansen. His famous ship, the Fram, was designed to drift on top of the ice. Nansen believed he could ride the ice sheet to the pole. After a year, it became clear that would not happen, so he set out on foot, knowing he could not return to the ship. Although he didn't make the pole, he went further than anyone else had gone before.

Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls true stories of castaways and other survivors by Edward Leslie. This is one of my all-time favorite "adventure" books. It's about survivors of shipwrecks, plane crashes, and other disasters, including people lost for long periods of time in the wilderness - what they went through, how they survived, etc. It's a well-researched compilation. These kinds of books tend to be sensationalized, but the author treats the subject with proper dignity and offers insightful analyses.
 
‘‘‘Deborah’ and ‘The Mountain of My Fear,’’’ by David Roberts.

‘‘The Seven Summits,’’ by Dick Bass, Frank Wells, and Rick Ridgeway.

‘‘The Monkey Wrench Gang’’ and ‘‘Hayduke Lives!’’ by Edward Abbey.

‘‘A Walk in the Woods,’’ by Bill Bryson. Get the audio version read by Ron McLarty.
 
For starters, check out National Geographic's 100 greatest adventure books http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0404/adventure_books.html.

Here are a few of my personal favorites not on this list:
Snow in the Kingdom: My Storm Years on Everest by Ed Webster
The best (IMHO) Everest book around. Great writing and excellent photos.

The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk by Jennifer Niven
Bad planning, ice bound ship, death and starvation, castaway on a small arctic island and a 700 mile ice trek to Siberia all add up to a wonderful read.

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
Harrowing account of the first trip down an unexplored tributary, Rio da Duvida (River of Doubt), of the Amazon. Bad planning, over confidence, anacondas, insects, murder, an execution, TR nearly died twice all make this a gripping read.

The Big Open by Rick Ridgeway
Ridgeway, with Galen Rowell, Jimmy Chin and Conrad Anker trace the migration route of the chiru (Tibetan antelope) by hauling their 200 pound rickshaws over the Chang Tang in western Tibet in order to aid George Schaller's studies of the animal and to help stop the illegal poaching of this beautiful animal. Like Ridgeway's other books, it is well written and is a difficult book to lay aside while reading it.

The Villain: A Portrait of Don Whillans by Jim Perrin
Hilarious book about a socially troubled man but without a doubt, a true pioneer of hard rock. A great biographical sketch of the man and his times.

JohnL
 
Great thread! I have my Christmas list out and am adding to it.

I think I've read "Desert Solitaire" about a zillion times. Never gets old.

Depending on the kind of "adventure" you're after, "McCarthy's Bar" is one of my recent favorites. Good for the post-hike adventure category. It's about a guy named Pete McCarthy who sets off on a mission to visit all the pubs in Ireland with his name on them. Had me on the floor laughing more than once.

Weatherman
 
Adm. Peary's journals of his "discovery" of the north pole are a good read, especially for winter hiking and camping enthusiasts. I doubt it is in print but you can find it in many libraries ... probably hasn't been checked out for decades.
 
Stan said:
Adm. Peary's journals of his "discovery" of the north pole are a good read, especially for winter hiking and camping enthusiasts. I doubt it is in print but you can find it in many libraries ... probably hasn't been checked out for decades.
Click to expand...

Peary's adventures, and his great rivalry with Cook (con man or the real "discoverer" of the North Pole?) are worth reading about. I recently discovered the Peary North Pole Museum on the campus of Bowdoin in Brunswick, Maine. The Admiral was a devoted Polar Bear alum. and left his memorabilia to the College, which displays it in a couple of big rooms on the first floor of a rambling old science building on the main Quad. You could easily spend a couple of hours there, and if you're really dedicated, combine it with a ferry ride to Eagle Island in Casco Bay, Peary's retirement retreat and now a State park of some sort.

But my favorite of the above suggestions is:

audrey said:
"The Odyssey" Homer
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Scylla and Charybdis - the original Rock and a Hard Place - the Sirens, the cave of the Cyclops, and Circe, the enchantress who turned men into swine - the original and still the best adventure epic.
 
"Points Unknown" by David Roberts. This is a collection of one to two chapter length exerpts from a wide variety of adventure books ranging from climbing, kayaking canyons, polar exploration, Borneo, desert, ocean, and whatever. It picks out a highpoint in the book and gives you a good read. Certainly it moves you beyond your fireplace and favorite chair. I picked this book up in Pinkham Notch visitor center.
 
Tony said:
One of my favorites was just turned into a movie: Lansing, Alfred (2001). Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-02978-2919-5.
Click to expand...

I strongly recommend reading Shackleton's personal account of the trip, South, as well as Worsley's personal accounts which he published as two books, Endurance and Shackleton's Boat Journey. South was one of Lansing's main sources of information, and Worsley does an excellent job of conveying the emotions of the experience.
 
On my list for ones that haven't been mentioned already are of course the classics, The White Spider - Heinrich Harrer Eiger 1st ascent and Annapurna - Maurice Herzog

Fatal Mountaineer: The High-Altitude Life and Death of Willi Unsoeld

In the zone : Epic survival stories from the mountaineering world - This is a comilation of short stories by Peter Pottersfield and includes the unbelievable story of Colby Coombs on Foraker.

Jim Curran's K2 book about the 1986 season.

Joe Simpson This game of Ghosts. Its his 2nd book about how he got started climbing. I have all his books, but is the next best after touching the void. Some good stories. This guy knows how to get in and out of trouble.
 
I'd recommend Jon Waterman (not Guy's son, the other Jon)

"A Most Hostile Mountain", it's about a combo sailing trip/glacier ski/sled/mountaineering climb of Mt St. Elias in the Alaska's Wrangell-St Elias range. It kind of was his attempt to recreate the Duke of Abruzzi's first ascent of the peak that many people consider tougher than Mt McKinley.

Jay
 
A little different twist but "The Last Season" by Eric Blehm is my favorite outdoor book of all time.
 
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