Hospital Down Time - Need Some Reading Material Suggestions

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"Desolation Angels" by Kerouac is a sprawling journal of a summer spent in a self-imposed exile at a backcountry fire tower in the Cascades.

"Home Economics" By Wendell Berry is a series of environmentally relevant essays. Its informed and informing without getting preachy.

"The Old American" by Ernest Hebert. Local historic novel about a Keene homesteader kidknapped by Algonquins and taken to Canada.
 
Anything and everything by Sigurd Olson, canoeing's best writer and a very important environmentalist (who is apparently unknown here in New England. :confused: ) Then, and only then, A Wilderness Within: The Life Of Sigurd F. Olson, by David Backes.

Ditto for the earlier recommendations for John McPhee and Barry Lopez.

McPhee has an amazing knack for writing that stays current even decades after his work is published. Witness Coming Into the Country, which is still one of the best books for understanding modern Alaska almost thirty years after its publication. And The Curve of Binding Energy, which starts with these lines: "To many people who have participated professionally in the advancement of the nuclear age, it seems not just possible but more and more apparent that nuclear explosions will again take place in cities. It seems to them likely, almost beyond quibbling, that more nations now have nuclear bombs than the six that have tested them, for it is hardly necessary to test a bomb to make one. There is also no particular reason the maker need be a nation. Smaller units could do it -- groups of people with a common purpose or a common enemy." (Published in 1973.) And he also writes well about canoes, and oranges, and geology, and fish, and anything else he turns his mind to.
 
Check out Jonathan Waterman. I'm currently reading his account of re-creating the Duke of Abruzzi's 1897 first ascent of Mt. St. Elias. I had a couple months of down-time myself recently, and was glad to have some good books to occupy my time. Good luck. -ALG
 
Rick.....hope you are resting comfortably and able to spend time recuperating in the Finger Lakes area...you'll be out and about just as the cool weather presents itself..... Cantdog offered the books I would have suggested.
Best.....Jade
 
Someone mentioned the Joe Tasker, Peter Boardman books. If you can find it, there is a single volume, called, I think, the Boardman-Tasker Omnibus published by the Mountaineers. Their writing is powerful and inspiring about a time when climbers were climbing into the unknown. I could not recommend it strongly enough.

Good luck with your recovery.
 
Wow! Just read thru the two most recent prior related threads. Got lots of reading to do myself now!

Just wanted to put another vote in for Deep Survival. A completely different take on outdoor adventure.

And, if you're not knee-deep in books already, give this a try:

http://www.skwc.com/exile/Hail-nf.html

The entire book, Then the Hail Came is online. It's a very personal, detailed AT thru-hiker's journal. Can be very dry -- it included descriptions of each PUD on the trail, but I got completely hooked. Also recommended for VFTT'ers who are killin' time at work. ;)

Get well soon, Rick!!!!
 
The Harry Potter series.

"The Long Walk" by Slavomir Rawicz.

"Deborah and The Mountain of my Fear" by David Roberts.

"Alone" by Richard E. Byrd.

"Endurance" by Alfred Lansing and "The Endurance" by Caroline Alexander, in that order.

Best wishes for a smooth recovery.
 
I would second the suggestion for A Walk In The Woods.

Also, check out Christopher Wren's Walking to Vermont.
 
Everyone - Thanks so much for all the fine tips. I have spent a few hours over this weekend searching out your recommended authors on our online Library system and finding many of the books. I have saved them and now can call up a couple every day and order them from any library in the system for pickup here in town!!

I read Bill Bryson's "Notes From a Small Island" Sat/Sun and "Everest : alone at the summit" by Stephen Venables is up for Today/tomorrow.
I have planned "In the shadow of Denali / Jonathan Waterman is at bat for Wed/Thursday... and will then order a few more for the weekend.

Thanks again everyone!!! :)
 
keepin' on said:
"Desert Solitare" I can't remeber the author......feel better!!!!!
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Edward Abbey, and I second that recommendation. (p.s. any other Abbey books that are highly rated? I've read Monkey Wrench Gang -- good but it was fiction -- and Abbey's Road which was interesting but not as good as Desert Solitaire.)
 
i read it's not about the bike a few years ago and really liked that one, while not a climbing book, still a great read.
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King Tut

Yeah, this is a MUST read for anyone recovering from any physical problem. After reading it you will be ready to conquer anythng. :)
 
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