Hospital Down Time - Need Some Reading Material Suggestions

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Rick

Rick

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Avatar-Keaton (4) & Dad enjoying the snow on Wachu
I just got out of Brigham & Womans Hospital today after spending 8 days there for Aortic Valve /Aortic Root Replacement Surgery.
I now have 6-8 weeks of down time where all I can do is walk and rest as I rebuild my cardiac capabilities.

My wife is helping me put together a list of book title searches on our online Central Mass library system and I am looking for suggetions of good outdoor reading of any kind. If anyone has some titles or authors, please post them here for me. I have all of Krakuaer, Ed Abbey and Colin Fletcher, but I know there must be many more authors out there that I am not aware of.

All help kindly appreciated ....
Thanks
Rick
 
I dunno if youve read it, but I finished Forest and Crag a couple of weeks ago and it was indeed as good as everyone said it was. The Watermans are awesome writers.

But........if your not exactly looking at HIKING related books.........I could curl up for a full year and be happy reading nothing but Louis Lamour serial western novels :D .

Brian
 
Glad to hear the surgery was a success and hope the recovery goes quick so you can be on the trail again soon.

A little known but fantastic outdoor author is Bernd Heinrich. He grew up in Maine, and is now a zoology professor at the University of Vermont. He's written a variety of non-fiction books on nature, and really knows his stuff but writes in layman's terms that are easy to follow. His excitment for the subject matter is contagious!

"A Year in the Maine Woods" is outstanding, and I also just finished "Why We Run: A Natural History" which examines the evolution of running and relates it to nature from several different angles. He's also written books on ravens, owls, winter hibernation, and more. I'm aiming to read them all.

Get better soon. :D
 
You sound like you'd benefit from a laugh or two.....so check out Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods". You'll laugh out loud regularly. An easy read, but I found it very enjoyable. It's about two out of shape 40 somethings deciding they're going to thru hike the AT. Much hilarity ensues.
 
Sorry about your surgery. Sounds serious. Happy recuperating.

Two favorites come to mind:

"In the Shadow of Denali: Life and Death on Alaska's Mt. McKinley" by Jonathan Waterman

"Not Without Peril: 150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire" by Nicholas Howe

Steve
 
Feel better soon, Rick!

John McPhee and Barry Lopez are two other great writers on outdoors topics. I particularly enjoyed "Coming into the Country" by McPhee and "Arctic Dreams" by Lopez.

I think I listed others in Seema's thread so I won't repeat. :)

-- Ivy
 
Summer reads

So sorry to hear about your surgery- get well soon

Being that I am a perverse person, I like to read tales of winter struggles in the summer to keep cool, and vise-versa.

Try Alexander's "Endurance" this August
Anything by the Brits- they are such lunatics- Like Peter Boardman or Joe Tasker, Joe Simpson ("Touching the Void") etc.

Outside Mag.

Edward Abbey- "Down the River" or "Desert Solitaire"

Lewis and Clark

Anything by Larry McMurtry
 
I've been making my way through Tim Cahill's books lately. Not only do they make for entertaining outdoor travel reading, they also have great titles that make people look at you funny. I highly recommend "Pecked to Death by Ducks," and hope you feel better soon.


Edit: "Last Breath: Cautionary Tales from the Limits of Human Endurance" is another perennial favorite of mine.
 
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I hope you recover fast. I was about to post about being injured and un able to hike. I really messed up my right Knee on the way down Pyramid Peak in CO . My MD wants me have a MRI and all the other stuff. I am not sure If I want to find out. but I digress.
I found reading about being in the mountains only makes me want to get out all the more . The list on the other thread is great.
I find looking for places to go or even a diferent perspcetive of some place I have been is good,also some non hiking / mountain stuff. looking at gear to buy. and other such magazines might help you to do what it takes recover faster . But I am enjoying the posts hear . about peoples adventures .
Hey wait that might be good reading in itself. Keep those TRs coming !

I hope I can amble my way up the easier valley way when SJ makes his attempt at the Fitch Brothers record .
 
Wishing you a speedy recovery. A real interesting read and some related things about hiking that hasnt' been mentioned yet. "Deep Survival" by Laurence Gonzales.

Keith
 
Hi Rick,

Best wishes and prayers for a quick recovery.

I've got a word document on my computer here at work titled "Extreme Classics: The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time". I am not sure where I got it, but it was probably from here at VFTT or someone from this site. :) It's a great resource for books and contains a brief synopsis of each one. Anyway, my machine at home is down :( and I am about to leave work until Monday morning, but if you (or anyone else) would like a copy of this 8 page word document, please email me or send me a PM with your email address and I will send it to you Monday morning.

Rob
 
i12climbup said:
I've got a word document on my computer here at work titled "Extreme Classics: The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time". I am not sure where I got it, but it was probably from here at VFTT or someone from this site. :)
Click to expand...

If it's the list I'm thinking of, it was originally published in National Geographic Adventure magazine a couple of years ago. I've been steadily making my way through the books on the list... many of the books on the list are fantastic... though some left me wondering what the fuss was about!

- Ivy
 
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sli74 put up the link to my earlier thread, lots of good suggestions in that one. That has pretty much all the outdoors ones i like. since it is tour de lance time, 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.
 
I just purchased "adirondack:eek:f indians and mountains,1535-1838". It is worth the price for just the maps. It gives agreat history of the region. I purchased it through adirondack museum web site. After tax and shipping it come to $50, but well worth it.
 
poison ivy said:
John McPhee and Barry Lopez are two other great writers on outdoors topics.
Click to expand...
I second John McPhee; I've devoured (not literally :D ) all of his books (except his first one about Bill Bradley back when he was a basketball player, which I just got & am waiting for a good occasion to read). Any of them are good. My favorites:

[shorter essay collections] Irons in the Fire
Table of Contents
Giving Good Weight

[longer essays] The Control of Nature
The Pine Barrens
Oranges

edit: other authors on my bookshelf--
Noel Perrin's "1st/2nd/3rd Person Rural" series
"Logging Railroads of the White Mountains" by Fran Belcher
"The Story of Mount Washington" by F Allen Burt
"Mount Washington Reoccupied" by Robert Monahan
"Marty on the Mountain: 38 Years on Mt. Washington" by Martin Engstrom
"Reading the Forested Landscape" and "Reading the Granite Landscape" by Tom Wessels
"The Northern Forest" by Dobbs & Ober

Get well soon...
 
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Arghman
you remided me of books about plants and wildlife.
I am looking upo stuff on line . I sure would love to find something in the area we had talked about off list. I cannot go to far but if it is not too tough and I carry a reasonble load i would love ot go look for some thing. I do Have a idea. and of course a 4x4 . I can take some photos but need a good GPS location to be sure where it is.
Shoot me a e mail I have a few ideas .
Sorry to semi hi jack the Thread back to books oh what about DVDs for Rick My name also btw
 
Best wishes on your recovery.

Outdoor Related:
Seven Summits is tremendous.

peace.
 
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