Sometimes, I like to bring a book on long trips, and could you use some input on new material. Maybe something related to the lure/spiritual high of natural things/mountains/wilderness. Recently read (at home) some heavier stuff I'd recommend:

The Last Season by Eric Blehm,
Shattered Air by Bob Madgic,
Deep Survival: Who lives, who dies by Laurence Gonzales,
Read this last time out:
My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir

What have you enjoyed that's worth the weight?

Edited by 150mph on 07/29/2009 01:01:25 MDT.

Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness by
Doug Peacock

Edited by Found on 07/29/2009 01:10:02 MDT.

One of my absolute favorite books is A Walk Across America

I'm just listening to this on my commute to/from work and I've found it very entertaining. Some of the anecdotes have actually made me laugh out loud as I'm driving down the road, which I'm sure worries my fellow commuters.

It's about the AT obviously so an entirely different type of terrain, but maybe that's a good thing?

-Dave

it's too big to carry on a UL trip, but if you like California and the mountains, i think everyone should read "Up and Down California: 1860-1864" by William Brewer.

it's an amazing journal of Brewer's work with the first Geological Survey in California, when the Spanish missions were decrepit, the Gold Rush was on, the High Sierra was being explored, and Los Angeles was a little hamlet with grizzly bears in the hills. great stuff.

Deep Survival is good, although it might not be appropriate, depending on how spooked you get...!

I recommend anything by Bill Bryson. He has a good, conversational writing style.

Another recommendation: A World Transformed: Firsthand Accounts of California Before the Gold Rush, by Joshua Paddison. Great reading about a very different California.

Edited by prestonpatton on 07/29/2009 10:50:33 MDT.

The Johannine Logos by Gordon Clark

Why? Because it is one the best treatise on a foundational book that every thinking person should read. Clark is also a joy to read. His style is that of refreshing clarity - what the mountain air does for your body, this book does for your mind + spirit.

Of course, take along the Gospel according to John, as well, if not a compact Bible. I print out sections sometimes, so that I only have what another work is referring to, in order to save weight. I also keep the whole bible on my PDA phone @ 4.5 oz. (and multi-use).

Shoot, I also forgot another must read for all wilderness travel.

When I am in the wilds, alone, with all the majesty of the natural world arrayed before me, I am reminded that it all exists due to the supreme and wondrous noodly appendages of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, in all his meatball-filled glory.

http://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Flying-Spaghetti-Monster/dp/0812976568

I enjoyed all of Jon Krakauer's books, even "Under the Banner of Heaven", which isn't hiking related. Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" is one of my absolute favorites. Reading it makes me think I might actually enjoy hiking the AT. I really like "The Last Season" as well, it makes me wish I had the time and money to visit the Yosemite/Sequoia NP area.

To contribute to the thread, I like the writings of Sigurd Olson. He is known more for his work in the Boundary Waters/Quetico but he is a great nature writer. Reading his works takes me right back to the week I spent canoeing with my dad in the Boundary Waters and stirs the urge to go back.

And finally, as a general comment, I have never actually finished "The Man Who Walked Through Time" by Colin Fletcher. I just can't ever get into his writing style.

Adam

Another book along the lines of Deep Survival (re: "not for the faint of heart or easily spooked while reading at night") is David Quammen's Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind.

Quammen is a very good writer who wrote The Song of the Dodo (another good book) and numerous other non-fiction books with an environmental bent to them.

How about reading something by John Muir. It's been so long that I can't recommend a specific book.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=john+muir&x=0&y=0

The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev and Left for Dead by Beck Weathers are great ones. If you've read Into Thin Air by John Krakauer you'll like them-- those two books are different perspectives from the same expedition.

Secor's High Sierras. History, and research for the next peak to bag or next trail/route to conquer.

"When I am in the wilds, alone, with all the majesty of the natural world arrayed before me, I am reminded that it all exists due to the supreme and wondrous noodly appendages of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, in all his meatball-filled glory."




RAmen, brother.

RAmen.

i would suggest The Tracker, its by Tom Brown j.r.
i realy loved this book infact it some how gave me a differnt perspective of the wilderness and is what got me in to camping. its a great book and its not to big, even if you dont bring it read it some time.