What are you reading?

[Dave B]

Due to being furloughed, I've read a crap ton lately, been pretty happy with these couple of recommendations from upthread.

The Emerald Mile (Kevin Fedarko) - Great history of the Grand Canyon raft scene, wish the author hadn't ended every other paragraph with a "cliffhanger"

Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage (Alfred Lansing) - I feel soft AF after reading about what that crew went through.


And a couple others

Monkey Wrench Gang (Edward Abbey) - A good one to read before/after The Emerald Mile. The world needs more Hayduke.

How to Change Your Mind (Michael Polan) - Doing the drugs to change your perspective on the world for the better, pearl clutchers beware!

Packing for Mars (Mary Roach) - Funny and unique perspective of space travel

[seano]

I finished Jim Bridger: Mountain Man last month. Great book on an interesting character who had a big impact on the northern Rockies. It motivated me to pick up Blood and Thunder (about Kit Carson).

Blood and Thunder is a great book, with lots of interesting NM history.

I finally read Ueli Steck's My Life in Climbing last fall. While it lacks flowery prose, it offers a fascinating view into how Steck thought about mountaineering and risk.

I'm currently working on Heinrich Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet. (Before this, Harrer was part of the FA team for the Eiger's north face.) It reminds me a bit of Eric Shipton's writings about early Himalayan exploration, which are also well worth reading.

[Wentzl]

"Blood and Thunder" is a great book. So alive, it makes the reader want to go out and experience the areas where the action takes place.

Hampton Sides has a style that makes for fast fun reads. I just finished, "In the Kingdom of Ice". Sort of like the Shackelton story of the Endurance, but at the opposite pole and (spoiler alert!) not such a happy ending!

https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Ice-Terr ... 0307946916

[Shaolin]

Finally getting into this one: The Milky Way An Insider's Guide, William H. Waller. Pretty interesting s**t in here.

[two lunches]

Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness, by Scott Stillman

[druid2112]

I am about to start Eastern Approaches by Fitzroy MacLean. I've been searching for a copy of this book in every used bookstore in the country for about 2 years and finally found it, in Santa Rosa of all places...

[AnnaG22]

Due to being furloughed, I've read a crap ton lately, been pretty happy with these couple of recommendations from upthread.

The Emerald Mile (Kevin Fedarko) - Great history of the Grand Canyon raft scene, wish the author hadn't ended every other paragraph with a "cliffhanger"

Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage (Alfred Lansing) - I feel soft AF after reading about what that crew went through.


And a couple others

Monkey Wrench Gang (Edward Abbey) - A good one to read before/after The Emerald Mile. The world needs more Hayduke.

How to Change Your Mind (Michael Polan) - Doing the drugs to change your perspective on the world for the better, pearl clutchers beware!

Packing for Mars (Mary Roach) - Funny and unique perspective of space travel

Dave B, I loved the Emerald Mile when I read it a few years back. And I'm a big Pollan fan, too. I thought How to Change Your Mind was really fascinating, I read that right after reading Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales. The two books actually went together really well.

I'm currently reading Climb to Conquer by Peter Shelton, about the 10th Mountain Division. Some very cool history, with lots of skiing and mountaineering names in the pages.

[SurfNTurf]

Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness, by Scott Stillman

How do you like it? I've heard a few reviews, both online and first-hand, that it's a bit on the pompous side. "If you have a full-time job and other life responsibilities, you're an idiot." I'm interested, but I already roll my eyes enough at those types of folks on Instagram every day.

I'm currently reading Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It's not about the outdoors per se, but it's an adventure narrative about pilots in the 1920s opening air-mail routes across vast stretches of wilderness, including the Andes and the Sahara. (Ironically, Saint-Exupéry has more than a few passages berating "bureaucrats" with families and jobs for not living a similarly risk-seeking lifestyle.) It's a beautiful, interesting read thus far. If the name Saint-Exupéry sounds familiar, he wrote the famous children's book, The Little Prince. I became interested in this title after finishing Don Sheldon's biography, Wager with the Wind. (Which I highly, highly recommend if you can find it.)

Other recent books I've enjoyed (largely echoing others): American Wolf, Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild, The Emerald Mile, The Big Sky + sequels (just such a stellar series). Next up is Lonesome Dove, "the" classic Western that I've somehow missed until this point.

If you like desert and have never read Ellen Meloy, find yourself a copy of Eating Stone ASAP. I'm looking forward to reading her other works, but she's the kind of author you need a bit of a break from between books. Her writing is simply stellar. Hardly a paragraph passes by that you don't want to re-read, ponder and appreciate. Many passages are deeply moving. But, because of that, it does take quite a while to wade through.

[SurfNTurf]

Almost slipped my mind because it was an Audible audiobook, but I also just finished The River by Peter Heller. The author is a former Outside Magazine editor and the story centers on a weeks-long canoe expedition in the wilderness along the Canadian border. It's a fairly new fiction title getting a lot of hype in outdoor circles, so here's my honest review.

It seems to me like the author, who shines when describing the wilderness and the minutiae of a canoe expedition, took the novel he wanted to write and turned it into a "thriller" to appeal to a mass audience and snag a potential movie/TV deal. It's like if you took a fictionalized narrative of The Emerald Mile and added a murder-mystery that only half makes sense. The character development is also lackluster -- he tries to add backstory, but I found myself just not caring about what happened. To anyone. I even borderline hated the protagonist by the end, and (I think) you're supposed to empathize with him. The ending is also so rapid that both my wife and I exclaimed "wait, what?" when the narrator began a chapter by saying "Epilogue" seemingly in the midst of the climax.

I don't regret listening to it -- it was an entertaining way to pass the time on a road trip to Moab. You'll probably find it interesting if you enjoy the backcountry. But, it definitely feels more like one of the novels James Patterson cranks out every month than outdoor literature.

[davebks]

the sundering series by RA Salvatore. Well, guest authors but his deal anyway.

[JChitwood]

The Shadow of Kilimanjaro by Rick Ridgeway. Thought I had read all of his books but this one from 1999 escaped me. Only a few chapters in but very enjoyable so far.

[aemsu2017]

I finally got my "Annapurna" by Herzog back from a friend (who sadly didn't read more than 30 pages over a year and a half, apparently it was "too boring") so I will probably work through that again.

Besides that, I went out with a girl recently that was super into harry potter. That kinda got me into re reading it again as an adult and even though she is long gone I am half way through book 5. Kinda amazes me how good of a writer JK actually is, even if HP is a little young adulty.

Finally I am essentially always re reading "On Grand Strategy" by John Lewis Gaddis. It is the best history book I have ever read and even 10+ readings (or I guess listenings, audio books are amazing) I still find new things in it. Strongly recommend to anyone who likes history.