46 Best 「hiking」 Books of 2024| Books Explorer

In this article, we will rank the recommended books for hiking. The list is compiled and ranked by our own score based on reviews and reputation on the Internet.
May include product promotions in this content
Table of Contents
  1. Gloryland
  2. How to Suffer Outside: A Beginner's Guide to Hiking and Backpacking
  3. Best Walks of the Shoalhaven: The Full-Colour Guide to Over 40 Fantastic Walks (WOODSLANE WALKING GUIDES)
  4. Best Hikes and Walks of Southwestern British Columbia
  5. The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland (The Canons, 6)
  6. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Oprah's Book Club 2.0)
  7. National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of Canada, 2nd Edition
  8. Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills
  9. Backpacker Long Trails: Mastering the Art of the Thru-Hike
  10. Seven Years in Tibet (Cornerstone Editions)
Other 36 books
No.1
100

Gloryland

Johnson, Shelton
Counterpoint

“A work of extraordinary imagination and sympathy, a journey from slavery to the mountaintop, perfectly realized.” ―Ken Burns, American filmmakerBorn on Emancipation Day, 1863, to a sharecropping family of black and Indian blood, Elijah Yancy never lived as a slave―but his self-image as a free person is at war with his surroundings: Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the Reconstructed South. Exiled for his own survival as a teenager, Elijah walks west to the Nebraska plains―and, like other rootless young African-American men of that era, joins up with the US cavalry.The trajectory of Elijah’s army career parallels the nation’s imperial adventures in the late 19th century: subduing Native Americans in the West, quelling rebellion in the Philippines. Haunted by the terrors endured by black Americans and by his part in persecuting other people of color, Elijah is sustained only by visions, memories, prayers, and his questing spirit―which ultimately finds a home when his troop is posted to the newly created Yosemite National Park in 1903. Here, living with little beyond mountain light, running water, campfires, and stars, he becomes a man who owns himself completely, while knowing he’s left pieces of himself scattered along his life’s path like pebbles on a creek bed.“Seen through the fresh eyes of buffalo soldier Elijah Yancy, Yosemite is Gloryland, his true home. Shelton Johnson has written a beautiful novel about Elijah’s journey.” ―Maxine Hong Kingston, author of China Men and The Woman Warrior

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.2
88

2022 National Outdoor Book Award Winner in Instructional Outdoor Adventure GuideNamed a Backpacker Magazine "50 Best Hiking Books of All Time"Refreshingly approachable guide for aspiring backpackers and casual hikers of all stripes Colorful and humorous illustrations throughout Relatable, rising female voice in outdoor literature Part critique of modern hiking culture and part how-to guide, How to Suffer Outside is for anyone who wants to hit the trail without breaking the bank. Diana Helmuth offers real advice, opinionated but accessible and based on in-the-field experiences. She wins readers’ hearts and trust through a blend of self-deprecating humor and good-natured heckling of both seasoned backpackers and urbanites who romanticize being outdoorsy, plus a helpful dose of the actual advice a novice needs to get started.Featuring illustrations by artist Latasha Dunston, each chapter focuses on a critical topic: gear, food, hygiene, clothing, and more, along with useful checklists and resources. Humorous, philosophical, and practical, How to Suffer Outside teaches casual walkers, hikers, and campers of all stripes how to venture outdoors with confidence.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.4
81

The author covers the spectacular hikes to be experienced within about three hours of Vancouver. Notes on natural history and aboriginal lore are combined with important hiking information.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.5
81

In this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape.Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the 'essential nature' of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us. Composed during the Second World War, the manuscript of The Living Mountain lay untouched for more than thirty years before it was finally published.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.6
80

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone.Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.7
80

This completely updated guidebook shows you how to make the most out of your visit to Canada’s 47 gorgeous national parks, just in time for Canada’s 150th birthday—from Cape Breton Highlands to Banff to Pacific Rim National Park Preserve, plus the five newest additions: Nááts'ihch'oh National Park Reserve, Mealy Mountains, Rouge Urban, Qausuittuq, and Sable Island National Park Reserve of Canada. Written by national park experts who know the parks inside out, chock-full of handy, practical information, and beautifully illustrated with stunning photography and one-of-a-kind maps prepared by National Geographic cartographers specifically for this book, this edition takes you step-by-step to the must-sees of each park, and lesser known places as well, making sure you don’t miss a thing. Detailed guidance highlights the best spots for wildlife watching, favorite places for kayaking, swimming, camping, hiking, and other activities, as well as such nuts-and-bolts information as how to get to each park, the best seasons, where to stay, and much more. This is the only guide you’ll need on your next foray into Canada’s splendid parks.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.8
79

“The definitive guide to mountains and climbing . . .”―Conrad AnkerFor nearly 60 years it’s been revered as the “bible” of mountaineering–and now it’s even better than everThe best-selling instructional text for new and intermediate climbers for more than half a century New edition―fully updated techniques and all-new illustrations Researched and written by a team of expert climbers Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills is the text beloved by generations of new climbers―the standard for climbing education around the world where it has been translated into 12 languages. For the all-new 9th Edition, committees comprosed of active climbers and climbing educators reviewed every chapter of instruction, and discussed updates with staff from the American Alpine Club (AAC), the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE), and the Access Fund. They also worked with professional members of the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA), to review their work and ensure that the updated textbook includes the most current best practices for both alpine and rock climbing instruction.From gear selection to belay and repel techniques, from glacier travel to rope work, to safety, safety, and more safety―there is no more comprehensive and thoroughly vetted training manual for climbing than the standard set by Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, 9th Edition.Significant updates to this edition include:• New alignment with AAC’s nationwide universal belay standard• Expanded and more detailed avalanche safety info, including how to better understand avalanches, evaluate hazards, travel safely in avy terrain, and locate and rescue a fellow climber in an avalanche• Newly revamped chapters on clothing and camping• All-new illustrations reflecting the latest gear and techniques―created by artist John McMullen, former art director of Climbing magazine• Review of and contributions to multiple sections by AMGA-certified guides• Fresh approach to the Ten Essentials―now making the iconic list easier to recall

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.9
79

WINNER OF THE 2017 NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARDS (INSTRUCTIONAL CATEGORY)Make the Dream of a Long Distance Thru-Hike a RealityHave you been dreaming of the summer when you can hike the Appalachian Trail? Or marvel at the snow-capped peaks along the Pacific Crest Trail? Or simply section hike the Continental Divide Trail? In Backpacker’s Long Trails, Liz “Snorkel” Thomas, former women’s speed record holder for the AT and veteran of twenty long trails, gives you the tools to make this dream a reality. Included is trail-proven advice on selecting gear, stocking resupplies, and planning your budget and schedule, complete with gorgeous photographs of life on the trail. Along the way, enjoy sneak peeks into not only the Triple Crown trails, but also lesser-known long trails throughout North America.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.10
78

The astonishing adventure classic about life in Tibet just before the Chinese Communist takeover is now repackaged for a new generation of readers.In this vivid memoir that has sold millions of copies worldwide, Heinrich Harrer recounts his adventures as one of the first Europeans ever to enter Tibet and encounter the Dalai Lama.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.11
78

SHORTLISTED FOR TGO BOOK OF THE YEARThis is a book for everyone who truly loves the mountains and wild places. John Burns takes you on a journey of over forty years from the hills of Britain to adventures in the Rocky Mountains of USA and Canada. His love for the Scottish Highlands and his intimate knowledge of its wild glens and distant peaks means that this book will resonate with anyone whose heart lies in Scotland. Join John Burns in his first faltering steps as a schoolboy in the English Lake District through to climbing adventures in the great ranges of the world and finally to his return to his beloved Highlands. This is a book about the people who love mountains and whose journeys amongst them enrich their lives.It is a story told with humour, humility and passion, a tale that displays a deeper understanding of what it is to have a relationship with nature.The Last Hillwalker has become a best seller amongst the outdoor community. With almost 100 FIVE STAR REVIEWS this is book will be enjoyed by everyone from the serious mountaineer to those who simply want to gain a greater insight into our relationship with wild places.Here’s what people say about the book…Chris TownsendCaptures the essence of what it means to love mountains and love being in mountains.Trev C gripping like no otherNS Eyrecaptures the essence of the appeal many of us feel for the mountainsA Reader perfectly paced and with great humourYorrellEntertaining, funny and well written.S McGinnFull of fascinating details, observations, characters and humourPaul a brilliant autobiography by a talented writer, full of humour with the occasional dark moment. The best mountaineering book I've read in a long time!

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.12
78

A gifted storyteller shares seven decades of surprising adventures• The author is a distinguished member of The Explorers Club• The author is an unexpected adventurer, disarmingly positive and companionable• Lively stories of remote treks around the worldWay Out There is an account of J. Robert Harris’s extraordinary exploits while backpacking in some of the world’s most tantalizing places―largely alone and unsupported. And after almost fifty years of wilderness travel, “J.R.,” as he’s known, has plenty of tales to tell! His stories are by turns funny, tragic, and uplifting, and are all told in his down‐to‐earth, friendly storytelling style.For J.R. it all began in 1966 when, as a young New Yorker, he impulsively drives his VW Beetle across the country to the very end of the northernmost road in Alaska, searching for an answer to a simple question: What is it like to be way out there? How this happened, who he met, and what he encountered along the way became the foundation for a lifelong attraction to trekking and adventure travel. Subsequent chapters chronologically explore some of his many journeys, revealing an enduring wanderlust honed by his emerging maturity and outdoor skills. Stories of J. R.’s solo treks point to stark contrasts between his urban upbringing and his wilderness wanderings, while tales of adventure with small but diverse groups of friends are enriched by their collective experiences and varying viewpoints about exploration.Way Out There is a lively yet introspective book by a restless soul that will attract countless readers who love to travel, as well as armchair adventurers and communities looking for outdoor role models. The foreword is by the late Dr. Roscoe C. Brown, Jr., one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots during World War II.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.13
77

The acclaimed author of The Wild Places and Underland examines the subtle ways we are shaped by the landscapes through which we moveChosen by Slate as one of the 50 best nonfiction books of the past 25 yearsIn this exquisitely written book, which folds together natural history, cartography, geology, and literature, Robert Macfarlane sets off to follow the ancient routes that crisscross both the landscape of the British Isles and its waters and territories beyond. The result is an immersive, enthralling exploration of the voices that haunt old paths and the stories our tracks tell. Macfarlane’s journeys take him from the chalk downs of England to the bird islands of the Scottish northwest, from Palestine to the sacred landscapes of Spain and the Himalayas. He matches strides with the footprints made by a man five thousand years ago near Liverpool, sails an open boat far out into the Atlantic at night, and commingles with walkers of many kinds, discovering that paths offer a means not just of traversing space but also of feeling, knowing, and thinking.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.14
77

When the struggle to save oil-soaked birds and restore blackened beaches left him feeling frustrated and helpless, John Francis decided to take a more fundamental and personal stand—he stopped using all forms of motorized transportation. Soon after embarking on this quest that would span two decades and two continents, he took a vow of silence that endured for 17 years. It began as a silent environmental protest, but as a young African-American man, walking across the country in the early 1970s, his idea of "the environment" expanded beyond concern about pollution and loss of habitat to include how we humans treat each other and how we can better communicate and work together to benefit the earth.Through his silence and walking, he learned to listen, and along the way, earned college and graduate degrees in science and environmental studies. An amazing human-interest story with a vital message, Planetwalker is also an engaging coming-of-age pilgrimage.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.15
77

The Way to Rainy Mountain

Momaday, N. Scott
Univ of New Mexico Pr

First published in paperback by UNM Press in 1976, The Way to Rainy Mountain has sold over 200,000 copies."The paperback edition of The Way to Rainy Mountain was first published twenty-five years ago. One should not be surprised, I suppose, that it has remained vital, and immediate, for that is the nature of story. And this is particularly true of the oral tradition, which exists in a dimension of timelessness. I was first told these stories by my father when I was a child. I do not know how long they had existed before I heard them. They seem to proceed from a place of origin as old as the earth."The stories in The Way to Rainy Mountain are told in three voices. The first voice is the voice of my father, the ancestral voice, and the voice of the Kiowa oral tradition. The second is the voice of historical commentary. And the third is that of personal reminiscence, my own voice. There is a turning and returning of myth, history, and memoir throughout, a narrative wheel that is as sacred as language itself."--from the new Preface

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.16
77

“Rough, tough, combative . . . a passionately felt, deeply poetic book.”—Edwin Way Teale, The New York Times Book Review“This is not primarily a book about the desert,” writes Edward Abbey in his introduction. “In recording my impressions of the natural scene I have striven above all for accuracy, since I believe that there is a kind of poetry, even a kind of truth, in simple fact. But the desertis a vast world, an oceanic world, as deep in its way and complex and various as the sea. Language makes a mighty loose net with which to go fishing for simple facts, when facts are infinite. If a man knew enough he could write a whole book about the juniper tree. Not juniper trees in general but that one particular juniper tree which grows from a ledge of naked sandstone near the old entrance to Arches National Monument. What I have tried to do then is something a bit different. Since you cannot get the desert into a book any more than a fisherman can haul up the sea with his nets, I have tried to create a world of words in which the desert figures more as medium than as material. Not imitation but evocation has been the goal.”

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.17
76

For the first time since 1984, we have a new edition of the classic book that Field & Stream called “the Hiker’s Bible.” For this version, the celebrated writer and hiker Colin Fletcher has taken on a coauthor, Chip Rawlins, himself an avid outdoorsman and a poet from Wyoming. Together, they have made this fourth edition of The Complete Walker the most informative, entertaining, and thorough version yet.The eighteen years since the publication of The Complete Walker III have seen revolutionary changes in hiking and camping equipment: developments in waterproofing technology, smaller and more durable stoves, lighter boots, more manageable tents, and a wider array of food options. The equipment recommendations are therefore not merely revised and tweaked, but completely revamped. During these two decades we have also seen a deepening of environmental consciousness. Not only has backpacking become more popular, but a whole ethic of responsible outdoorsmanship has emerged. In this book the authors confidently lead us through these technological, ethical, and spiritual changes.Fletcher and Rawlins’s thorough appraisal and recommendation of equipment begins with a “Ground Plan,” a discussion of general hiking preparedness. How much to bring? What are the ideal clothes, food, boots, and tents for your trip? They evaluate each of these variables in detail—including open, honest critiques and endorsements of brand-name equipment. Their equipment searches are exhaustive; they talk in detail about everything from socks to freeze-dried trail curries.They end as they began, with a philosophical and literary disquisition on the reasons to walk, capped off with a delightful collection of quotes about walking and the outdoor life. After a thoughtful and painstaking analysis of hiking gear from hats to boots, from longjohns to tent flaps, they remind us that ultimately hiking is about the experience of being outdoors and seeing the green world anew.Like its predecessors, The Complete Walker IV is an essential purchase for anyone captivated by the outdoor life.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.18
76

Jack Kerouac’s classic novel about friendship, the search for meaning, and the allure of nature—featuring an Introduction by Anne Douglas“In [On the Road] Kerouac’s heroes were sensation seekers; now they are seekers after truth . . . the novel often attains a beautiful dignity.”—Chicago TribuneFirst published in 1958, a year after On the Road put the Beat Generation on the map, The Dharma Bums stands as one of Jack Kerouac’s most powerful and influential novels. The story focuses on two ebullient young Americans—mountaineer, poet, and Zen Buddhist Japhy Ryder, and Ray Smith, a zestful, innocent writer—whose quest for Truth leads them on a heroic odyssey, from marathon parties and poetry jam sessions in San Francisco’s Bohemia to solitude and mountain climbing in the High Sierras.Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.19
76

John Muir’s beloved adventure in the Sierra reissued to entertain, encourage, and inspire contemporary naturalists.Considered one of the patron saints of twentieth-century environmental activity, John Muir's appeal to modern readers is that he not only explored the American West but also fought for its preservation. My First Summer in the Sierra is Muir’s account of his adventures and observations while working as a shepherd in the Yosemite Valley, which later became Yosemite National Park as a direct result of Muir’s writings and activism. Muir’s heartfelt and often humorous descriptions of his first summer spent in the Sierra will captivate and inspire long-time fans and novice naturalists alike.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.20
76

The Gentle Art of Tramping

Humphreys, Alastair
Bloomsbury Reader

'An absolute gem of a book' Alastair Humphreys Know how to tramp and you know how to live. . . Know how to meet your fellow-wanderer, how to be passive to the beauty of nature and how to be active to its wildness and its rigour. The tramp is a friend of society; a seeker, they pay their way if they can. One includes in the category 'tramp' all true Bohemians, pilgrims, explorers afoot, walking tourists, and the like. Tramping is a way of approach, to nature, to your fellow man, to a nation, to beauty, to life itself. It is a gentle art and there is much to learn; illusions to overcome, prejudices and habits to be shaken off. The adventure is not the getting there, it is the on-the-way. It is not the expected; it is the surprise; not the fulfilment of prophecy but the providence of something better than prophesied. Originally published in 1926, The Gentle Art of Tramping is a guide for anyone who has dreamed of taking to the road with nothing more than a bag full of essentials and big ideas. It gives guidance on walking, being open to discovery and being kind - advice as relevant now as it was then. Author BiographyStephen Graham (1884 - 1975) was a British journalist, travel writer and novelist. His books recount his travels around pre-revolutionary Russia and to Jerusalem with a group of Russian Christian pilgrims. Most of his works express sympathy for the poor, for agricultural labourers and vagabonds, and his distaste for industrialisation. He was the son of the editor of Country Life. - The Gentle Art Of Tramping (Hardback)

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.21
76

“It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth.” —NietzscheIn A Philosophy of Walking, a bestseller in France, leading thinker Frédéric Gros charts the many different ways we get from A to B – the pilgrimage, the promenade, the protest march, the nature ramble – and reveals what they say about us.Gros draws attention to other thinkers who also saw walking as something central to their practice. On his travels he ponders Thoreau’s eager seclusion in Walden Woods; the reason Rimbaud walked in a fury, while Nerval rambled to cure his melancholy. He shows us how Rousseau walked in order to think, while Nietzsche wandered the mountainside to write. In contrast, Kant marched through his hometown every day, exactly at the same hour, to escape the compulsion of thought. Brilliant and erudite, A Philosophy of Walking is an entertaining and insightful manifesto for putting one foot in front of the other.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.22
76

First published in 1949 and praised in The New York Times Book Review as "a trenchant book, full of vigor and bite," A Sand County Almanac combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land.Written with an unparalleled understanding of the ways of nature, the book includes a section on the monthly changes of the Wisconsin countryside; another part that gathers informal pieces written by Leopold over a forty-year period as he traveled through the woodlands of Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, Sonora, Oregon, Manitoba, and elsewhere; and a final section in which Leopold addresses the philosophical issues involved in wildlife conservation. As the forerunner of such important books as Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, and Robert Finch's The Primal Place, this classic work remains as relevant today as it was forty years ago.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.23
76

Walking

Thoreau, Henry David
Innovative Eggz LLC

"I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil--to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society. I wish to make an extreme statement, if so I may make an emphatic one, for there are enough champions of civilization: the minister and the school committee and every one of you will take care of that."Henry David Thoreau, noted transcendentalist, wrote Walking as a message of the battle between the importance of nature and the pull of the demands of society, while at the same time writing his other environmental work, Walden.First delivered by Thoreau in 1851, Walking, or also known as The Wild, this essay was not only popular with the public, but also considered by Thoreau himself as, "... a sort of introduction to all that I may write hereafter."

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.24
76

The Songlines

Chatwin, Bruce
Penguin Books

Bruce Chatwin-author of In Patagonia-ventures into the desolate land of Outback Australia to learn the meaning of the Aborginals' ancient "Dreaming-tracks." Along these timeless paths, amongst the fortune hunters and redneck Australians, racist policemen and mysterious Aboriginal holy men, he discovers a wondrous vision of man's place in the world.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.25
76

This beloved account about an intrepid young Englishman on the first leg of his walk from London to Constantinople is simply one of the best works of travel literature ever written.At the age of eighteen, Patrick Leigh Fermor set off from the heart of London on an epic journey—to walk to Constantinople. A Time of Gifts is the rich account of his adventures as far as Hungary, after which Between the Woods and the Water continues the story to the Iron Gates that divide the Carpathian and Balkan mountains. Acclaimed for its sweep and intelligence, Leigh Fermor’s book explores a remarkable moment in time. Hitler has just come to power but war is still ahead, as he walks through a Europe soon to be forever changed—through the Lowlands to Mitteleuropa, to Teutonic and Slav heartlands, through the baroque remains of the Holy Roman Empire; up the Rhine, and down to the Danube.At once a memoir of coming-of-age, an account of a journey, and a dazzling exposition of the English language, A Time of Gifts is also a portrait of a continent already showing ominous signs of the holocaust to come.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.26
76

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Blue Ridge valley. Annie Dillard sets out to see what she can see. What she sees are astonishing incidents of "mystery, death, beauty, violence."

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.27
76

My Side of the Mountain

George, Jean Craighead
Puffin Books

"Should appeal to all rugged individualists who dream of escape to the forest."—The New York Times Book ReviewSam Gribley is terribly unhappy living in New York City with his family, so he runs away to the Catskill Mountains to live in the woods—all by himself. With only a penknife, a ball of cord, forty dollars, and some flint and steel, he intends to survive on his own. Sam learns about courage, danger, and independence during his year in the wilderness, a year that changes his life forever.“An extraordinary book . . . It will be read year after year.”—The Horn Book

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.28
76

New York Times Bestseller • Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award • Winner of the Saroyan International Prize for Writing • Winner of the Pacific Northwest Book Award • “The best outdoors book of the year.” —Sierra ClubFrom a talent who’s been compared to Annie Dillard, Edward Abbey, David Quammen, and Jared Diamond, On Trails is a wondrous exploration of how trails help us understand the world—from invisible ant trails to hiking paths that span continents, from interstate highways to the Internet.While thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, Robert Moor began to wonder about the paths that lie beneath our feet: How do they form? Why do some improve over time while others fade? What makes us follow or strike off on our own? Over the course of seven years, Moor traveled the globe, exploring trails of all kinds, from the miniscule to the massive. He learned the tricks of master trail-builders, hunted down long-lost Cherokee trails, and traced the origins of our road networks and the Internet. In each chapter, Moor interweaves his adventures with findings from science, history, philosophy, and nature writing.Throughout, Moor reveals how this single topic—the oft-overlooked trail—sheds new light on a wealth of age-old questions: How does order emerge out of chaos? How did animals first crawl forth from the seas and spread across continents? How has humanity’s relationship with nature and technology shaped world around us? And, ultimately, how does each of us pick a path through life?Moor has the essayist’s gift for making new connections, the adventurer’s love for paths untaken, and the philosopher’s knack for asking big questions. With a breathtaking arc that spans from the dawn of animal life to the digital era, On Trails is a book that makes us see our world, our history, our species, and our ways of life anew.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.29
76

“In its simple and disarming style, it is a great piece of reporting on a rugged frontier.” —San Francisco Chronicle“The book is a jewel case of keen perception, social analysis, and masterful description for this era.” —Chicago TribuneIsabella Bird traveled by horseback from Truckee, California, through the Tahoe Basin and on to Colorado where, during the autumn and early winter of 1873, she explored more than eight hundred miles of Rocky Mountain terrain only recently opened to pioneer settlement. Riding not sidesaddle but frontwards like a man (though she threatened to sue the Times for saying she dressed like one), she encountered magnificent unspoiled landscapes and abundant wildlife—including rattlesnakes, wolves, pumas, and grizzly bears.In letters to her sister, first printed in the magazine The Leisure Hour, Bird recounted her adventures and her impressions of the small remote townships and the miners and pioneer settlers she came across. For a time she was joined by Jim Nugent, “Rocky Mountain Jim,” an outlaw with one eye and an affinity for violence and poetry and someone Bird described as “a man any woman might love, but no sane woman would marry,” in a section excised from her letters before their publication.A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, Bird’s fourth and most famous book, remains a classic of Western literature.Isabella Bird (1831–1904) was a British explorer, writer, photographer, and naturalist. She began traveling at the age of twenty-three—first to America, then eventually, to Australia, Hawaii, and Colorado. In her later travels she journeyed to Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Morocco, India, Persia, Armenia, Kurdistan, Turkey, and Iran. Featured in journals and magazines for decades, Bird was, by 1890, a household name. She was the first woman to be awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and the first woman elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.30
76

The celebrated author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn mixes fact and fiction in a rousing travelogue that serves as “a portrait of the artist as a young adventurer.”*In 1861, young Mark Twain found himself adrift as a newcomer in the Wild West, working as a civil servant, silver prospector, mill worker, and finally a reporter and traveling lecturer. Roughing It is the hilarious record of those early years traveling from Nevada to California to Hawaii, as Twain tried his luck at anything and everything—and usually failed. Twain’s encounters with tarantulas and donkeys, vigilantes and volcanoes, even Brigham Young, the Mormon leader, come to life with his inimitable mixture of reporting, social satire, and rollicking tall tales.With an Introduction by Elizabeth Frank*And a New Afterword by Mark Dawidziak

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.31
76

“Involves us intensely in a world that no longer exists—that of free Tibet. . . . Fervent and admirably unsentimental . . . [David-Neel] had to exercise the utmost ingenuity to survive.”— New York Times Book ReviewOriginally published in 1927, My Journey to Lhasa is a powerful, entertaining record of danger and achievement that has become one of the most remarkable and inspirational of all travelers’ tales. Disguised as a beggar, Alexandra David-Neel tackled some of the roughest terrain and climate, suffered primitive travel conditions, frequent outbreaks of disease, the ever-present danger of border control, and the military to become the first woman to penetrate Tibet and reach Lhasa—and the first Western woman to have been received by any Dalai Lama.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.32
76

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURERobyn Davidson's opens the memoir of her perilous journey across 1,700 miles of hostile Australian desert to the sea with only four camels and a dog for company with the following words: “I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there's no going back."Enduring sweltering heat, fending off poisonous snakes and lecherous men, chasing her camels when they get skittish and nursing them when they are injured, Davidson emerges as an extraordinarily courageous heroine driven by a love of Australia's landscape, an empathy for its indigenous people, and a willingness to cast away the trappings of her former identity. Tracks is the compelling, candid story of her odyssey of discovery and transformation.“An unforgettably powerful book.”—Cheryl Strayed, author of WildNow with a new postscript by Robyn Davidson.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.33
76

Singin' in the Rain, The Sound of Music, Camelot--love them or love to hate them, movie musicals have been a major part of all our lives. They're so glitzy and catchy that it seems impossible that they could have ever gone any other way. But the ease in which they unfold on the screen is deceptive. Dorothy's dream of finding a land "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was nearly cut, and even a film as great as The Band Wagon was, at the time, a major flop.In Dangerous Rhythm: Why Movie Musicals Matter, award winning historian Richard Barrios explores movie musicals from those first hits, The Jazz Singer and Broadway Melody, to present-day Oscar winners Chicago and Les Misérables. History, film analysis, and a touch of backstage gossip combine to make Dangerous Rhythm a compelling look at musicals and the powerful, complex bond they forge with their audiences. Going behind the scenes, Barrios uncovers the rocky relationship between Broadway and Hollywood, the unpublicized off-camera struggles of directors, stars, and producers, and all the various ways by which some films became our most indelible cultural touchstones -- and others ended up as train wrecks.Not content to leave any format untouched, Barrios examines animated musicals and popular music with insight and enthusiasm. Cartoons have been intimately connected with musicals since Steamboat Willie. Disney's short Silly Symphonies grew into the instant classic Snow White, which paved the way for that modern masterpiece, South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut. Without movie musicals, Barrios argues, MTV would have never existed. On the flip side, without MTV we might have been spared Evita.Informed, energetic, and humorous, Dangerous Rhythm is both an impressive piece of scholarship and a joy to read.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.34
76

A poignant, candid chronicle of a beloved nature writer’s fifty-year relationship with an iconic American landscape.Those who have encountered Cape Cod―or merely dipped into an account of its rich history―know that it is a singular place. Robert Finch writes of its beaches: “No other place I know sears the heart with such a constant juxtaposition of pleasure and pain, of beauty being born and destroyed in the same moment.” And nowhere within its borders is this truth more vivid and dramatic than along the forty miles of Atlantic coast―what Finch has always known as the Outer Beach. The essays here represent nearly fifty years and a cumulative thousand miles of walking along the storied edge of the Cape’s legendary arm.Finch considers evidence of nature’s fury: shipwrecks, beached whales, towering natural edifices, ferocious seaside blizzards. And he ponders everyday human interactions conducted in its environment with equal curiosity, wit, and insight: taking a weeks-old puppy for his first beach walk; engaging in a nocturnal dance with one of the Cape’s fabled lighthouses; stumbling, unexpectedly, upon nude sunbathers; or even encountering out-of-towners hoping an Uber will fetch them from the other side of a remote dune field.Throughout these essays, Finch pays tribute to the Outer Beach’s impressive literary legacy, meditates on its often-tragic history, and explores the strange, mutable nature of time near the ocean. But lurking behind every experience and observation―both pivotal and quotidian―is the essential question that the beach beckons every one of its pilgrims to confront: How do we accept our brief existence here, caught between overwhelming beauty and merciless indifference?Finch’s affable voice, attentive eye, and stirring prose will be cherished by the Cape’s staunch lifers and erstwhile visitors alike, and strike a resounding chord with anyone who has been left breathless by the majestic, unrelenting beauty of the shore. Map

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.36
76

Why would a middle-aged businessman, who had never even spent a single night outdoors, attempt to hike the entire 2,180 mile Appalachian Trail? Bill Walker, a former commodities trader in Chicago and London, and an avid 'streetwalker', had developed a virtual obsession to thru-hike the AT, which runs for fourteen states from Georgia to Maine. In the early spring of 2005 he set off, determined to hike this Georgia-to-northern Maine wilderness trail before the arrival of winter. Immediately, he realized he had plunged into a whole new world. The AT has some ferociously difficult terrain, winding through dramatically diverse geography, and covers the very highest peaks in the East. Walker's near 7-foot height earned him the trail name, Skywalker, and drew raves from fellow hikers. But that same height made him more vulnerable to weight loss, cold weather, and crushing fatigue. An elemental fear of bears, snakes, and getting lost also loomed large. The journey often seemed like a see-saw battle between his determination vs. his blunders. No other country has a footpath even remotely as popular as the Appalachian Trail. Up to 4,000,000 people hike on the AT during any given year. Mortals are compelled--or perhaps cursed--to relive their lifetime adventure. This is Bill Walker's (Skywalker's) unforgettable version, leavened with ruthlessly self-deprecating humor. His fondest hope is to inspire other rookies and novices, to give the Appalachian Trail a try as well.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.37
76

2014 National Outdoor Book Award Winner in History / BiographyEmma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, sixty-seven-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. By September 1955 she stood atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin, sang “America, the Beautiful,” and proclaimed, “I said I’ll do it, and I’ve done it.”Driven by a painful marriage, Grandma Gatewood not only hiked the trail alone, she was the first person—man or woman—to walk it twice and three times. At age seventy-one, she hiked the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail. Gatewood became a hiking celebrity, and appeared on TV with Groucho Marx and Art Linkletter. The public attention she brought to the trail was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction.Author Ben Montgomery interviewed surviving family members and hikers Gatewood met along the trail, unearthed historic newspaper and magazine articles, and was given full access to Gatewood’s own diaries, trail journals, and correspondence. Grandma Gatewood’s Walk shines a fresh light on one of America’s most celebrated hikers.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.38
76

A passionate, thought-provoking exploration of walking as a political and cultural activity, from the author of Orwell's RosesDrawing together many histories--of anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual mores--Rebecca Solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking. Arguing that the history of walking includes walking for pleasure as well as for political, aesthetic, and social meaning, Solnit focuses on the walkers whose everyday and extreme acts have shaped our culture, from philosophers to poets to mountaineers. She profiles some of the most significant walkers in history and fiction--from Wordsworth to Gary Snyder, from Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet to Andre Breton's Nadja--finding a profound relationship between walking and thinking and walking and culture. Solnit argues for the necessity of preserving the time and space in which to walk in our ever more car-dependent and accelerated world.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.39
76

A Book of Silence

Maitland, Sara
Counterpoint LLC

A personal and cultural exploration of silence and its value in our lives―“[an] artful book, mixing autobiography, travel writing, meditation, and essay” (Independent, UK).In her late forties, after a noisy upbringing as one of six children and adulthood as a vocal feminist and mother, Sara Maitland found herself living alone in the country and, to her surprise, falling in love with silence. In this fascinating, intelligent, and beautifully written book, Maitland describes how she began to explore this new love, spending periods of silence in the Sinai desert, the Scottish hills, and a remote cottage on the Isle of Skye.Maitland also delves deep into the rich cultural history of silence, exploring its significance in fairy tale and myth, its importance to the Western and Eastern religious traditions, and its use in psychoanalysis and artistic expression.Her story culminates in her building a hermitage on an isolated moor in Galloway. “Her book is probably unique in its subject, and timely, because good, healing silence is becoming hard to find, and we may not know we need it” (Guardian, UK).

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.40
76

Journey to the West

Chenen, Wu
New Phoenix Intl Llc

加微信(soweinc) 分享最新前沿的知识好书,好友低至3-9折.书名:西游记(1-4卷)(英文版)作者:[明] 吴承恩 著 [英] 詹纳尔 译 出版社:外文出版社出版日期:2014年7月装订:简装分类:图书-文学-双语读物

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.41
76

1995 EarthTales Press. Wraps are clean and bright but show slight signs of edge/shelf wear. Spine is uncreased. Page 59 has a very small smudge along right side but otherwise, pages are free of marks, underlines or highlights. Beautifully written and illustrated. Proceeds benefit Oro Valley AZ Public Library.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.42
76

"Polished, poignant... an inspiring story of true love."—Entertainment WeeklyA BEST BOOK OF 2019, NPR's Book ConciergeSHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK AWARDOVER 400,000 COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDEThe true story of a couple who lost everything and embarked on a transformative journey walking the South West Coast Path in EnglandJust days after Raynor Winn learns that Moth, her husband of thirty-two years, is terminally ill, their house and farm are taken away, along with their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, through Devon and Cornwall.Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea, and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable and life-affirming journey. Powerfully written and unflinchingly honest, The Salt Path is ultimately a portrayal of home—how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.43
76

On Feb. 15, 2015, Kate Matrosova, an avid mountaineer, set off before sunrise for a traverse of the Northern Presidential Range in New Hampshire's White Mountains. Late the following day, rescuers carried her frozen body out of the mountains amid some of the worst weather ever recorded on these deceptively rugged slopes.At thirty-two, Matrosova was ultra-fit and healthy and had already summited much larger mountains on several continents. Her gear included a rescue beacon and a satellite phone. Yet, despite their best efforts, more than forty expert search and rescue personnel, a New Hampshire Army National Guard Blackhawk helicopter, and a Civil Air Patrol Cessna airplane could not reach her in time to save her.What went wrong?Where You'll Find Me offers possible answers to that question, demonstrating why Matrosova's story--what we know and what we will never know--represents such an intriguing and informative case study in risk analysis and decision-making.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.44
76

Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home

Anderson, Heather
Mountaineers Books

National Geographic 2019 Adventurer of the YearNamed a Backpacker Magazine "50 Best Hiking Books of All Time""Beautiful and deftly written and intimate and searing in its honesty, Anish’s is a quest to conquer the trail and her own inner darkness."-Foreword Reviews"Filled with ruminative self-reflection, soaring natural descriptions and delightful accounts of the gracious, life-sustaining 'trail magic' of hiking culture, Thirst is a testament to human endurance, inspiring to hikers and non-hikers alike."-Shelf AwarenessBy age 25, Heather Anderson had hiked what is known as the "Triple Crown" of backpacking: the Appalachian Trail (AT), Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), and Continental Divide Trail (CDT)―a combined distance of 7,900 miles with a vertical gain of more than one million feet. A few years later, she left her job, her marriage, and a dissatisfied life and walked back into those mountains.In her new memoir, Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home, Heather, whose trail name is "Anish," conveys not only her athleticism and wilderness adventures, but also shares her distinct message of courage--her willingness to turn away from the predictability of a more traditional life in an effort to seek out what most fulfills her. Amid the rigors of the trail--pain, fear, loneliness, and dangers--she discovers the greater rewards of community and of self, conquering her doubts and building confidence. Ultimately, she realizes that records are merely a catalyst, giving her purpose, focus, and a goal to strive toward.Heather is the second woman to complete the “Double Triple Crown of Backpacking,” completing the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide National Scenic Trails twice each. She holds overall self-supported Fastest Known Times (FKTs) on the Pacific Crest Trail (2013)―hiking it in 60 days, 17 hours, 12 minutes, breaking the previous men’s record by four days and becoming the first women to hold the overall record―and the Arizona Trail (2016), which she completed in 19 days, 17 hours, 9 minutes. She also holds the women’s self-supported FKT on the Appalachian Trail (2015) with a time of 54 days, 7 hours, 48 minutes. Heather has hiked more than twenty thousand miles since 2003, including ten thru-hikes. An ultramarathon runner, she has completed six 100-mile races since August 2011 as well as dozens of 50 km and 50-mile events. She has attempted the infamous Barkley Marathons four times, starting a third loop once. Heather is also an avid mountaineer working on several ascent lists in the US and abroad.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.45
76

"Unique among survival books…stunning…enthralling. Deep Survival makes compelling, and chilling, reading." ―Denver PostLaurence Gonzales’s bestselling Deep Survival has helped save lives from the deepest wildernesses, just as it has improved readers’ everyday lives. Its mix of adventure narrative, survival science, and practical advice has inspired everyone from business leaders to military officers, educators, and psychiatric professionals on how to take control of stress, learn to assess risk, and make better decisions under pressure.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
No.46
76

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD“A masterpiece that exceeds the boundaries of the travel genre and envelops you with its incredible prose.” —Wall Street JournalAn unforgettable spiritual journey through the Himalayas by renowned writer Peter Matthiessen (1927-2014)In 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Zen Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one, with a deepening Buddhist understanding of reality, suffering, impermanence, and beauty. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by acclaimed travel writer and novelist Pico Iyer.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Everyone's Review
No reviews yet.
search