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Post by downriver on Apr 17, 2024 9:09:10 GMT -8
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Post by burntfoot on Apr 27, 2024 19:45:22 GMT -8
I'll be back in a day or two.
While trekking in Nepal, I read at least a half dozen accounts of the 1996 Everest fiasco, and some others.
But, I've got to dig those out.
Spoiler Alert - Into Thin Air was NOT my favorite - the one by the Russian guy was.
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balzaccom
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Post by balzaccom on Apr 28, 2024 6:44:45 GMT -8
What fun. Just counted through-- I've only read 13 of the 50.
But then I would have added Clarence King ..
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swiftdream
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Post by swiftdream on Apr 28, 2024 9:06:08 GMT -8
I’ve read 15 books on that list and bookmarked it for future reference. I think there are more that should be included too but I read four to five books a month and like podcasts too. There isn’t much interaction in the Book/Podcast sub forum here though. Downriver suggests that Into the Wild should be there but it has one very fatal flaw. From what I understand Krakauer purposely left out a very important piece of information that could have and more likely than not in my opinion drove Chris on his ill fated journey. If you don’t understand then do some research and you’ll be enlightened. I found the details ugly. As a journalist Krakauer has no excuse to leave that out if he is truly interested in telling the story of Chris McCandless. That’s just my opinion and why I think that book shouldn’t be on the list. Include the important missing information and then it should. Embellishment or omission might be licensed in fiction which I don’t indulge in for the most part but not when the story is supposed to be nonfiction. From what I understand Chris’s sister asked this information not to be included but later she had to finally get it out and I’m glad she did. I remember a documentary on this with lots of video. The backstory is here; www.npr.org/2014/11/11/363120048/behind-the-famous-story-a-difficult-truth |
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Post by marmotstew on Apr 28, 2024 14:02:22 GMT -8
I think Into The Wild should be included just because it’s so controversial. Also, what about “The last Season” By Eric Blehm. Remember that one ?
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Post by downriver on Apr 30, 2024 6:14:19 GMT -8
I think Into The Wild should be included just because it’s so controversial. Also, what about “The last Season” By Eric Blehm. Remember that one ? I also enjoyed The Last Season; it was a good read. There are plenty of good bios on influential people in the outdoors not on the list. I’ve read 12 of the books on the list. I also have two more books on the list downloaded on Kindle that I have not gotten around to reading. Wild is the most overrated book I have ever read, btw. Regards, DR |
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Apr 30, 2024 7:12:02 GMT -8
Thanks for sharing that list. I’ve read 18 on it, but more to the point noted as many more titles that I would like to read.
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Post by burntfoot on May 5, 2024 13:05:41 GMT -8
Books I read on my two treks in Nepal.
That would be the Annapurna Circuit, and Everest Basecamp.
1. Into Thin Air by Krakauer
2. Within Reach - My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer & Jack Galvin
3. The Climb - Tragic Ambitions on Everest by Anatoli Boukreev - MY FAVORITE
4. another Everest account by Ed Viesters - Can't find it, and must have leant it out
5. Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer
6. Return to Tibet by Heinrich Harrer
7. Lost Horizon by James Hilton - One of my favorites that I re-read on my treks
8. Eiger Dreams by Krakauer
9. My Quest for the Yeti by Reinhold Messner
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reuben
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Post by reuben on May 5, 2024 13:24:43 GMT -8
I haven't read the book Life Lived Wild: Adventures at the Edge of the Map, which has apparently been recently published, but I did have dinner with Rick Ridgeway one evening, and, being mildly intelligent when around people like him, I shut up and listened. He's some sort of (un)official employee/ambassador for Patagonia, and has riveting tales to tell going back decades. He gave a brief recounting of his pursuit of the chulu with a few other daring adventurers. It's documented in the book The Big Open, which I think is out of print. There used to be snippets of the trek on youtube, but very few, and they're probably gone now. The Rolling Stone (or was it National Geographic?) article which described him as "The Real Indiana Jones" was a classic, and the tales were even greater, going back decades. This is an excerpt from a much later article. www.columbian.com/news/2024/feb/24/what-does-it-mean-to-live-wild-the-real-indiana-jones-ridgeway-wrote-the-book-on-it/ |
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on May 5, 2024 13:26:28 GMT -8
On the Everest/Himalayan climbing topic, I'll recommend adding Tigers of the Snow, by Jonathan Neale. Tells more of the Sherpa side of things and puts their role in historical perspective.
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Post by trinity on May 5, 2024 17:38:30 GMT -8
Read it. It's a beautifully written book about some of his adventures with the "Do Boys", including a moving account of Tompkins' death. |
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on May 5, 2024 19:47:24 GMT -8
I've read a mere 10 of them. A big part of the list is more recent, and my reading in that time frame is tilted more toward archeology, geology, and history.
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Post by burntfoot on May 5, 2024 20:25:23 GMT -8
On the Everest/Himalayan climbing topic, I'll recommend adding Tigers of the Snow, by Jonathan Neale. Tells more of the Sherpa side of things and puts their role in historical perspective. The books that got me trekking in the Himalaya were Annapurna by Herzog and The Snow Leopard by Mattheson And, the book that got me hiking, period, was The High Adventures of Eric Rybeck. |
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balzaccom
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Post by balzaccom on May 7, 2024 5:36:35 GMT -8
. another Everest account by Ed Viesters - Can't find it, and must have leant it out I really like K2 by Ed Viesturs. Maybe my favorite book on those death zone climbs. |
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Travis
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Post by Travis on May 7, 2024 6:57:49 GMT -8
Some of the best books I've read about hiking and backpacking were not even written so much about hiking and backpacking but about wildlife research that involved a lot of hiking and backpacking.
I might include in that category the 1979 Track of the Grizzly by Frank C. Craighead or the many books on wolves by Rick McIntyre. Other good books by backpacking researchers include Stephen Herrero's Bear Attacks, Mark Elbroch's The Cougar Conundrum, or Dan Flores' Wild New World.
The purpose of the Wilderness Act and Endangered Species Act was to preserve wild lands and wild species in places where humans are visitors who do not remain. So I prefer books about that wilderness and its indigenous residents rather than centered upon the humans who only visit. There are plenty of other books on history and archeology that I would include but have not named.
As the Backpacker writer wrote, it's a fools errand to name the best. Unlike him, I won't play the fool. But I will say, I think he's missing out.
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