Anyone have good suggestions for non-fiction mountaineering stories, or adventure in general? I don't mind a bit of history or some science woven into the story. Just finished Jonathan Waterman's "In the Shadow of Denali". Good read. Been through all Sebastian Junger's and Jon Krakauer's books.

Joseph Leconte's A Journal of Ramblings is a good read, and I hate to read.

Not mountaineering but somewhat adventurous and since you enjoy Sebastian Junger and Jon Kraukauer you may enjoy these authors as well.

Edward Abby:
Desert Solitare
The Monkey Wrench Gang
Black Sun
Fire on the Mountain

John Steinbeck:
Of Mice and Men
Travels with Charley
Cannery Row

Ernest Hemmiway:
For Whom the Bell Tolls
A Portable Feast
The Old Man and the Sea
To Have and Have Not

Tom Wolfe:
The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test
The Pump House Gang
A Man in Full
I am Charlotte Simmons

Hunter S. Thompson:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Robert Pirsig:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Jack Kerouac:
The Darma Bums
Desolation Angels
On the Road

My Favs:
The Last of his Kind: Roberts
Last Man on The Mountain: Jordon
The Long Walk
White Spider: Harrer
The White Death: Jenkins
Nanda Devi: Roskelley
Below Another Sky: Ridgeway
Missing in the Minarets: Alsup
The Lost Explorer: Roberts
The Resue Season: Drury
The Last Season: Blehm

Personally, stay away from "Fatal Mountaineer" by Roper

Here's a list I posted on SP some time ago. http://www.summitpost.org/best-mountain ... ure/257435

Mountain Impulse wrote:Here's a list I posted on SP some time ago. http://www.summitpost.org/best-mountain ... ure/257435

This is where I got most of all the book titles from I have read over the past 18 months. Thanks Impulse! Another great website is http://www.pilgrimsonlineshop.com They are located in Kathmandu and shipping is very pricey but to just look for titles within categories,
they have a huge selection.

Cool, thanks for the suggestions. I got quite a layover on my way back to Seattle.

try "Freedom Climbers" by Bernadette McDonald. A good book on why Polish Climbers are so good.

Especially if you are in the NW (judging by your username you are), read Beckey's "Challenge of the North Cascades." I recently got my hands on my Grandmother's 1st Ed. copy, and it was fantastic and extremely interesting because I have seen or been to some of the places he writes about. Or, at least I will be able to see them sometime, and that's what his book makes you want to do. Some great photos as well.

Also I got "The Mountaineers: A History" from Half Price Books a while back. Although I probably won't be joining the group anytime soon (or ever), no one can dispute that they played an extremely important role in both exploring and preserving many areas of the Cascades. This one has great pictures too.

ExcitableBoy wrote:Not mountaineering but somewhat adventurous and since you enjoy Sebastian Junger and Jon Kraukauer you may enjoy these authors as well.

Edward Abby:
Desert Solitare
The Monkey Wrench Gang
Black Sun
Fire on the Mountain

John Steinbeck:
Of Mice and Men
Travels with Charley
Cannery Row

Ernest Hemmiway:
For Whom the Bell Tolls
A Portable Feast
The Old Man and the Sea
To Have and Have Not

Tom Wolfe:
The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test
The Pump House Gang
A Man in Full
I am Charlotte Simmons

Hunter S. Thompson:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Robert Pirsig:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Jack Kerouac:
The Darma Bums
Desolation Angels
On the Road

I have been on a classic kick lately, just read The Great Gatsby (ok story but very well written). Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mocking Bird, and halfway through A Farewell to Arms. I get tired of reading mountain stories all the time, so its nice to complete classics I have yet not read. I'll have to pick up a few you suggested.

Nate,

I forgot to mention 'A Farewell to Arms'. 'The Great Gatsby', and 'To Kill a Mockingbird' are both great additions. In high school we had to read all the old classics - 'The Scarlet Letter', 'A Turn of the Screw', various Shakespeare, etc and I was turned off to reading for pleasure of years. In college I was a science major so I took mostly science and related courses. In my senior year I took a literature course to fulfill a GUR which was taught by a young post doc who introduced us to all kinds of great literature and I have been an avid reader of 'new classics' ever since.

Some other great authors:

Patricia Highsmith: 'The Talented Mr Riply' and it's sequels
Raymond Chandler; 'The Long Goodbye' and many other classics of the 1940's Noir P.I. genre
Paul Bowles: 'Up Above the World"
Thomas Pynchon: 'Vineland'

Cool, I never heard of those you just mentioned. I will check them out.

Unfortunately, my high school literature class was a overview, we only read the House of Seven Gables and Tale of Two Cities. We only had to read several chapters of other books. Thats why I'm trying to read a lot now, need to catch up!

Nothing like a great read I'll tell you what, its a real treat to dig into a well written and excellent story. I read The Davinci Code a month ago for kicks and giggles since I never read it, and was sadly reminded why I hate pulp fiction, it may have been batter if I hadn't just read Harper Lee before it, haha I felt like I had wasted my time.

Hotoven wrote:Cool, I never heard of those you just mentioned. I will check them out.

Unfortunately, my high school literature class was a overview, we only read the House of Seven Gables and Tale of Two Cities. We only had to read several chapters of other books. Thats why I'm trying to read a lot now, need to catch up!

Nothing like a great read I'll tell you what, its a real treat to dig into a well written and excellent story. I read The Davinci Code a month ago for kicks and giggles since I never read it, and was sadly reminded why I hate pulp fiction, it may have been batter if I hadn't just read Harper Lee before it, haha I felt like I had wasted my time.

I was in an academically accelarated program in high school, so we read a lot more than the regular track students. Unfortunately it was all boring old shit. I mean Henry James, really?

I just about spit out my hot cocoa in response to your comment on the Davanici Code. I too was very disappointed. It was not at all what I expected. I've never been able to read past a few pages of any John Grisham novel either, I simply can't understand what people see in him.

I second Harrer's "White Spider."

Also, in the non-climbing department:

• "We Die Alone," about Jan Balsrud's incredible survival during WWII (recommended to me by someone on SummitPost, I think);
• Joshua Slocum's book about sailing alone around the world;
• "The Last Place on Earth," about Amundsen's and Scott's race to the South Pole.
• Anything by John Wesley Powell, who led some pretty awesome expeditions in the American West with only one arm.

I need to get back into the classics. I read some of Travels with Charley back in the day, and I recall liking Steinbecks style. Jack Karouac is someone I've been wanting to get into.

For some reason, I have a very tough time picking up fiction, unless it is a classic. Maybe it's the scientist in me, but I feel like I'm wasting my time by not reading for pleasure and learning something (be it science, history, etc...) at the same. Which is kinda funny, because it was Gary Paulsen's "The Hatchet", a work of fiction, that really got me into real life tales of survival and adventure starting in grade school. I suspect that book did the same for many other people my age.

read Beckey's "Challenge of the North Cascades."

Good book, checked it out at the library. The picture of his partner pounding pitons into the log he's using to make a sketchy river crossing is awesome. There's a real adventurer. Met Fred 2 years ago at a presentation at WWU and he signed my Cascade Alpine Guide. I'm pretty sure he was checking out some of the college girls after the slideshow.