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Since it is so hard to travel at the moment, looking to read about travel adventures, mountaineering and exploring etc and or the people who do it (as long as they are interesting and not just famous). So stuff like
Touching the void
Journey to the centre of the earth
Phsycovertical
and maybe some offbeat suggestions like "round Ireland with a fridge"
So what do you suggest goes on the list?
3 men in a boat?
goran kropp my ultimate high.
Guy cycles from Sweden to Nepal with all the gear to climb Everest (including rations), climbs without oxygen and Not using the ice ladders everyone else uses, then cycles back
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultimate-High-My-Everest-Odyssey/dp/156331830X
Clear Waters Rising
Nick Crane walks across the watershed of Europe from Galicia to Istanbul. Well written and done at at a time before the Internet which feels like the middle ages.
That reminds me journey to the center of the earth. Another nick crane book.
Bumped into him coming out of Camden Sainsbury's local. #brusheswithfame
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
by Alfred Lansing
Amazing. Proper hard.
W.B. 'Sandy' Thomas
Dare to be Free
War angle but basically escape and evasion through Greece, so qualifies as adventure
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dare-Free-Cassell-Military-Paperbacks/dp/0304366390
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
127 Hours sorta counts too
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1128511.Adventure_Cycle_Touring_Handbook
A bit old on kit recommendations now but the classic 1900s adventures and the 'on bike winery' are inspirational.
Just read a couple of Jon Krakenauer books - Into Thin Air and Into the Wild - both pretty well-written
A bit niche but “The Darkness Beckons” by Martyn Farr is a history of cave diving and is a classic.
I wanted to say anything about Shackleton but already mentioned.
So will mention Hunter of Peace.
The Boardman and Tasker mountaineering books are excellent.
Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocom (victorian sea captain retires then does as the titles suggests over a couple of years in a smallish boat, the first person to do so)
A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor
(In December 1933 he sets of from the Hook of Holland to walk to Istanbul. It takes over a year and this is the first book of 3 taking us from the start to the Hungarian border in the Middle Danube)
Bill Bryson for something a bit lighter. Anthony Lawrence for wildlife shennanigans, including rescuing animals from Baghdad zoo in the middle of the gulf war and trying to track down Joseph Kony to help protect the black rhino. The Reluctant Traveller by Bill Lumley is a very funny book by a guy who really didn't want to go on an adventure
A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water By Patrick Leigh Fermor. Starting with Fermor as an 18 year old setting off in 1933 on his own to walk from the North Sea to Turkey. A lost pre-war Europe.
Or what about The White Spider by Henirich Harrer - it's about the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger but also recounts the previous failed attempts - some of which are harrowing. Unbelievable that Stech did it in under two and half hours.
Edit: 5 minutes too late!
The Darkness Beckons
Quite harrowing in places iirc. Good read though.
A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermour is good when he shuts up giving history lessons and talks about drinking and shagging.
Edit: beaten to it.
Wind, Sand and Stars (Anton De Saint Exupery)
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.264850/page/n281/mode/2up
Great idea for a thread!
From a sailing perspective;
Bernard Moitissier - the long way.
-Story of the first round the world, non stop yacht race. Moitissier was half adventurer half philosopher with a wonderful perspective on life.
The unlikely voyage of Jack de crow.
- mildy eccentric English teacher rows a sailing dinghy from Wales to the Black Sea.
Any of the "mischief in... (patagonia/greenland etc" books by H W Tillman.
- proper hard nut who sailied his old wooden boat to far ends of the earth to do first ascents on big mountains.
Ellen mcarthur’s taking on the world and race against time are worth a read
Second Bill Bryson they are hilarious.
Travels with Charley in search of America.
Because it's Steinbeck and thus obviously great.
The jungle is neutral by Freddy Spencer-chapman
Outrageous refusal to succumb to a grim list of tropical diseases whilst fighting behind Japanese lines and trying to organise Chinese communist guerillas
Proper boys own stuff
Lots of good suggestions already (Crane, Heyerdahl, Herzog, Kropp, Krakauer, Farr, Shackleton). My personal hero is Eric Shipton but his books are a bit dry and his definitive story is yet to be written.
Roland Huntford's biography of Shackleton is awesome, as is his book on Amundsen and Scott.
'Trespassers on the Roof of the World' by Peter Hopkirk, and 'The Great Game' by the same author.
My personal hero is Eric Shipton but his books are a bit dry and his definitive story is yet to be written.
They can be a bit dry but A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush is good, as is The Last Grain Race.
My personal hero is Eric Shipton but his books are a bit dry and his definitive story is yet to be written.
They can be a bit dry but A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush is good, as is The Last Grain Race
They were Eric Newby not Shipton.
They can be a bit dry but A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush is good, as is The Last Grain Race
They were Eric Newby
Not quite epic adventure but Raw Spirit by Iain Banks travelling around distilleries in Scotland is one of my favourites.
hey were Eric Newby not Shipton.
Doh! Of course.
Not a book but an article.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-white-darkness
The selfie is epic.
Last Blue Mountain Ralph Barker is harrowing,but an amazing tale - think Touching the Void without the happy ending
The White Spider.
And as above - South! By Shackleton, plus Boardman/Tasker omnibus.
Touching the void
Touching the Void film was my sons Isolation geography lesson today!!
Reminded me that I have a book by Simon Yates (the one who cut the rope) called Against the Wall, really enjoyed it, kind of bought things full circle.
No Picnic on Mount Kenya is a good one too
There are not many people who would break out of a P.O.W. camp, trek for days across perilous terrain before climbing the north face of Mount Kenya with improvised equipment, meagre rations, and with a picture of the mountain on a tin of beef among their more accurate guides. There are probably fewer still who would break back in to the camp on their return.
But this is the remarkable story of three such men. No Picnic on Mount Kenya is a powerful testament to the human spirit of revolt and adventure in even the darkest of places.
The jungle is neutral by Freddy Spencer-chapman
I was going to mention that - he also wrote Watkins' Last Expedition, the story of Gino Watkins' pioneering (and for him, fatal) Greenland Expedition in 1931.
For another insight into Inuit culture and some more unusual adventures, Peter Freuchen, Arctic Adventure: My Life in the Frozen North
Papillon - I'm sure Henri Charriere embellished his autobiography, but even if half of it is true it surely must be up there with the greatest of human adventure stories
Carrying the Fire - Michael Collins - literally out of this world, great read
Killing Dragons - Fergus Fleming - about the "conquest" of the Alps, fascinating
South by Ernest Shackleton.
Get it straight from the horse’s mouth. Absolutely amazing book and, if you look around, you can find it for free since it’s so old. I found it on kindle but Gutenberg have it too
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5199/5199-h/5199-h.htm
Mentioned above but a second for Into The Wild by John Krakauer. Great book. Also slightly off topic but Waterlog by Roger Deakin is a classic in my opinion. Very rarely do I read a book more than once but this is one I keep coming back to.
One of my favourite short travel/adventure stories is Travels with a Donkey by Pete Livesey. Here it is: http://footlesscrow.blogspot.com/2012/10/travels-with-donkey.html?m=1
Pete Livesey was a caver, how much else of the story is true I have no idea.
Can I squeeze my dad's book in? He was always into travel and adventure and this is the story of his last trip. Hopefully shows how anyone can be an adventurer.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Driving-Dark-Africa-Accidental-Adventurer-ebook/dp/B013J8DXJO
These Are The Days That Must Happen To You by Dan Walsh. Great stories, occasionally beautifully told. “It’s not an endurance test, it’s going on holiday on a bike…. Anyone can, but not everyone needs to.”
Call of the wild and White Fang - Jack London
For a very different suggestion - Little house on the prairie - Forget the sentimental tosh of the tv series the actual series of books is a fabulous read. Very simply told and matter of fact stories of american pioneering
Well worth a read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them as an adult.
Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Danzigers travels, some bloke travels from London to China, little equipment, no visas.
Carrying the Fire – Michael Collins – literally out of this world, great read
Ah ha, that's a shout! I've read a few Apollo-related books over the last year and Carrying The Fire is proper standout. 🙂 +1s on Krakauer and Bryson.
If you fancy something a bit different, then No Picnic On Mount Kenya, Felice Benuzzi.
Italian POW's escape in Kenya to go climbing...!
I'm a big fan of Tim Moore's work. The Cyclist Who Went Out In The Cold is particularly good.
"A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush" and "The Last Grain Race" by Eric Newby. I read the first one before I went out to theatre in 2012 and found the second in the book pile of the barracks at Chilwell on the way out.
The first book really impacted my expectations of what was (and still is) a dangerous, but beautiful, place.
I would absolutely second any previous suggestion of the Shackleton/Endurance story by Alfred Lansing; the chapter on crossing South Georgia and arriving in the whaling station moves me to tears every time.
Also, 'The Death Zone' by Matt Dickinson - climbing Everest at the time of the huge storm in May 1996. Quite the tale of an epic hard trip with the tribulations of dead and struggling climbers all over the upper parts of the mountain immediately after he and Alan Hinkes had descended
Joe Simpson's touching void has been mentioned and that made him famous, but his other books are really worth a read if you enjoy climbing books
A few I would recommend:
For cycling, any of the Josie Dew books
Call of the wild. My escape to alaska by Guy Grieve.
Jupiter travels by Ted Simon
Around the world on a Motorcycle 1928 to 1936, by Zoltan Sulkowsky.
One man and his bike by Mike Carter is a cracking read.
Survive the Savage Sea by Dougal Robertson.
Classic true story of a British family surviving in the Pacific after their boat is sunk by a Killer Whale (coincidentally I'd never heard of Orcas sinking boats until reading this book and now it's in the news after attacks off the Spanish not coast)
Dervla Murphy - Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle
Peter Mann - Postcards from the Edge of Britain: A 5, 000 Mile Journey around the Coast
Mark Waddington - 500 Mile Walkies
His book The Missing Postman is a fictional cycling adventure - and well worth reading.
If you fancy something a bit different, then No Picnic On Mount Kenya, Felice Benuzzi.
Italian POW’s escape in Kenya to go climbing…!
I already suggested that, really good book and in the completely crazy lets do it because we can mold
Just read a couple of Jon Krakenauer books – Into Thin Air and Into the Wild – both pretty well-written
Can't recall which one, but I actually returned one of his books to Waterstons and asked for a refund as it was so bad.
Dennis Gray's two books are very good. Slack and Tight Rope. Fascinating to see him writing about the same stuff as Joe Brown's book, but in a much more interesting, readable way.
Creagh Dhu Click mer: life and times of John Cunningham is great.
Whereas Jock Nimlin's May the Fire Always be Lit was unreadable IMHO
Lol at the Willard price mention. Huge part of my childhood.😃
We Die Alone - David Howarth
Darkness Descending - Ken Jones
I loved Into the Wild in a way that I can’t explain. The film was great as well.
Same! And Elephant Adventure (with that cover) was the first one I read. I still anthropomorphise animals massively because of Willard Price. 🙂
Lol at the Willard price mention. Huge part of my childhood
🙂
I had loads of them, I shudder to think quite how sexist and racist they probably were!
Anyway a more serious suggestion: Pecked to Death by Ducks by Tim Cahill. It's a selection of short stories/magazine articles, and reading the reviews below it seems it's a bit Marmite. Anway I enjoyed it.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/91803.Pecked_To_Death_By_Ducks
Wilfred Thesiger, particularly Arabian Sands.
If you like that, then TE Lawrence - The Seven Pillars of Wisdom will appeal too.
Shadows on the Wasteland by Dr Mike Stroud is a really good book.
Written about his and Ranulph Fiennes unsupported crossing of Antarctica. An honest brutal book that really had me gripped.
I also really enjoyed his other book. Survival of the fittest has tales of adventure in them but also then goes into the actual science of it behind the feats.
Warlock of Firetop Mountain
If anyone rests at the convenient alcove (90) and subsequently discovers a dark-blue tasseled keffiyeh then please PM me? Fairly convinced that I dropped mine there circa 1989. Ta.
Loads of good suggestions but I'll add The bond by Simon McCartney. Great mountaineering story.
Also River dog by Mark shand.
Papillon – I’m sure Henri Charriere embellished his autobiography, but even if half of it is true it surely must be up there with the greatest of human adventure stories
Must read that some time.
Visited the Camp de Transportation on the French Guiana mainland which is still there and being renovated/preserved. Conditions must have been beyond inhumane back then (not that long ago tbh).
Also been to 2 of the islands, but a lot of the prison slave camps there have been taken over by coconut trees now. The 3rd island is out of bounds, and probably completely taken over by forest now.
The plan was to read Papillon whilst actually in the real life location, but never got around to actually reading it, despite being there about 3 months in total.
On the arctic / antarctic themes, I really enjoyed Fatal Passage by Ken McGoogan about John Rae and his search for the Franklin expedition, lots of modern themes, strikes a chord about modern arrogance and the power of the press, as well as an inspiring adventure. Also The Lost Men, by Kelly Tyler-Lewis, about the less fabled but equally staggering supply expedition for Shackleton's tranantarctic expedition- a good counterpoint to the famous Shackleton story.
One book I sought out after a previous recommendation on here is Into the Silence by Wade Davis. Bit of an epic read which goes into a lot of detail into the background of the climbers including the damage caused by WW1. It is a fascinating read and highlights the abysmal snobbery and bad organisation (typically British) that quite possibly prevented a successful ascent.
Not sure if it had a huge print run in expectation of best seller status but there seem to be lots of pristine hardbacks for sale on EBAy - or were when I got my copy anyway, and a copy for my Dad.
One book I sought out after a previous recommendation on here is Into the Silence by Wade Davis. Bit of an epic read which goes into a lot of detail into the background of the climbers including the damage caused by WW1. It is a fascinating read and highlights the abysmal snobbery and bad organisation (typically British) that quite possibly prevented a successful ascent.
About Everest in the '20s BTW - missed that bit out...
I've read and enjoyed most of the ones mentioned so far, there are a couple of standout ones that I've read that haven't been mentioned. Tracks by Robyn Davidson - walking across Australia's interior with camels and Barbarian Days by William Finnegan - Surfing retrospective.
Barbarian Days by William Finnegan – Surfing retrospective.
Big +1 on that - I don't surf but it made me feel like I've wasted my life by not!
Another Eric Newby; Love and War in the Apennines
Newby's description of a 'failed' raid on an Italian airfield, subsequent imprisonment, escape and recapture is in sharp contrast with some of the SF memoirs of the last 30 years.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. It's a novel but it's based on the real story of Pino Lella who helped refugees escape across the alpes passes from Italy during WW2.