Three of My Favorite Adventure Travel Books
Just back from hiking and camping in Banff, Canada and already thinking about my next outdoor adventure. It has me thinking about outdoor adventure books. These are three of my favorites.
Each has influenced my life in some way. Wild, as I talked about here, influenced my decision to quit my job in Florida and move to California. A Walk in the Woods, made me laugh during a tough time and made me interested in backpacking. Into the Wild made me think about life, risk, and the importance of letting other people in. It also introduced me to Krakauer’s writing – Into Thin Air is equally good (if not better).
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
Quotable:
“If the mattress stains were anything to go by, a previous user had not so much suffered from incontinence as rejoiced in it.”
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Quotable:
“I’m a free spirit who never had the balls to be free.”
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer,
Quotable:
“I’d like to repeat the advice that I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. “
