Books to Read While on a Climbing Trip

The New American Road Trip Mixtape
-Brendan Leonard

Great topic! I like the classic travel novels: On the Road by Kerouac, Travels with Charlie by Steinbeck, Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon.

When I was stuck under a boulder in the Cirque of the Unclimbables, I found that someone had left behind a copy of the Godfather by Mario Puzzo. That allowed me to patiently wait out a few days of bad weather. I also ran across Papillon by Henri Charriere and really enjoyed it as a well-written page turner.

I have been told that if you only read one book in your 20's, it should be You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe. If you like memoirs, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genious by Dave Eggers is excellent.

Any book can be a good book on the road. I suppose it depends on what one is pondering when out there...errr...here.

Just finished The Stranger by Camus and started Downward Bound by Harding. The latter is way too funny; great to think about while climbing out and about!!

Oops I forgot about Starlight and Storm, great book by legendary alpinist Gaston Rébuffat. Highly recommend this

i enjoy the shitty mystery/ thriller novels that they usually sell at the grocery store. you can usually get them for 50 cents at thrift stores.. usually sub- par writing, but always suspenseful and entertaining.

Christian C wrote:i enjoy the shitty mystery/ thriller novels that they usually sell at the grocery store. you can usually get them for 50 cents at thrift stores.. usually sub- par writing, but always suspenseful and entertaining.

Haha, they can be good. I read this shitty anarcho-capitalist survivalist manual masquerading as dystopian fiction in the Bugaboos. On our drive up there from Boulder, I realized I was all packed except for a book. And we were in a hurry, so I grabbed the only thing not involving bondage, vampires or vampire bondage on the grocery store shelves. Gotta be honest, it was terrible, but I was thoroughly entertained with it,

Young Men and Fire by Norm McLean - story of the Mann Gulch fire in Montana
Men's Lives by Peter Mathiesen - story of inshore fishermen in East Hampton. If you can get one of the editions with photos, there are great photos by some of the best photographers of the time

fiction
Geek Love (Katherine Dunn)
The Scar (China Mieville)
Choke (Chuck Palahniuk)

non-fiction
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don't (Nate Silver)
Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus (Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy)
Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever (Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell)
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (Reza Aslan)
El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency (Ioan Grillo)
The Psychopath Test (Jon Ronson)

Fossana mentioned: Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus (Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy).

+1 a phenomenal book that was very interesting and taught me alot. I highly reccomend this book; just finished it a few days ago.

Agree with Jay: this is a great topic. My vote goes for One Hundred Years of Solitude. Superlative book in any context, but especially well suited to time spent adventuring.

Dave Alie wrote:Agree with Jay: this is a great topic. My vote goes for One Hundred Years of Solitude. Superlative book in any context, but especially well suited to time spent adventuring.

I read Hundred Years of Solitude while working a summer in Yosemite, for some reason it really seemed appropriate for the time, not sure why though.

I just finished The Martian, by Andy Weir, the story of an astronaut accidentally left behind on Mars. Fast paced and well written, it was a lot of fun to read. Equally impressive the math and engineering appear to be sound. Former commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield describes it as a "very rare combination of a good, original story, interestingly real characters and fascinating technical accuracy…reads like “MacGyver” meets “Mysterious Island.”

Jeff Ludwig wrote:Lone Survivor and Gates of Fire.

American Sniper is a bit more enjoyable than Lone Survivor, slightly less "don't mess with Texas" in the former than the latter. Chris Kyle, the author of American Sniper served with Marcus Lutrell in the Seal Teams

Jerry Moffat - Revelations
Steph Davis - High infatuation
Andy Kirkpatrick - Psycho Vertical and Cold Wars
Arno Ilgner - Rock Warriors Way and Espresso Lessons
Jon Krauker - Into the Wild
Marni Jackson (many others) - Rock, Paper, Fire
(collection of stories) - CLIMB

Enjoy!

MonkeyLust wrote:Jerry Moffat - Revelations Steph Davis - High infatuation Andy Kirkpatrick - Psycho Vertical and Cold Wars Arno Ilgner - Rock Warriors Way and Espresso Lessons Jon Krauker - Into the Wild Marni Jackson (many others) - Rock, Paper, Fire (collection of stories) - CLIMB Enjoy!

The Rock Warrior's Way is total bullshit. Why would anyone take advice on how to get their head together climbing from someone who used removable bolts on supposedly "R/X" North Carolina FA's?

It's not too much different than Cesar Milan actually being the nom de plume of Michael Vick.

Zappatista wrote:PS Michelle love your list, you gave me a couple to put on my wish list.

thanks, K

I look forward to your suggestions. Are you still in Vegas?

Christoper Moore: A Dirty Job, You Suck, Fool, Bite Me. All will have you laughing so hard you'll almost fall off the your ledge. Short, light, funny. No thought required.

Helene Wecker: The Golem and the Djinni. Thicker, more heavy duty, but very, very moving. Causes a bit of contemplation & thought.

Amitav Ghosh; Sea of Poppies, and the follow up, A River of Smoke. About the British Empire, indentured servants, and how opium funded the empire. First book is on the production end in India, the second about the sales end, in Hong Kong. They really made me think, and go back and check up on lots of history.

Steig Larsson: Millenium Trilogy - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, and especially the final book, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. That last one is complex, and will really take your mind off the exposure.

Who would have thought it would be reasonable temps out there while it's in the 100s out here? Glad you're having a great summer. It's about time for the t-storms to kick up here.