Books to Read While on a Climbing Trip

To name a few, I've enjoyed Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, and Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Album while travelling.

What books would you suggest for a long climbing trip?

The Lord of the Rings (for a loooong trip), The Alchemist, Beyond the Mountain, Rule of the Bone

Teewinot by Jack Turner. Great memoir from a great writer about climbing and life in the Tetons.

Hemingway is good.

Lone Survivor and Gates of Fire.

A short walk in the hindu kush by Eric Newby!

I don't like reading about climbing while on climbing trips and I find it's best to have something that is compelling but not too absorbing or suspenseful, you don't want to be up until 2am wearing out your headlamp battery.
Fitting this criteria is the Border Trilogy or Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, Tolkien's Book of Lost Tales, Close Range by Annie Proulx, The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich, and almost anything by Kurt Vonnegut.
Compact helps to, so + to Tolkien and Tillich because their books, though dense, are small.

I like anything by Edward abbey, desert solitaire is my favorite. Hemingway is great too!

House of Rain by Craig Childs

A soldier if the Great War. Really good sweeping epic kind of novel set in Italy around ww1. A bit of climbing in the alps in a few chapters but mostly just a great story.

"On Edge" the life and climbs of Henry Barber written by Chip Lee, You can still buy used copies online for reasonable prices and in good condition. It is a pretty inspiring read especially if your a climber...

Just about anything by John Muir or Thich Nhat Hahn I find pleasurable while in the backcountry. They are usually light, thin, small books also but stimulating to contemplate.

How long? How much tent time? Solo backpacking trips have enabled me to polish off Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace, and Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. For climbing I'd think something having to do with epic-ness, though not necessarily climbing-related: A Soldier of The Great War, as mentioned, or A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar

amazon.com/Lady-Cyclists-Gu…

Nonetheless i have begun Moby Dick about five times and have yet to get through it. Maybe short stories are better.

Cormac McCarthy Russell banks Ron Hansen Paul Bowles Hemingway Peter Matthiessen those are the big guns

I have read and enjoyed all of the books you listed. I also love anything by Chuck Palahniuk and Kurt Vonnegut.

Mattberr wrote:anything by Edward abbey

Tortilla Flat by Steinbeck is a must for any vaguely dirtbaggish trip. Or any time, really.

The Snow Leopard
amazon.com/The-Snow-Leopard…

The Starship and the Canoe
amazon.com/Starship-Canoe-K…

Carlos Castenada
amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywo…

Anything by John Muir.

Anything by Ed Abbey.

Non-LOTR-trilogy Tolkien books.

100 Years of Solitude, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk...

Just finished the book "The Cruelest Miles.". Story about the serum run to Nome Alaska to save the town from diptheria. The book is outstanding. Highly recommend.

Any of Bill Bryson's books starting with 'A walk in the woods" followed by 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' or 'A Short History of Nearly Everything.'

Also Malcolm Gladwell and David Sedaris have some great books for a rainy day spent in a tent.

On the other hand, the worst book that I took on a trip was 'Walden'. What a pile of crap.