Backcountry bookshelf

A couple more.
The Ghosts of Dandy Crossing, by Katie Lee. We attended an event where she gave a talk and inscribed our book, classy.
X2 on Encounters with the Archdruid
I loved the book Annapurna.
 
Great recommendations everyone. Some I’ve read (loved Emerald Mike), some I know I should read but have not yet. Some I’ve not heard of. Good stuff.
 
Another good climbing book is The Push. Its about Tommy Caldwell and the Dawn Wall.
One book I really enjoyed was called Dave Rust: A life in the Canyons. It's a biography about a guy who spent a good about of time exploring around the canyon country area along with the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
 
Outdoors24 said:
Another good climbing book is The Push. Its about Tommy Caldwell and the Dawn Wall.
One book I really enjoyed was called Dave Rust: A life in the Canyons. It's a biography about a guy who spent a good about of time exploring around the canyon country area along with the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
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There's also a movie called The Dawn Wall. I think it's on Amazon Prime. A great flick about Tommy's history and his and Kevin's attempt up the Dawn Wall.
 
Man there are a ton of great books on these lists and I’ve read many of them. The rest I’ve noted and added a few to my reading list. I was reading over 50 books a year but now being legally blind I’m going through far more audiobooks.

Early Days is the Range of Light, Daniel Arnold as well as his Salt to Summit are a couple of good backpacking books that integrates some amazing history that I know you will like. In the first book he researches and then follows some iconic early explorers as close as he can get to their routes and with the equipment lists that they used. John Muir was just one of the people but a lot I didn’t know who were above and beyond amazing.

Solo Faces by James Salter is a dreamy climbing/adventuring lifestyle piece.

I saw Ann Zwinger posted above and found several of her books at BARD, the Audiobooks service that I use, the key to the entire National Library of Congress, an ocean of literature.
 
I only did a quick glance through so I could have missed it but I like Sandstone Spine by David Roberts
(and House of Rain by Craig Childs, which I am pretty sure I saw already listed)
 
Have some time on my hands, went through my book shelves.

Down the River by Edward Abbey
The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, a painfully accurate recount of the Scott expedition in Antarctica
No Shortcuts to the Top by Ed Viesturs
The Glen Canyon Reader
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan, about a woman's travels with nomadic Aboriginals in the Outback
Secret Summits by Peter Boardman
 
gnwatts said:
Reinhold Messner's Crystal Horizon, don't like the parts he is talking to his imaginary friend.
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Messner is an "interesting" person, possibly from too much time at high altitude. If you ever get a chance to visit his castle/mountaineering museum in Bolzano, definitely go. It contains an eclectic collection of mountaineering history mixed with bizarre new age items (the crystal cave) and Asian art pieces.

Recommended books I have read:
  • Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River
  • Cadillac Desert (previously mentioned)
  • Desert Towers: Fat Cat Summits and Kitty Litter Rock (excellent coffee table book about the first ascents of the desert SW towers)
  • Ueli Steck: My Life in Climbing
  • Missing in the Minarets: The Search for Walter A. Starr, Jr
  • The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America
On my to read/listen list:
  • Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy through the Grand Canyon
  • The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
p.s. For those recommending Into Thin Air, it's worth reading Anatoli Boukreev's version of events in The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest.
 
When it comes out I want to read the book on the Paradise Fires. It is called Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy. It will come out in May.

I also enjoyed The Bada** Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer.

@fossana I've read The Worst Hard Time. It is pretty good but I liked the companion book to the PBS series on the Dustbowl better. The Worst Hard Time seemed to drag on more than did the PBS series companion book.
 
Two good ones about the exploration of the Amazon:
The lost city of z
The river of doubt

For kids books:
Hatchet
The Tintin books (not exactly outdoor books, but encourage a sense of adventure/travel)
 
Speaking of Glacier National Park, if you haven't read Night of the Grizzlies, it is worth checking out!
 
Of note if you're on a budget: I've been buying overstock books at our local Dollar Tree lately. There's a surprisingly decent selection of highly rated books available, including my favorite fiction genre, dystopian.
 
Pilgrim’s Wilderness - Tom Kizzia
Adventure North - Sean Bloomfield & Colton Witte
The Island Within - Richard K. Nelson
Make Prayers to the Raven - Richard K. Nelson
The Klondike Fever - Pierre Berton
The Blue Bear - Lynn Schooler
The Only Kayak - Kim Heacox
Rhythm of the Wild - Kim Heacox
 
Some great recommendations, have read many including the ones by Craig Childs who is a favourite.
Plus one on Proenneke- made me want to do the same.
Have now downloaded Undaunted Courage from the (free) public library. They don't have Emerald Mile or Cadillac Desert though.
A couple of Canadian classics:
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I first read Dangerous River by R.M. Patterson as a teen- inspiring then and I have revisited it several times over the years.
Still haven't canoed the Nahanni, though...
Below- The Buffalo Head recounts the same authors years as a dude rancher in the 1930's, in the foothills south of Calgary, a favourite hiking zone for us. Have stood in that same spot on the cover many times, that tree is still there, although a bit more weathered.
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