Hiking Books (entertaining not informational)

Anything by Anne Zwinger, notably "Wind in the Rock" about Cedar Mesa.
Terry Tempest Williams, a little on the feminine side of things, but i still like her style.
All of David Browers work.
Wallace Stegner's "Beyond the 100th Meridian" is a classic, bums me out to imagine what John Wesley Powell could have done if the politicians of the time were more enlightened. Some things never change I guess.
And of course Powells "The Exporation of the Colorado River and it's Canyons", an amazing read.
I liked "House of Rain" by Craig Childs, although I had a hard time believing some of it. Good read and interesting theories though.
 
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x2 on the Craig Childs books. They are informational, but not at all like an guide book. More like he takes you through great hiking/exploring experiences and lets you see it all in a different light. Really great stuff.
 
For what it's worth... While I'm waiting for "The Last Season" to arrive in the mail, I picked up "Tiny Beautiful Things" by Cheryl Strayed (author of Wild) and while it has nothing to do with hiking, it's quite good so far, albeit verrry heavy. Her ability as a writer is much more evident in this book than Wild imo.


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I really enjoyed the last season and into the wild. On a more lighthearted and humorous note I love everything by Patrick McManus.
 
Mack Shaft said:
The Movie "Wild" comes out in December. I look forward to it. I really enjoyed the book and the movie seems to be getting some really nice reviews.
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So Wild was released this Friday but isn't being shown in a single theatre in NJ for some reason !?!. So I drove the 20 miles into New York City to see it this Sunday morning.

I'm still processing whether I liked it or not. I have no complaints about the acting or directing besides the fact that the ending was rather abrupt and uneventful (the one part of the book I was hoping they would take a little liberty to expand on). My immediate reaction when the credits rolled was a realization that stories of a psychological transformation such as this don't lend themselves to the movie screen and are better in the written word.

For some reason I thought this movie might popularize hiking but it certainly will not. Not that it matters to me either way. This shouldn't have surprised me in retrospect since the story was never meant to be an homage to hiking, or even nature.

Would love to hear other's opinions who have seen it.
 
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pinecone said:
still waiting for it come to Utah, I heard maybe the 19th but I am looking forward to seeing it
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I guess maybe there will be a wider release later on? I don't go to the movies much so I don't know how that stuff works, but I was really surprised how limited the release was.
 
That's odd how limited the release is. I wonder if that is a sign of the studio not expecting it to do well. The trailers I've watched have not made me super excited to see it. I'll most likely wait until it's on HBO, etc..
 
So I just saw a commercial for Wild while watching football and it said at the end "now playing everywhere". So I checked fandango and sure enough its playing pretty much everywhere now. I guess I paid $14 to cross the George Washington Bridge just to see it 2 weeks earlier.
 
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I saw "Wild" last week and it's in the indie theaters here (San Diego), and I believe it goes into general release in the next week or so. I don't think it's being marketed as a blockbuster, more of a niche market. I liked it because of Reese Witherspoon's performance. I couldn't much relate to the story but it's done well, though I never read the book. Personally I'd like to see a movie about a woman who does adventurous things WITHOUT being motivated by tragedy/descent into self destruction, just has adventures because that's who she is.

Into the Wild is still my favorite outdoors story, so vividly written I couldn't put it down.
 
Ski the 14ers: A Visual Tribute to Colorado's 14.000-Foot Peaks from the Eyes of a Ski Mountaineer by Chris Davenport.
 
I'm finishing up Wild. I wasn't going to read it, but I was bored one day and picked it up in REI. Wow, it's soooo much better than the movie (who would have guessed…..). The movie seemed to dwell on her self-destruction, but the book is really about the finding her way back part and it's much more engaging. So much so that Stan picked up my copy and got so involved he didn't want to give it back. When I made him hand it over he went and got his own copy rather than wait for me to finish it. It's that good. And yes, it makes me want to go hiking solo!
 
Laura said:
I'm finishing up Wild. I wasn't going to read it, but I was bored one day and picked it up in REI. Wow, it's soooo much better than the movie (who would have guessed…..). The movie seemed to dwell on her self-destruction, but the book is really about the finding her way back part and it's much more engaging. So much so that Stan picked up my copy and got so involved he didn't want to give it back. When I made him hand it over he went and got his own copy rather than wait for me to finish it. It's that good. And yes, it makes me want to go hiking solo!
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I totally agree Laura, I liked the book much better because it did a much better job dealing with how the loss of her mother affected her. Laura Dern just seemed kinda weird and quirky in the movie. 95% percent of the time I hike, I go solo. It's much more of an internal experience when you are alone. I still enjoy going with my wife or occasionally with a friend but it becomes more of an external experience imo.
 
For those who enjoy fiction, I recommend The Slickrock Paradox and Black Sun Descending by Stephen Legault. The first book is a murder mystery set around Canyonlands & Arches. The second book moves over to include the Arizona Strip and the Paria area. I can't wait for him to finish writing the third book in the miniseries!
 
I recently read Indian Creek Chronicles by Pete Fromm and thought it was outstanding.

On the flip side, I'm currently struggling through The Man Who Walked Through Time by Colin Fletcher. I want to love it, but I can't read more than 10-15 pages at a time without starting to daydream.
 
Vegan.Hiker said:
I totally agree Laura, I liked the book much better because it did a much better job dealing with how the loss of her mother affected her. Laura Dern just seemed kinda weird and quirky in the movie. 95% percent of the time I hike, I go solo. It's much more of an internal experience when you are alone. I still enjoy going with my wife or occasionally with a friend but it becomes more of an external experience imo.
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I should have been more specific-it makes me want to go backpacking solo. I hike solo all the time. For all the reasons you named. :) Stan is on an overnight trip as I write, and while he's usually the one who wants to do things together I'm guessing he's going to have a deeper experience being solo.
 
Laura said:
I should have been more specific-it makes me want to go backpacking solo. I hike solo all the time. For all the reasons you named. :)
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The regional differences in how the terms hiking/backpacking, etc. are interesting. In my region, hiking is used more as a broad, general term and is used interchangeably with backpacking. Here, hiking can be used to describe a multi-day trip, hence the need for the term dayhiking. For example, people here would say they are "hiking the Appalachian Trail". When I first signed up to BCP I had to google hiking and backpacking because I wasn't sure why there were 2 different forums for the TR's. We also use the term section-hiking and thru-hiking more than you guys it seems. Just an observation.
 
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