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Call of the wild and White Fang - Jack London
For a very different suggestion - Little house on the prairie - Forget the sentimental tosh of the tv series the actual series of books is a fabulous read. Very simply told and matter of fact stories of american pioneering
Well worth a read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them as an adult.
Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Danzigers travels, some bloke travels from London to China, little equipment, no visas.
Carrying the Fire – Michael Collins – literally out of this world, great read
Ah ha, that's a shout! I've read a few Apollo-related books over the last year and Carrying The Fire is proper standout. 🙂 +1s on Krakauer and Bryson.
If you fancy something a bit different, then No Picnic On Mount Kenya, Felice Benuzzi.
Italian POW's escape in Kenya to go climbing...!
I'm a big fan of Tim Moore's work. The Cyclist Who Went Out In The Cold is particularly good.
"A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush" and "The Last Grain Race" by Eric Newby. I read the first one before I went out to theatre in 2012 and found the second in the book pile of the barracks at Chilwell on the way out.
The first book really impacted my expectations of what was (and still is) a dangerous, but beautiful, place.
I would absolutely second any previous suggestion of the Shackleton/Endurance story by Alfred Lansing; the chapter on crossing South Georgia and arriving in the whaling station moves me to tears every time.
Also, 'The Death Zone' by Matt Dickinson - climbing Everest at the time of the huge storm in May 1996. Quite the tale of an epic hard trip with the tribulations of dead and struggling climbers all over the upper parts of the mountain immediately after he and Alan Hinkes had descended
Joe Simpson's touching void has been mentioned and that made him famous, but his other books are really worth a read if you enjoy climbing books
A few I would recommend:
For cycling, any of the Josie Dew books
Call of the wild. My escape to alaska by Guy Grieve.
Jupiter travels by Ted Simon
Around the world on a Motorcycle 1928 to 1936, by Zoltan Sulkowsky.
One man and his bike by Mike Carter is a cracking read.
Survive the Savage Sea by Dougal Robertson.
Classic true story of a British family surviving in the Pacific after their boat is sunk by a Killer Whale (coincidentally I'd never heard of Orcas sinking boats until reading this book and now it's in the news after attacks off the Spanish not coast)
Dervla Murphy - Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle
Peter Mann - Postcards from the Edge of Britain: A 5, 000 Mile Journey around the Coast
Mark Waddington - 500 Mile Walkies
His book The Missing Postman is a fictional cycling adventure - and well worth reading.
If you fancy something a bit different, then No Picnic On Mount Kenya, Felice Benuzzi.
Italian POW’s escape in Kenya to go climbing…!
I already suggested that, really good book and in the completely crazy lets do it because we can mold
Just read a couple of Jon Krakenauer books – Into Thin Air and Into the Wild – both pretty well-written
Can't recall which one, but I actually returned one of his books to Waterstons and asked for a refund as it was so bad.
Dennis Gray's two books are very good. Slack and Tight Rope. Fascinating to see him writing about the same stuff as Joe Brown's book, but in a much more interesting, readable way.
Creagh Dhu Click mer: life and times of John Cunningham is great.
Whereas Jock Nimlin's May the Fire Always be Lit was unreadable IMHO
Lol at the Willard price mention. Huge part of my childhood.😃
We Die Alone - David Howarth
Darkness Descending - Ken Jones
I loved Into the Wild in a way that I can’t explain. The film was great as well.
Same! And Elephant Adventure (with that cover) was the first one I read. I still anthropomorphise animals massively because of Willard Price. 🙂
Lol at the Willard price mention. Huge part of my childhood
🙂
I had loads of them, I shudder to think quite how sexist and racist they probably were!
Anyway a more serious suggestion: Pecked to Death by Ducks by Tim Cahill. It's a selection of short stories/magazine articles, and reading the reviews below it seems it's a bit Marmite. Anway I enjoyed it.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/91803.Pecked_To_Death_By_Ducks
Wilfred Thesiger, particularly Arabian Sands.
If you like that, then TE Lawrence - The Seven Pillars of Wisdom will appeal too.
Shadows on the Wasteland by Dr Mike Stroud is a really good book.
Written about his and Ranulph Fiennes unsupported crossing of Antarctica. An honest brutal book that really had me gripped.
I also really enjoyed his other book. Survival of the fittest has tales of adventure in them but also then goes into the actual science of it behind the feats.
Warlock of Firetop Mountain
If anyone rests at the convenient alcove (90) and subsequently discovers a dark-blue tasseled keffiyeh then please PM me? Fairly convinced that I dropped mine there circa 1989. Ta.
Loads of good suggestions but I'll add The bond by Simon McCartney. Great mountaineering story.
Also River dog by Mark shand.
Papillon – I’m sure Henri Charriere embellished his autobiography, but even if half of it is true it surely must be up there with the greatest of human adventure stories
Must read that some time.
Visited the Camp de Transportation on the French Guiana mainland which is still there and being renovated/preserved. Conditions must have been beyond inhumane back then (not that long ago tbh).
Also been to 2 of the islands, but a lot of the prison slave camps there have been taken over by coconut trees now. The 3rd island is out of bounds, and probably completely taken over by forest now.
The plan was to read Papillon whilst actually in the real life location, but never got around to actually reading it, despite being there about 3 months in total.
On the arctic / antarctic themes, I really enjoyed Fatal Passage by Ken McGoogan about John Rae and his search for the Franklin expedition, lots of modern themes, strikes a chord about modern arrogance and the power of the press, as well as an inspiring adventure. Also The Lost Men, by Kelly Tyler-Lewis, about the less fabled but equally staggering supply expedition for Shackleton's tranantarctic expedition- a good counterpoint to the famous Shackleton story.
One book I sought out after a previous recommendation on here is Into the Silence by Wade Davis. Bit of an epic read which goes into a lot of detail into the background of the climbers including the damage caused by WW1. It is a fascinating read and highlights the abysmal snobbery and bad organisation (typically British) that quite possibly prevented a successful ascent.
Not sure if it had a huge print run in expectation of best seller status but there seem to be lots of pristine hardbacks for sale on EBAy - or were when I got my copy anyway, and a copy for my Dad.
One book I sought out after a previous recommendation on here is Into the Silence by Wade Davis. Bit of an epic read which goes into a lot of detail into the background of the climbers including the damage caused by WW1. It is a fascinating read and highlights the abysmal snobbery and bad organisation (typically British) that quite possibly prevented a successful ascent.
About Everest in the '20s BTW - missed that bit out...
I've read and enjoyed most of the ones mentioned so far, there are a couple of standout ones that I've read that haven't been mentioned. Tracks by Robyn Davidson - walking across Australia's interior with camels and Barbarian Days by William Finnegan - Surfing retrospective.
Barbarian Days by William Finnegan – Surfing retrospective.
Big +1 on that - I don't surf but it made me feel like I've wasted my life by not!
Another Eric Newby; Love and War in the Apennines
Newby's description of a 'failed' raid on an Italian airfield, subsequent imprisonment, escape and recapture is in sharp contrast with some of the SF memoirs of the last 30 years.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. It's a novel but it's based on the real story of Pino Lella who helped refugees escape across the alpes passes from Italy during WW2.
My reading list has just got much, much longer...
My recommendation: Legionnaire
A British lad in 1960 gets bored/rebellious and runs off to join the French Foreign Legion.
Into The Heart of Borneo
Redmond o' Hanlon
One of those "What were you thinking you loon!" books.
The mantra they used to motivate themselves, referring to Ukit tribesmen, renowned head hunters/cannibals, often keeps me going when things are getting tough:
'oh **** it, there's an Ukit, we're going to kick the bucket'
Close to the wind Pete Goss (around the world solo yacht race)
There is no nap in Hell Steve Birkinshaw (story of going for the record to run all 214 Wainwright Fells
The eight sailing/mountain-exploration books - Bill Tillman
Tillman didn't just sail for the sake of sailing he usually had a purpose like exploring some remote area and/or climbing a mountain.
The Great Decade of Himalayan Exploration - Shipton and Tilman
Must reread this. Shipton and Tillman made the transition from Gentleman explorers victualed by Fortnum and Masons and lots of bearers to travelling light and living off the land.
Shipton was the obvious choice for one of the Everest expeditions but was somehow not given the opportunity.
Also 'In Trouble Again' by O'Hanlon.
Some great books listed here. Agree with anything to do with Shackleton's voyage as already mentioned. I've not seen this suggested, apologies if someone has. Just read it and it's awesome, Wolfe has a brilliant writing style, had great access to the key players and really brings this dramatic episode in recent history to life.
