It’s time for another book bouquet! Each week we look at a collection of a few books on a topic. You can explore the books on your own, or use them as a foundation for building a display in your library! You can use this flyer to get started, or another one you build for your library! (Hiking Thru Books)
This week we look at books on hiking!! Have you done any long-distance hiking?? Is hiking from the couch to the fridge enough fun for you?? There is a saying in the hiking community: Hike Your Own Hike. So, do what’s right for you when it comes to hiking; but we can all enjoy reading about hiking – either as an inspirational goal, or as a scary adventure you only want to enjoy from the safety of your comfy couch while wrapped securely in a cozy blanket.
This is one of the classic books you could read to learn about hiking. I noticed that it follows the pattern of many books about long-distance hiking: “I have no idea what I’m doing! I’m making all the mistakes!” Bryson is fun to read, and even the movie adaptation was not bad. Check out some of his other travel books after you finish enjoying this one!
“The Appalachian Trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America–majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaining guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way–and a couple of bears. ”
This is a fun one – though more for the reader than for Moore! His books all focus on having crazy adventures, that are probably not pleasant to do – but that are wonderful to read about. Hiking the Camino is an adventure on its own; adding in a donkey (in a bow to tradition) just adds to the fun of reading about this hike!
“Having no knowledge of Spanish and even less about the care and feeding of donkeys, Tim Moore, Britain’s indefatigable traveling Everyman, sets out on a pilgrimage to the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela with a donkey named Shinto as his companion. Armed only with a twelfth-century handbook to the route and expert advice on donkey management from Robert Louis Stevenson, Moore and his four-legged companion travel the ancient five-hundred-mile route from St. Jean Pied-de-Port, on the French side of the Pyrenees, to the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela which houses the remains of Spain’s patron saint, St. James.
Over sun-scorched highways, precipitous bridges, dirt paths shaded by leafy trees, and vineyards occasionally lashed by downpours, Moore and Shinto pass through some of northern Spain’s oldest towns and cities in colorful company. Clearly more interested in Shinto than in Moore, their fellow walkers are an assortment of devout Christian pilgrims, New Age–spirituality seekers aspiring to be the next Shirley Maclaine, Baby Boomers contemplating middle age, and John Q Public just out for a cheap, boozy sun-drenched outdoor holiday.
As Moore pushes, pulls, wheedles, cajoles, and threatens Shinto across Spain, the duo overnights in the bedrooms, dormitories, and—for Shinto—grassy fields of northern Spain. Shinto, a donkey with a finely honed talent for relieving himself at the most inopportune moments, has better luck in the search for his next meal than Moore does in finding his inner pilgrim. Undaunted, however, Man and Beast finally arrive at the cathedral and a successful end to their journey. For readers who delighted in his earlier books, Travels With my Donkey is the next hilarious chapter in the travels of Tim Moore, a book that keeps the bones of St. James rattling to this day. ”
In contrast to the last book, Miller (trail name: AWOL) spent a lot of time prepping for his hike of the AT. After he finished the trail, he has gone on to continue his work in the hiking community by writing guides to the trail to help other hikers!
“A 41-year-old engineer quits his job to hike the Appalachian Trail. This is a true account of his hike from Georgia to Maine, bringing to the reader the life of the towns and the people he meets along the way.”
I visited Denali National Park a while ago, and the guide was talking about this story. The bus has become a tourist destination, bringing in many more hikers – both experienced and not. Read the story, and hopefully be inspired by his inexperience and his lack of understanding of what to do in a difficult situation. Read a book on wilderness survival before you try it!!
“In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, a party of moose hunters found his decomposed body. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.
Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw away the maps. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild. ”
As is true with several of these books, this story really touches people and was made into a movie. It’s always interesting to read about people who make big, important changes to their lives to respond to tragedies. This choice that Strayed made helped to really popularize the PCT for hikers!
“At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State — and she would do it alone.
Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her. ”
This is not a new book, and a lot of the tragic choices made here, and natural disasters that led to tragedy, have been reflected in other stories. It has also led to some changes in the way the Everest hikers operate – and can draw attention to the problems that still exist on the mountain and in the climbing culture there.
“A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that “suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down.” He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more–including Krakauer’s–in guilt-ridden disarray…”
Another story about a person who wants to make a big life change! (If these make you want to quit your own job and take a hike for months, you might try browsing YouTube for hiker vlogs. You can see the entire “class” of people each year who hike the AT, the PCT, and the CDT, as they move along their adventures – for good and bad.)
“Carrot Quinn fears that she’s become addicted to the internet. The city makes her feel numb, and she’s having trouble connecting with others. In a desperate move she breaks away from everything to walk 2,660 miles from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail. It will be her first long-distance hike.
In the desert of Southern California Carrot faces many challenges, both physical and emotional: pain, injury, blisters, aching cold and searing heat, dehydration, exhaustion, loneliness. In the wilderness she happens upon and becomes close with an eclectic group of strangers- people she wouldn’t have chanced to meet in the “regular world” but who are brought together, here on the trail, by their one common goal: make it to Canada before the snow flies. ”
A little less stressful, and a little more tourism in the hike! And really – isn’t everything going to be better with a dog as a companion?
“For five months, Hamish Brown and his collie dog Storm walked the length and breadth of the British Isles, taking in the highest peaks in Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland. In this captivating account of his travels, Hamish’s unique blend of description, anecdote and personal philosophy triumphantly evokes the spirit of the mountains and provides a many-sided personal guide to Britain’s finest hill country. ”
I first read this as a college student, which was just the right age. (Yes, I considered dropping out of college to walk across the country; No, I did not do it. But I have taken many fun road trips!) A classic in the hiking literature, it’s worth a read no matter your age or desire to trudge the country!
“Inspired by Jack Kerouac’s adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naiveté and wild ambition and imbued with Kerouac’s love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up. ”
Thanks for reading with us this week!! We will have another bouquet of books next week. You can also always get book suggestions by joining our book group podcast: Reading With Libraries. Join us! Stream it here! Download it to your own app! Read books! Drink themed beverages! Have fun with us!!