10 Travel & Outdoor Books You Should Read in 2019
- for those interested in the great outdoors, breathtaking adventures, and thoughts about our planet and its conservation; this list includes classics as well as more recent books -
Full Read: About 8 Minutes
Skim: About 2 Minutes
10. The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich
Of all the books on this list, this is by far the most poetic. Ehrlich beautifully describes her time in the American West, though it isn’t always beautiful.
Her writing is exposed, honest, and it truly paints a picture of ranch life in Wyoming. It’s a very short book, but it’s an essential for anyone dreaming of an existence on horseback, surrounded only by the elements.
“Animals hold us to what is present: to who we are at the time, not who we’ve been or how our bank accounts describe us. What is obvious to an animal is not the embellishment that fattens our emotional résumés but what’s bedrock and current in us: aggression, fear, insecurity, happiness, or equanimity. Because they have the ability to read our involuntary tics and scents, we’re transparent to them and thus exposed - we’re finally ourselves.”
“A good rodeo, like a good marriage, or a musical instrument when played to the pitch of perfection, becomes more than what they started out to be. It is effort transformed into effortlessness; a balance becomes grace, the way love goes deep into friendship.”
9. On Trails by Robert Moor
Moor combines anecdotes from his world travels with the science and art of trail building. He dives back in the depths of time to explain how the earliest organisms created paths. He then makes his way through the centuries to educate us on how we developed what we have today: the modern hiking trail.
“The modern hiking trail is an uncanny thing. We hikers generally assume it is an ancient, earthborn creation—as old as dirt. But in truth, hiking was invented by nature-starved urbanites in the last three hundred years, and trails have sprouted new shapes to fulfill their hunger.”
“The history of life on this planet can be seen as a single path made in the walking of it. We are all the inheritors of that line, but also its pioneers. Every step, we push forward into the unknown, following the path, and leaving a trail.”
Chimney Tops, Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee
8. Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
Easily the page turner of the list, Simpson captures his desperate bout for survival after breaking his leg on the face of Siula Grande in the Andes Mountains. After their successful first ascent, Simpson and his climbing partner, Yates, must beat the odds to make it back to base camp, only one of them at full capacity.
While showcasing the abilities of the human spirit, it also begs the question: when does saving one’s own life outweigh responsibility for someone else’s?
“He was still grinning, and his confidence was infectious. Who said one man can’t rescue another, I thought. We had changed from climbing to rescue, and the partnership had worked just as effectively.”
7. Way Out There: Adventures of a Wilderness Trekker by J.R. Harris
Harris, NYC born and bred, always dreamed of adventure. He desired to step out of the overcrowded city and into the most underpopulated places on earth. Leaving on his first trip in an old Volkswagen Beetle, he enthusiastically rolls toward the northernmost road in Alaska. From there, Harris skips across the planet, traversing the most remote locations imaginable, and his innate storytelling ability guides you eagerly along with him.
Though I don’t have any quotes from this book noted here (because my copy is back in the States,) I would highly recommend the read. It’s a down-to-earth, easy-to-consume, exciting piece of nonfiction. My only qualm? His tales are so enthralling that you wish Harris was sitting next to you at a campfire simply telling them himself.
Continental Divide at Loveland Pass, Rocky Mountains, Colorado
6. The Wolf by Nate Blakeslee
Blakeslee follows the intimate bloodline of the most dominant and beloved Yellowstone wolf, O-Six, without missing the deep-rooted political issues surrounding her species’ reintroduction. The author skillfully records the actors in the heated wolf debate as well as the beasts themselves. Evenly weighted and paced to perfection, this book throws you into a story as old as time: humans vs. wolves.
“Wolves were the driving force behind the evolution of a wide variety of prey species in North America after the last ice age, literally molding the natural world around them. The massive size of the moose, the nimbleness of the white-tailed deer, the uncanny balance of the bighorn sheep—the architect of these and countless other marvels was the wolf.”
5. Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life by George Monbiot
For those more intrigued by the planet’s delicate ecosystems and how humans have altered the ‘natural’ order of things. Is conservation the best option when we’re simply conserving a shortsighted, human-shaped environment? Should we reintroduce animals that went regionally extinct without the aid of human destruction? Is maintaining the landscapes of two centuries ago really representative of the earth’s biosphere from previous millennia? No clue what I’m talking about? These and other topical issues are tackled elegantly by Monbiot.
“I believe that pockets of wild land - small in some places, large in others - should be accessible to everyone: no one should have to travel far to seek refuge from the ordered world.”
4. Walking to Listen by Andrew Forsthoefel
Stepping out of his front door with only a backpack and a sign that reads ‘Walking to Listen,’ Forsthoefel sets across the United States to hear people’s stories. The kindness he encounters along the way justifies the book’s worth in itself. And, while it’s a transformational journey for Forsthoefel, it is for the reader as well. It leaves you wanting to set out yourself, inspired by his willingness to listen, but also by the words of those he meets.
“Wander.... It had something to do with a lightness of being, a receptive approach to each new moment that might take you anywhere. Obstacles didn’t exist because there was nowhere in particular to get to.”
“There wasn’t a formula for how to live my life, because my life had never been lived before.”
3. Down the Great Unknown by Edward Dolnick
Dolnick expertly weaves together the journals of Major John Wesley Powell and his comrades on their defiant river trip through the Grand Canyon, the first of its kind.
In 1869, these ten brave souls set off on the Green River, eventually meeting the mighty flow of the Colorado, and they plunged headfirst into a world unknown. The one-armed Civil War veteran led the party into an adventure they were ill prepared for, but it’s one that continues to earn immense respect and captures the fascination of modern-day readers.
“‘Embroider your adventures, convert to use any handy odyssey, and spin it all out in firelight. The only sin is the sin of being dull.’”
“Certainly they would find adventure, and that was perhaps the greatest temptation of all.”
2. Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey is one of most prolific writers of the American Southwest, Desert Solitaire arguably his most recognized work.
Recording his days as a National Park Ranger in Moab, Utah, Abbey relays his isolation, his love for the desert’s indifference, and his distrust of the man-made world. Follow his journey through Arches National Park and his surrounding playground: the incredibly varied landscapes of the American Southwest.
“If Delicate Arch has any significance it lies, I will venture, in the power of the odd and unexpected to startle the senses and surprise the mind out of their ruts of habit, to compel us into reawakened awareness of the wonderful...”
“The finest quality of this stone, these plants and animals, this desert landscape is the indifference manifest to our presence, our absence, our coming, our staying or going. Whether we live or die is a matter of absolutely no concern whatsoever to the desert.”
Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Moab, Utah (Abbey’s Playground)
1. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
Great Smoky Mountains, Bryson City, North Carolina (Bill Bryson hiked through these gorgeous mountains.)
Bryson is an influential author when it comes to the outdoors, travel, and additionally, science.
He effortlessly intertwines humor into factually-grounded writing, and he challenges the reader with his out-stated notions of conservation.
A Walk in the Woods contains each of these elements, enticing you to keep those pages turning as he keeps trekking through the vast wilderness of the Appalachian Trail.
If you haven’t already read this modern classic, do yourself a favor; buy it from your local bookshop.
“But I got a great deal else from the experience. I learned to pitch a tent and sleep beneath the stars. For a brief, proud period I was slender and fit. I gained a profound respect for the wilderness and nature and the benign dark power of woods. I understand now, in a way I never did before, the colossal scale of the world. I found patience and fortitude that I didn’t know I had.”
“I wanted to quit and to do this forever, sleep in a bed and in a tent, see what was over the next hill and never see a hill again. All of this all at once, every moment, on the trail or off.”
Do you think there’s a book I’ve missed that deserves to be on this list? Have you already read one of these? Have any thoughts on this blog post? If so, let me know in the comments. I love feedback, so don’t hesitate to reach out!
Thanks for reading, keep an eye out for future blog posts, and happy reading! - Cullan
