Bringing the outdoors in: 12 books
reading time: 5 minutes
We all love nature, but sometimes we can’t find the time to go outside. So here I’ll share some favourites: reads that inspired us to look at our world with fresh eyes, to say yes with more conviction, and create adventure sagas of our own. This is a simple way of sharing some of what has been most meaningful to me.
The Outsiders
The book captures the refreshing and evolving ethos of today’s smartly successful outdoor and lifestyle entrepreneurs and features interviews with key players from across the outdoor sector.
Into the Wild
Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild examines the true story of Chris McCandless, who walked deep into the Alaskan wilderness and whose SOS note and emaciated corpse were found four months later.
It’s one of Edward Abbey’s most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing, while he was working as a ranger at Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah.
It’s about “From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail”. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, a twenty-two Cheryl Strayed would hike more than a thousand miles of the PCT.
The Wilderness World of John Muir
As a conservationist, John Muir traveled through most of the American wilderness alone and on foot, without a gun or a sleeping bag. Muir’s writing, based on journals he kept throughout his life.
and the sea
This short novel from Ernest Miller Hemingway, an American writer, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and the giant Marlin he kills and loses.
Within every woman, there lives a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. She is the Wild Woman, who represents the instinctual nature of women.
Thousands have had such dreams, but Richard Proenneke lived them. He found a place, built a cabin, and stayed to become part of the country. One Man’s Wilderness is a simple account of the day-to-day explorations out.
In this unforgettable book, wolf expert and naturalist Elli Radinger draws on her 25 years of experience among the wolves of Yellowstone National Park to tell us remarkable stories of the wolves she has encountered and what we can learn from these.
Limits of the Known
David Roberts documented voyages to the most extreme landscapes on earth. He reflects on humanity’s relationship to high risk and exploration and why so many committed their lives to the desperate pursuit of adventure.
Epic Solitude
All her life, Katherine Keith has hungered for remote, wild places that fill her soul with freedom and peace. Her travels take her across America, but it is in the vast and rugged landscape of Alaska that she gets lost to finds her true home.
Originally published in 1854, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, is a vivid account of the time that Henry D. Thoreau lived alone in a secluded cabin at Walden Pond. It is one of the most influential and compelling books in American literature.