June 22, 2011

Comments (11)

  • Great list, Carol.  Thanks especially for noting the ones available for free on Kindle. 

  • Hasn’t National Geographic heard of Mildred Cable and Eva French, and their travels in the Gobi desert?

    I am astonished.  They were missionaries with the China Inland Mission, and quite indomitable.  Cable seemed to be the writer, and wrote quite a few books I think.  A quote from Wikipedia says, “A reviewer said of Cable and French’s book, The Gobi Desert, that “this may be the best of many good books about Central Asia and the old Silk Road through the deserts of Western China.”"   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Mildred_CableThe wiki article gives more info.  Fascinating.  And an amazing missionary endeavor that should not be forgotten.

  • @jackug - As always, I appreciate your contributions.  Thank you for letting me know about Mildred Cable. I will follow up on it.

  • I have read only two of those, but they really “missed the boat” with Headhunting in the South Pacific and Gullivar’s Travels.

  • I love this list!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for finding and posting it!  Steve and I are about to go out for the evening, but I’ll definitely come back later and let you know which ones I’ve read and which ones I own, but have not yet read.

  • Carol, we really are sisters in spirit!  I, too, am extremely risk-averse, but I love reading travel and exploration books!

    Here’s the ones I’ve read and enjoyed: 1, 3, 8, 9, 26, 27, 30, 35, 37, 38, 49, 58, 66, 69, 89, 95.  Here’s the ones on my bookshelf that I have not yet read: 13, 14, 17, 23, 31, 47, 52, 59, 61.  What am I interested in?  Why, all the rest on that list that I have not yet read!  I’ll soon be burning up PBS points trying to get some of those titles.  And here are books that I’ve enjoyed that I would add to that great list:

    Across the Limpopo: A Family’s Hazardous Journey Through Africa – Michael Nicholson
    The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest – Anatoli Boukreev
    This Game of Ghosts – Joe Simpson
    Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone – Martin Dugard
    The Travels of William Bartram – William Bartram
    Undaunted Courage – Stephen Ambrose
    The South Pole – Roald Amundsen
    River of Darkness – Buddy Levy
    Waugh Abroad – Evelyn Waugh
    Blue Highways – William Least Heat Moon
    Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest – Beck Weathers

  • I have read many of these and really like the list.  One book that few people have heard of but that I consider one of my favorite adventure books of all time is this one:

    Kayaks Down the Nile
    by John Goddard

    http://books.google.com/books?id=nTpyAAAAMAAJ&q=Qena
    http://www.amazon.com/Kayaks-Down-Nile-John-Goddard/dp/0842515755

    This book recounts the first ever complete trip from the sources of the Nile to the Mediterranean.  It was done in 1950.

  • Awesome list! I’m planning on reading The Long Walk this year; my brother devoured it in less than a day, so I know it’s gotta be good. :)

    I’d add David Howarth’s We Die Alone to the list. It’s a superb WWII survival story. You can read my review of it here.
    Thanks for the list! I’ll be adding some of these titles to my Kindle library.

  • Now this is a list I could sink my teeth into! I would start however with the grandaddy of adventure writers – John Muir. Superb writer, fascinating man. A good introduction is “The Wilderness World of John Muir”, an anthology or his “Travels In Alaska” or “My First Summer In The Sierra”. Several of his books are free on Kindle. However, for just mind boggling adventure I would put “Endurance” #1.

     ”The Snow Leopard” by Peter Matthiesen is gorgeous from beginning to end. (Other books of his are disappointing.) Here’ a favorite paragraph from “Snow Leopard”, http://notaboutme.typepad.com/not_about_me/2011/04/namaste.html . 

    “Desert Solitaire” is another favorite masterpiece. Not really an adventure story, more from the nature genre. If that one’s listed I’d have to add “A Sand County Almanac” by Aldo Leopold. For sure in my top 10 favorites of all time.

  • Living it up; living placard statesman n more n more.
    Signfloat Bookmarking

  • @magistramater - nice

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