I’ve always been a reader. Like, reading in bathroom queues/faked sickness to get out of school to read/haven’t left the house without a book for 15+ years kinda reader. Most of my hobbies, engagements and inspirations in life have sprung from reading about them first – then having a go myself. My passion for hiking is no different, I read a book about it first – then I decided to take on the lifestyle.
And let me tell you: there are SO many amazing books out there about hiking, skiing, running, swimming, climbing, dog sledding, mountaineering, exploring and every adventure you can possibly think of. From well known classics such as Jon Krakauer to more niche cult-type memoirs. I’m obsessed with solo female adventurers, but am looking to expand my repertoire. Reading about adventures is the next best thing to being on them yourself, and I love getting carried away and finding inspiration to embark on new treks.
Quite a few travel memoirs (especially those by thru-hikers) are published privately and written by people who aren’t very good writers. I’ve done my best to avoid those, and the recommendations you’ll find here have all passed with decent literary standard. This is the first post in a series, where I try to cover a range of outdoor pursuits. Whether you are a couch potato who just enjoys a good read or an avid trekker, there will be something in here for you!
Wild - Cheryl Strayed
The book that started it all. Without this jewel of a memoir, you would not be reading this. I would not be a hiker, and my life would look completely different. Wild put the Pacific Crest Trail on the map. It redefined accomplishment for so many people. Not a single Christmas has gone buy without me giving Wild to at least two friends. Seasoned thru-hikers will identify so much with her tales of bottomless-pit-hunger, blisters and exhaustion, newbies will be inspired to undertake great new adventures. Read. This. Book!
Cheryl Strayed was 22 when her mother died of cancer – the same age I was when I hiked the Te Araroa. Her family, marriage and life unravelled. She tumbled into a mess of affairs, drugs and was utterly lost. She was at the bottom of her life, as I was when I read her book. Desperate for direction, Strayed decided to hike a large chunk of the PCT without any prior backpacking experience. Beneath her monstrous backpack she inched her way up the map, through trauma and into a life she could truly live, not just endure. Wild’s subtitle reads “from lost to found”, and that is precisely what you feel like after reading it. Her love for her mother pulses off the page. It will shatter you.
One of the things I love about Wild is how superbly written it is. Once you’ve read a good selection of outdoor/sports memoirs, you’ll find that a lot of them are written by people who are mainly adventurers or athletes – not authors. They did something cool and wanted to write about it. Cheryl Strayed is the opposite, a writer who happened to walk. Those pages are filled with beautiful imagery, gutsy humour and the narrative arch is just perfect. Readers who have read Wild very carefully will note scores of references throughout my blog entries.
Wild truly is what The New York Times Book Review describes: A literary and human triumph. There is a great book trailer on Youtube, check it out here!
Tracks - Robyn Davidson
I found Tracks after Googling “what to read after Wild”, which is kindof ironic since Tracks will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2020. Its subtitle reads “A Woman's Solo Trek across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback”. Just in case any of y’all didn’t know where to place your expectations.
Robyn Davidson walked with her four camels: Bud, Dookie, Zelly and baby Goliath, and her dog, Diggity from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean. Why? She “just wanted to be by herself”. As massive expedition-like treks like the one Davidson undertook aren’t free, National Geographic offered her sponsorship in exchange for documenting her journey. Her encounters with the NatGeo photographer are equal parts funny and sad – unlike Cheryl Strayed, Davidson was no social butterfly. Gutsy as hell though. And a fabulous writer to boot.
Davidson offers a biting look into the dynamics of gender, race and class in 1970s rural Australia. This isn’t just a story about a woman on an adventure, this is practically an onion of societal observations – where each layer leaves you more aware of the responsibility that comes with history. Tracks takes you through the wild Australian outback to some of the most unforgiving environments on the planet. Her story is a world away from Bondi Beach, it is exceptionally raw and Diggity will break your heart.
Tracks has also been made into a fabulous movie, check out the trailer here!
the good life - dorian amos
Probably the funniest travel memoir I’ve ever read. Amos takes you up the Yukon without a paddle, he and his wife, Bridget, spontaneously moved from the UK into a log cabin in the Canadian wilderness. There is no end to the disasters they encounter, from mudslides and bears to pregnancy complications. I will never understand how they actually survived their countless mishaps, but they lived to tell the tale in a sequel too: The Good Life Gets Better.
The Good Life is the perfect trail companion when you are off on your own adventures. It’s a real pageturner and you will laugh out loud – I guarantee you. Know someone who isn’t an adventurer, but loves the idea of it? This book is perfect. Amos challenges our assumptions about materialism and happiness, but keeps it light and never gets preachy.
I gave this book to my climbing partner, Jake, for his birthday. During our weekly sessions he still says “that book you gave me… every time I read it I just think what am I doing here? I need to get back into the wild!”. Enough said!
dirt work: an education in the woods - Christine Byl
Getting down and dirty as only forest rangers can, Byl recounts her extraordinary traildog adventures from national parks such as Glacier, Montana to Cordova, Alaska. What was intended to be a brief wilderness stint ended up becoming her life, and the colourful characters we encounter through her eyes will make you snort with laughter on public transport. Byl proved herself as a gutsy woman among men. She will earn your respect the way she earned the respect of all the trail crews she worked with, including the man who would become her husband. You will know more about trail lingo, tools and spirit after reading this book than you can imagine.
Dirt Work will strike a chord with those among us who struggle to marry our “wild” side with our regular lives driven by career ambitions and academic pursuits. She bridges the divide between white-collar and blue-collar work so seamlessly and defies commonly accepted notions of what constitutes “real work”. Here’s a traildog who knows her Plato. Without romanticising the immediate, earthy life in the woods and mountains – she still conveys the magic and mysteries we all feel on long outdoor treks. Her writing is lyrical and thought-provoking. How does a chainsaw work? How does a wild place become a home? Dirt Work will educate you both on matters of the hand and head.
alone in antarctica - Felicity Aston
If you thought thru-hiking was badass… Meet British explorer Felicity Aston, who at 34 became the first woman (and 3rd person ever) to cross Antarctica. Alone.
It’s pretty hard to describe how hardcore this expedition was. Aston had no one to brief with as she faces the challenges of one of the most extreme environments on the planet. She battled fierce weather, hidden crevasses, hallucinations, boxed her way through sastrugi and watched the sun spin constantly in circles in the sky for 1744 km. Her story isn’t sugar-coated, you can feel yourself slipping into her moods all the way. There is no dialogue and ease you can slip into as a reader, like Aston you are forced into the confines of one mind in the face of extreme conditions. In contrast to many other outdoor-pursuits memoirs I’ve read, I read Alone in Antarctica and thought I am never ever going to do this.