So, there’s a good chance that I’m going to be thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail starting in March, and I’d like to get some good reading done while I’m out there. Without nearly as many distractions I’m hoping to get through several full length books. I’ll only carry 1 at a time of course and have the others mailed to me as I mail back the finished ones.
Books I’m thinking of so far:
-Kon Tiki
-Something by Twain
-"" Tolstoy
-"" Dostoyevsky
At home lately I’ve been reading a lot of popular science (Sagan, Dawkins, Gould, Feynman) but I’m worried that might not hold my interest on the trail, and comic books/graphic novels, and they aren’t nearly long enough (the ones that take more than a day or two to read are generally heavier than I want to carry.) I might take a couple volumes of Lone Wolf and Cub, though.
So, feel free to support (or shoot down) my ideas so far, and please recommend other stuff. I have a pretty broad range of taste and I’m willing to think about taking anything, but right now I’m thinking big, epic, profound, perhaps viewpoint-changing. I’ll probably try to read a few lighter books as well. World War Z looks fun.
If you’re after something which is directly relevant to the experience itself, you could check out Bill Bryson’s book about walking the Appalachian Trail called “A Walk in the Woods”.
Dos’ The Idiot, but I thought it was kinda stupid. But if you’re a reader and there’s nothing between you, the trail and boredom, you can probably get through a lot of these classics that no one reads.
I took the Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings with me once when I was backpacking for a month by myself in Tibet. That was a good read…
Pretty much the two biggest books I’ve ever read - A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. Both are good for travel, as they’re both engrossing and rewarding, and don’t require you to switch books too often.
You going to do a major hike, and you want to read interminable Russian novels about war and evil? Huh?
This is nature experience, right? Big time nature experience— probably the best you’ll ever have in your whole life. Immerse yourself in it, totally. Stick to books about the wilderness.
I went out and bought [and read] Bryson’s book shortly after I decided to do the hike and I loved it.
Springer Mtn., GA.
The books don’t have to be about wilderness or living in the woods. I’m going to be experiencing that so I don’t necessarily need to read about someone else doing it. Those types of books will probably be better suited to either before or after the trip.
Besides, if some hiker hottie twists her ankle and you show her you can make a splint out of two twigs and some sap, you might be in for some zipped-together sleeping bag lovin’, if you know what I mean.
I’d think George R. Stewart’s book, Earth Abides would be a great primer and rather ironic reading while on your trip. Fitting.
(It’s about a biology student, IIRC, who’s one of the only survivors in a post-apocalyptic, humanity-wiped-out-by-virus world and who’s going through life observing everything that happens. Except it doesn’t come off as quite that contrived; Stewart is obviously a better writer than I am ;))
I second the choice of Kon-Tiki. It’s a pretty fast read, though. I’m not sure I’d go with the Dostoevsky. If you’re going to be alone with only one book, you should probably pick one that isn’t too depressing. Do you like Michener? If so, maybe Chesapeake, The Source, or The Drifters.
Hey why not go for the gold and read “War and Peace”? That way you only need to carry one book for the whole trip. Tolstoy has the first take I’ve ever seen on chaos theory during one of his battle scenes. I’m half way thru my second reading of this. Sinkid said the first translation I read sucked. Maybe I should just polish up my Russian and read it in the original to save time.