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Fiona Heckscher
Trad climber
Providence, RI
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Oct 12, 2005 - 07:02pm PT
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I just want to copy this entire thread and work my way through it from the top down...
Last
Quite Early One Morning- Dylan Thomas
Virus Hunters of the CDC- Joseph B. McCormick MD and Susan Fisher-Hoch
The Time Traveler's Wife (which is fabulous, by the by)
Best
Tao Te Ching -Lao Tsu
Zorba the Greek -Kazantzakis
Whatever I read last, or whatever I read with a great teacher
Climbing
Is it bad that the only one I've read is Lynn Hill's Climbing Free (which was excellent)?
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Festus
Mountain climber
Antelope Valley
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Oct 12, 2005 - 07:13pm PT
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I always thought highly of this community, but now I see I still hadn't given it enough credit.
No one has listed a Stephen King book! I...I...think I'm going to cry. You guys are just...swell!
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Oct 12, 2005 - 07:16pm PT
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A disclaimer
The format of these lists; what to include, what can’t be left out, etc. can lead to omissions.
I had assumed that it went with out saying, but maybe I’m wrong, so I’ll say it. Largo’s prose sometimes puts a voice to a generation of climbers (esp in the greater Califrado area) of which I am a part, in an almost uncanny way. Sometimes it sounds so much like things you heard, or maybe the way you wanted it have sounded, that it gets taken for granted.
“I wanted to call home with the news, but my parents had moved and left no forwarding address.” -or something like that.
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Crodog
Trad climber
Concord, CA
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Oct 12, 2005 - 07:37pm PT
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Climbing:
Addicted to Danger
The Climb up to Hell
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Oct 12, 2005 - 07:50pm PT
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Last 3 (All Audio)
Cannery Row (Steibeck...favorite Steinbeck that I've 'read'!)
Le Divorce (forget)
The NPR American Story Telling Project (ed. Auster)
Best 3
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera)
Love and Garbage (Klima)
La Maladie de l'Amour (Duras)
Best 3 climbing
Yosemite Climber (ed. Meyers)
The Roper Guide to Yosemite Valley
Into Thin Air (Krakauer)
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Scoop
Mountain climber
Truckee, CA
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Oct 12, 2005 - 09:08pm PT
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The Womps
Polar Bears before Breakfast
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
(all kids books...)
Huckleberry Finn
The Sun Also Rises
Catch-22
Conquistadors of the Useless (Lionel Terray)
Stone Palaces (Geof Childs)
Annapurna (Maurice Herzog)
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mike hartley
climber
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Oct 12, 2005 - 10:48pm PT
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Last 3: you don't want to know - 3 nursing school texts...
Best 3:
Sometimes a Great Notion - Keasey
The Cider House Rules - Irving
The Cadillac Desert - Marc Reisner
Best 3 Climbing:
Everest: the West Ridge - Hornbein
Downward Bound - Harding
Mirror Mirror - Ed Drummond (the Games Climbers Play)
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stinky
climber
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Oct 13, 2005 - 12:03am PT
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Last three:
Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt)
The Brendan Voyage (Tim Severin)
The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
Camp 4 (Steve Roper)
Best contemporary three:
Truth and Beauty (Ann Patchett) + Autobiography of a Face (Lucy Grealy)
Jarhead (Anthony Swofford)
The Life of Pi (Yan Patel)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Dave Eggers)
Best classic three:
The Stranger (Camus)
Finnegan's Wake (James Joyce)+ Audio + Cambell's guide
Don Quixote (Cervantes)
Moby Dick (Melville)
Best nonfiction three:
Cadillac Desert (Marc Reisner)
Desert Solitaire (Ed Abbey)
Encounters with the Archdruid (John McPhee)
Rise of the Vulcans (Jim Mann)
Best whimsical:
Cork Boat (John Pollack)
French Revolutions (tim Moore)
Tropical Gangsters (Klitgard)
Three Men in a Boat; to say nothing of the dog (Jerome K. Jerome)
Best cheese three:
Hawaii (James Mitchner)
Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert Heinlen)
The Monkey Wrench Gang + Hayduke Lives (Ed Abbey)
Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling)
Best climbing three:
Touching the Void (Joe Simpson) + Movie + Beer
Camp 4 (Steve Roper)
any Ascent collection (various)
Best sailing three:
Fastnet Force 10 (John Rousmaniere)
The Caine Mutiny (Herman Wouk)
Moby Dick (Melville)
Two Years Before the Mast (Richard Henery Dana Jr.)
Seawolf (Jack London)
The Boat that Wouldn't Float (Farley Mowatt)
I'm loathe to send this in; the minute I do I will realize that I have forgotten to list the greatest books that ever there were. oh well.
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vegastradguy
Trad climber
Las Vegas, NV
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Oct 13, 2005 - 12:27am PT
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Last 3:
The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck
Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
Beowulf
Best 3:
Shogun, Clavell
The Namesake, Lahiri
Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut
Best Climbing Books:
A Red Rock Odyssey, DeAngelo
Camp 4, Roper
Wizards of Rock, Ament
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Oct 13, 2005 - 12:40am PT
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BASE104,
yeah, Stegner's Angle of Repose is great. Read it when I was seventeen and it just blew me away. It re-set what a book could be. Soon after I read Dahlgren by Sam Delaney. Which I forgot to put on my list. It'll be in the science fiction section but it isn't really SF. It has some disconcerting sex, and odd violence but mainly just ordinary stuff with strange twists of time and happenstance. Mind bending. Voyage to Arcturas (I forget the author) is another really great offbeat Science Fiction book. In my opinion better than any Asimov or Heinlien and I've read a lot of both , most of it more than once.
Zander
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phillip mike revis
climber
snowbird, ut
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Oct 13, 2005 - 10:39am PT
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last 3
rum diaries [hunter s thompson]
destination: morgue [james ellroy]
killing floor [lee child]
favorite 3
lonesome dove [larry mcmurtry]
american tabloid [james ellroy]
killer inside me [jim thompson]
best 3 climbing
into thin air
stone crusade
50 classic climbs in north america
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Levy
Big Wall climber
So Calif
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Oct 13, 2005 - 11:21am PT
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Last 3: Armageddon -Max Hastings
Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About -Kevin Trudeau
Tommyland -Tommy Lee
Best 3: Don Quixote -Cervantes
The Alchemist -Paulo Coehlo
Slaughterhouse 5 -Kurt Vonnegut
Best Climbing: "Like New, Low Miles" -Russ "Fish" Walling
Downward Bound -Warren Harding
Climbing In North America -Chris Jones
Most Disturbing: The Teratologist -Ed Lee & Wrath James White*Check this one out!!!!!!!!!!!!! *
High Life -Matthew Stilko
911 Comission Report _ -US Congres
Levy
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
Ca
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Oct 13, 2005 - 11:53am PT
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Whoa! I can't believe 'The Savage Arena' by Joe Tasker hasn't been mentioned yet. It is far and away the best climbing book I have ever read. I also found it interesting to read both Tasker's and Boardman's points of view on the climb they did together where both thought they were the weak link and letting their partner down. Very good reads, Boardman's book is 'The Shining Mountain' I think.
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Huge Balls
Big Wall climber
Darkside of the Moon
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Oct 13, 2005 - 01:45pm PT
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Shack got right!
One shot, One kill. How about "Rouge Warrior"
Best book in the world, the "Psycho Bible" by Armando Favazza
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Oct 14, 2005 - 12:28am PT
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Last 3:
Tolkein, A Biography by Michael White
River of Shadows, Eadweard Muybridge and the Technology Wild West Rebecca Solnit
Jimi Hendrix, Electric Gypsy Harry Shapiro and Caesar Glebbeek
Best 3:
Moby Dick Melville
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Kesey
Feynman Lectures in Physics Feynman, Leighton, & Sands
Best 3 Climbing:
Mountain of My Fear Roberts
Starlight and Storm Rebuffat
Games Climber's Play Wilson
But I could change my mind on the "best" list....
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climberweenie
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Oct 19, 2005 - 06:25am PT
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Next 3:
Moby Dick (almost done)
Life of Pi
Bean Trees (started but on hold for a while)
Last 3:
The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream
Deception Point
Tale of Two Cities
Best 3:
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman
Tom Jones (by Henry Fielding... no reference to Vegas dude)
Climbing 3:
Annapurna
Touching the Void
anything by Largo
My 3 yr old son's favorite 3:
Chaos, Fractals, & Dynamics (Peitgen, Jurgens, Moller)
"Daddy, I want to see Mandelbrot set... big ladybugs"
National Geographic: Reptiles
"look, Poison Dart frog"
Itsy Bitsy Spider
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crossman04
Trad climber
san diego, ca
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Mar 19, 2009 - 07:45am PT
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I think this is a really cool thread so i'm going to give it a bump. BUMP!
Last 3:
No Short Cuts to the Top (in progress)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (i know i know)
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Best 3:
Dune-Frank Herbert
Lord of the Rings(any)
Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (hilarious!)
Best 3 climbing:
Into Thin Air
Camp 4
Seven Summits/No Short Cuts to the Top (can't decide yet)
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paul roehl
Boulder climber
california
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Mar 19, 2009 - 01:40pm PT
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This is a great thread; was this forum as a whole more interesting a few years ago?
The one great work of fiction dealing with climbing or using climbing as a backdrop would have to be Salter's "Solo Faces." Somewhere between prose and poetry and good enough to be placed on Harold Bloom's list of cannon worthy 20th century books.
Also Mann's "Magic Mountain" in which the crux moment is the journey of a skier lost in a snow storm. It's also a great statement on the futility of politics.
There are so many good writers involved with the climbing scene in the American West and we've lived through such a tumultuous period in history, that I'm surprised more great fiction involving that experience doesn't exist or maybe I'm just not aware. Where is the climbing equivalent of "The Natural" or other great sports fiction?
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Mar 19, 2009 - 01:50pm PT
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of course these lists change over time what with limited aging memory banks, but for now;
Last three;
Asimov's Mirage -Mark Tiedeman almost finished, aand yeah, i realize it Is one of those after asimov, books
Geek Love- Catherine Dunn (reread)
Crossing the line - Clinton McKinzie
Best three;
Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevski
Neuromancer-William Gibson
Jitterbug Perfume- Tom Robbins
best three Climbing
One Green Bottle Elizabeth Coxhead
Conquistadors of the Useless, Lionel Terray
Master of Rock, Pat Ament
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