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bob
climber
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I love short reads when travelling. Here's my two cents: Virtual Unrealities by Alfred Bester. Its old science fiction, but man could that guy write stuff that fits now, then, and probably the future.
Cabeza de Vaca is a brilliant diary of a Spanish Explorer who went from South Florida, up and around to where AZ is and down to finally end in Mexico city. EPIC and a short read. There was something like 300 men to start and only 3 or so made it. Cabeza de Vaca (family name) was one of them who did. (obviously?)
Bob J.
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Loom
climber
The Whiteboard Jungle
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Weisman's The World Without Us
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Tani
climber
Vista, CA
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I second John Mac's recommendation of The Last Season. Just before I started the book, I hiked the Rae Lakes Loop and talked to one of the backcountry rangers mentioned in the book. I could visualize the exact places where Randy Morgenson used to patrol during his summers in SEKI. Great book!
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Phil_B
Social climber
Hercules, CA
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bler,
Y totally rocks. Also, anything by Frank Miller, especially the Sin City series.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Melissa, dept of weird coincidences, I am 50 pages into 'A fine Balance',with school as student and teacher, I haven't picked up my current book in a few days, and had forgotten the name.
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Ezra
Trad climber
WA, NC
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Just read
"Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson,
The Most powerful book I think I've ever read in my life. He's a former climber who nearly sumited K2 and recovered in Pakistan and went back to build 57 schools there to provide balanced education and educate girls there (the taliban forbids the education of women at the Madrass schools. He is my frigging hero! He's spoken at the AAC and American Himalayan foundation. His work is also a counter weight to idiocy of the current administration.
you must read this book.
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yo
climber
The Eye of the Snail
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"The Places in Between" Rory Stewart...my stars
"The Road" Cormac McCarthy (may not fly for everyone)
"The Pass" Dingo
Pamuk, yes--"My Name is Red" is also cool
Murakami, yes
Any Elmore Leonard (currently on "The Hot Kid")
Collected Stories of William Trevor, unless short fiction is dead and then don't bother.
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Knoxville
climber
San Francisco
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I've been on a Larry Brown kick recently. Just finished his posthumous "Miracle of Catfish." If you like a read where the plot is not the most important element of the book, then this is just great. It's very southern, and his characters will haunt you (in a good way) for weeks after you finish it. Can't recommend it highly enough.
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Karen
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes
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Anything by Carl Hiaasen, I've read most of his works and just waiting for his latest work (Nature Girl) to be released in paperback.
"At the heart of many of Hiaasen's sharply satirical crime novels lies a concern for the environment of Florida, the US state in which most of his books are set. Fortunately, it takes a lot of digging through outlandish plots, filled with black humour, to find any preaching. Hiaasen specialises in quirky heroes and heroines: a juggler who uses human skulls for his act (Stormy Weather); a former FBI secretary stripping to finance a custody battle (Striptease).
And the villians are nothing less than bizzarre. How else to describe a bouncer with a "weed-whacker" for a hand (Skintight), or a burglar conversing with the head of a dead dog attached to his arm (Doulbe Whammy)? Should all of this sound far-fetched, Hiaasen's skill as a writer ensures that his characters are real and appealing".
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MikeL
climber
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The book is: Flatland, written in 1886 or thereabouts, by Abbott. Here is a synopsis.
"This book is about Square, a mathematician who lives in two-dimensional Flatland. He is a very lawful citizen, and goes out of his way to explain to his grandchildren that there is no third dimension, even theoretically. But when he is visited by a sphere from Spaceland, he finds it hard to deny the reality of a third dimension. He is given further reason to consider this possibility when he is granted the rare chance to visit Lineland. He is baffled when the king and queen of that country refuse to acknowledge his existance, because they cannot, in their sphere of experience, imagine that there could be any dimension higher than the first. He is finally convinced when the Sphere allows him to visit Spaceland, where he is able to experience first-hand the third dimension - something he never thought was possible when he lived in Flatland. He then tries his best to convince the rest of the two-dimensional shapes that there's a third dimension, even though they can't see or imagine it."
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M.Tea
Trad climber
Utah
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"The Road" Cormac McCarthy
Interesting jump for McCarthy from tales of the west. Haunting.
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andy@climbingmoab
Big Wall climber
Park City, UT
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Some kinda sorta new, but sometimes not. Nothing older than 30 years though.
Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan. The use of very descriptive language is some of the best i've read since Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. The Neon Bible by Toole is a good read too.
Neil Gaiman is one of my favorites. Neverwhere and especially American Gods are really good books. Neverwhere is best if you've spent time in London.
Ghost Rider by Neil Peart(drummer in Rush) is one of the better travel books(though hevaily influenced by personal tragedy) that i've read. He wrote another book about bicycling through Cameroon that is good too - the Masked Rider I think?
Papillon by Henri Charriere. Way better than the movie.
If you like the Life of Pi(I did), check out the Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios by the same author(Yann Martel). The first story in it was as heart wrenching as anything i've read - the others are uneven at best though.
The Cloud Sketcher is another good one(can't think of the name of the author). Its a good story about a Finnish skyscraper architect, which is funny if you've ever been to helsinki. The book isn't funny though, but it is excellent.
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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"Joe Hill" by Wallace Stegner.
And for Russ:
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oddly, a different kind of climbing:
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston, who wrote The Hot Zone
Brand new this year. It was urged onto me. Thought I'd read a chapter or two to be polite. Couldn't put it down; finished it in a few days. Bunch of bold and geeky natural history types invent techniques of tree climbing -- "spiderlines" alone are ingenious -- discover the tallest redwoods on the north coast of CA, and do the first ecological studies of whole plant communities never before suspected in the tops of 370' redwoods. Bansai forests, for instance, growing in soil beds fertilized by lichens.
A parallel universe of climbers, including strange courtships and unroped sex in the treetops.
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SteveW
Trad climber
Denver, CO
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I agree with EZRA.
I'm reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and
it is difficult to put down. He's really special.
I heard him speak a couple of years back and talk about
a humble soul...
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SteveW
Trad climber
Denver, CO
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I agree with EZRA.
I'm reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and
it is difficult to put down. He's really special.
I heard him speak a couple of years back and talk about
a humble soul...
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SteveW
Trad climber
Denver, CO
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I agree with EZRA.
I'm reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and
it is difficult to put down. He's really special.
I heard him speak a couple of years back and talk about
a humble soul...
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hossjulia
Trad climber
Eastside
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Brand new book, "House of Rain" by Craig Childs.
I'm in the middle and it's fascinating, like all his books.
It explores the fate of the Anasazi, a people who's remains Childs has been stumbling across for years in his travels through the southwest desert.
I highly recommend any of his books
http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/authors/42/2121/index.html
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GDavis
Trad climber
SoCal
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Will Christopher Baer - Kiss Me Judas
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James
climber
A tent in the redwoods
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Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck- An excellent read about a witty grocery store clerk, his struggle with poverty and his subsequent escape.
Disgrace by J M Coetzee- An exiled college professor moves into his daughter's South African farm land. A very well written and concise story on racism, sexual, and father/daughter dynamics.
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