What do you read...

[EddieE]

I was a Tom Clancy junkie for awhile. It seems kind of eerie to read that stuff now with all the shit going down - it's like right out of any of those books.

I've been meaning to read Atlas Shrugged for awhile...I think I'll pick it up for the next road trip.

[David_Parker]

Holly, there is already a thread on cc called "great adventure stories" for a really long list. I don't remember if I mentioned it back then, but there is an absolutely marvelous adventure story that I will bet a case of guiness that you will laugh OUT LOUD while reading it! It's called "Flight of Passion" and it's about two teenage brothers from New Jersey who fly their Piper cub across the country in the 60's. Five stars fer sher!!!

[carolyn]

Hollyclimber, Youre reading my mind. I just finished another book today and will be due for a trip to the bookstore tomorrow!

I go in spurts with reading...right now I cant seem to read enough.

I admit Im a John Grisham junkie.

Tonight I just finished Winterdance by Gary Paulsen about running the Iditarod. Good story, but the writing was a little irritating.

Cascadeclimber-I started In the Zone last week and zipped thru it in about two days. I REALLY liked it. The story of the folks on Foraker really got to me.

Nanda Devi was okay, but I got a bit sick of the bickering going on. Seems like there were a lot of different sides to the story. I would have been interested in hearing them.

Walk in The Woods by Bill Bryson kept me laughing a alot!

Touching the Void was great.

Crossing the Antarctica by Will Stegar (local MN folk) is one of my all time favorites.

Within My Reach...cant remember the author, but written by a 17 yr old who climbed everest (didnt summit if I remember correctly). He is just so frank. And the resourcefulness /creativity of being so young was inspiring.

To the Summit by Margo Chisholm is what got me thinking that maybe I COULD start getting involved with climbing.

I read a lot of books on wolves. (other animals as well) Among Grizzlies by Timothy Treadwell was a recent one I enjoyed.

I do read over a lot of my books on backpacking trails in MN again and again and again...kind of what you were talking about hollyclimber...looking at what you have done and what you want to do...planning the next excursion.

As a beginner, I get sucked into my Freedom of the Hills book a lot as well.

Happy reading!

Carolyn

[ 10-27-2001: Message edited by: carolyn ]

[Winter]

Crime and Punishment kept me glued to the pages while waiting hours on end for mystery busses to show up in East Africa, and Bones of the Master recounts one monk's pilgrimage to his master's burial site in the mountains of Inner Mongolia. Both books make time pass fast.

[Dru]

I'm currently writing a self-help relationship book for climbers. I will call it Mars and Venus in Your Haulbag and make $$$$$$$. I will follow that up with a book of New Age psycho-babble and call it the Slessetine Prophecies. More $$$$$$. Then a pet owners/animal lovers book - The Snafflehound Whisperer. Finally an alpine romance - the Snow Bridges of Madison Glacier. $$$$$$$$ Soon to appear on Oprah!!

Isn't there a 11c boulder problem/TR at Rat Creek Boulder called Atlas Shrugged? you sending that Holly??

Actually I am reading a science fictiony type book by Robert Silverberg right now called Kingdoms of The Wall. about a bunch of stone age aliens making a religious pilgrimage up a huge mountain. pretty cool, sort of like Mt Analogue for the sci-fi reader. I would recommend it to anybody that climbs if you can get through the first 50 pages of anthropology.

[sexual_chocolate]

A Path With Heart. Jack Kornfield.

[To_The_Top]

I am currently reading Twights book, and so far it is very good.

As far as other good books out there:

Nanda Devi by Johb Roskelley

Thin Air by Greg Child

Eiger Dreams by you know who

Agree with the Dave Roberts and Simpson books

Atlas Shrugged is on the to read list

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Guide books too, especially Beckeys

Bill

[Pencil_Pusher]

Holly, check out Herbert Kornfeld's column in The Onion. A little bean-counter humor.

In the Shadow of Denali was pretty good. Eiger Dreams (with Twight taking a friggin cassette player and headphones over a sleeping bag)was good as well. I found out through my Alpine Climbs in the Canadian Rockies just how Tobin Sorrenson (the hilarious dude from John Long's Climbing Anchors)died. I find some of my instructors' names in Beckey's books.

Of Beckey, yeah, I dream at night of finding that "obvious" bench/tree/rock/big-shiny-spot-that-says-THE-ROUTE-IS-HERE. Still, those books are THE bibles, they allow for so much dreaming and possibilities.

And, it's fun to come here and read somebody's trip report. Like that guy recently, the 50's has-been/never-was... HILARIOUS!

[willstrickland]

I too read guidebooks (keep the Utah guide at work). Usually alot of non-fiction mixed with the occasional classic. I loved the Rand books I've read (Fountainhead and Atlas), Kiss or Kill was alot of rehash but very entertaining. I just finished "Autobiograhpy of a Yogi", am currently in the middle of "The Battle for God". Last month it was "Walden and Civil Disobedience" by Thoreau, "All quiet on the western front", some Neitzsche commentary, and "A Heartbreaking work of staggering genius". On the waiting shelf is Beyond Good and Evil, Hayduke Lives, and The Zen Teachings of Dogen.

I never take "serious" books on long trips, you need some fluff that's easily digested...any grocery store romance novel will do, split it into sections and distribute it to the crew...reading it out of order is actually more fun with these.

[Bob_Clarke]

On my desk lies "Climber's Guide to Smith Rock"...ahh reads like fine classic novel. Also "Selected Climbs in the Cascades" by Nelson (nearly all climbs/routes ticked) another fine read. Next to that "Cascade Alpine Guide 3: Rainy Pass to Fraser River" by the Jedi Master Becky. Day dreamin! In my top drawer is "The Travelers Guide" (nearly all climbs/routes ticked)

My fav read outside of climbing has got to be "I, Claudius". Love those Romans.

[Juneriver]

Aside from the usual climbing books and guides,

1984- Orwell, kinda cliche, but still my favorite

100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquis (sp?)

On the Road - Kerouac

Anything by Mark Twain, not Twight

Sorry, Holly, I liked parts of Atlas Shrugged, hated parts of it, and in the end, still couldn't make up my mind. One thing is for sure... she's nuts.

[Wopper]

I read nothing but Krakauer.

[sexual_chocolate]

Jon Krakauer?

[willstrickland]

quote:

---

Originally posted by lizard brain:

My recent favorites:

Dominguez & Robin "Your Money or Your Life"

---

I can't recommend this book highly enough, a foundation in the literature on voluntary simplicity or "downshifting", it's had drastic effect on untold numbers of people. Read it at your own peril, it may well change the way you view the consumerist foundation of our sense of well being.

[Alpine_Tom]

Most of my "reading" has lately been books on tape, to use my bicyle commuting time effectively. I thought Joseph Ellis' Founding Brothers was excellent; it's about the American revolutionary generation. Finally did Cold Mountain that way, and it was worth the read. Another book that really changed the way I look at the world is "Guns Germs and Steel." Also available on tape. Currently working on both Stephen Jay Gould's "Dinosaur in a Haystack" (I recommend ANY of his essay collections; there's about ten) and Thomas Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel" which is a bit slow so far.

I too can sit for hours perusing guidebooks, going from Beckey. It is odd how they never get boring, even if you know what the route description is going to say. I think that once you've climbed a peak or route, you get a whole different perspective on the route descriptions around it. You see a really cool peak from the top of another one, and dig out the books to see what the heck that was. If you're an active climber, your perspective constantly changes, and you look differently at the same routes.

You can also (fun with Beckey) compare an early edition with the current edition, and see how the descriptions have changed.

[sexual_chocolate]

Alpine Tom. I recently heard about Guns, Germs, and Steel. What is that about?

You'd probly like Daniel Dennet's book, Darwin's Dangerous Idea. It deals with the real and possible implications of Darwinian theory; interesting stuff.

[chelle]

Just started reading John Adams by David McCullough. It's really well written and fills in the details about the dates I learned in history class.

[Alpine_Tom]

quote:

---

Originally posted by sexual chocolate:

Alpine Tom. I recently heard about Guns, Germs, and Steel. What is that about?

---

Basically that, in the development of human history, geography was destiny. He starts off the book with the question: why did soldiers from Spain conquer Mexico, rather than vice versa? Sounds sort of silly, but a great deal flows from that. He addresses: why agriculture developed so quickly in the Middle East, and why is spread so much more rapidly in Eurasia than in the Americas; why China, with superior technology (printing, gunpowder, the compass) was overtaken technologically by Europe, why so few animals are fit for domestication, and how that affects the development of agriculture, which in turn enables the development of standing armies, as well as the development of culture. Why communicable diseases like measles and smallpox arose in Eurasia but not the Americas, with the effects we all know about.

This guy is an anthropologist, and one of the ideas he seeks to discredit is the one that different peoples have different tendencies (Mexicans are lazy, primitive tribesmen from New Guinea can’t understand capitalism, Japanese can imitate but not innovate) and it seems like he does so extremely well.

The first chapter, as I recall, was a bit slow, but it just got better and better. The chapter on writing was particularly good.

I could easily go on for ten pages, but I will, with great effort, restrain myself.

 

[Rick]

In the book "In The Zone" by Peter Potterfield he never mentions why he took such a long fall on Chimney Rock(or did I miss it?). Anyone know what happened?

[sexual_chocolate]

Is the invalidation of the cultural stereotypes his objective in writing this book? Just curious....

And why does he think smallpox and such developed in Eurasia, not here? Something to do with the domestication of animals?

And what diseases did Native Americans suffer from, pre-european influence? Any way to know?

Speaking of Native Americans, I'd really like to read some Sherman Alexie, the poetry and prose writer. (And now, screen-writer.)

[Self_propelled]

Sexual,

In G,G & S the author's objective is to explain some of the profound historical occurences in clear detail without the bias of the conquering nations or religions. Just the facts.

Yes, he believes many diseases started in the fertile crescent with the domestication of animals. He does not go into much detail about any disease in the Americas. He does show quiet clearly that not much of anything travelled very far in the Americas because of the extreme climate differences along the North/South axis and the constriction of Central America. Conversely lots of stuff travelled on the Euro/Asian land mass because of the fairly common climate and the relative lack of geographic barriers.

Definitely read Sherman Alexie!

quote:

---

Originally posted by sexual chocolate:

Is the invalidation of the cultural stereotypes his objective in writing this book? Just curious....

And why does he think smallpox and such developed in Eurasia, not here? Something to do with the domestication of animals?

And what diseases did Native Americans suffer from, pre-european influence? Any way to know?

Speaking of Native Americans, I'd really like to read some Sherman Alexie, the poetry and prose writer. (And now, screen-writer.)

---

 

[haireball]

I'll read damn near anything...once spent a week in a foul-weather camp reading Chaucer's Canterbury Tales aloud with my tent partner. Another time it was Louis L'amour...

Recently, have enjoyed drifting through Colleen McCullough's series of historical novels dealing with the decline of the Roman republic...

Guns, germs, & steel was very good - very readable

Mostly, I avoid climbing literature - too much of it reads like the essays my elementary teachers used to assign each September "what I did for summer vacation"...whoopee...

[philfort]

quote:

---

Originally posted by EddieE:

I was a Tom Clancy junkie for awhile. It seems kind of eerie to read that stuff now with all the shit going down - it's like right out of any of those books.

---

Here's what we did to the Tom Clancy novel (SSN) I brought to Alaska (we ended up lounging around so much, we read all our books, so everyone was 'forced' to eventually read this one):

It was the worst novel I've ever read. Moral of the story: Don't try to read a book that's based on a video game.

 

[na]

A lot of you have mentioned the Beckey guides. Have you also read his 'Challenge of the North Cascades'? If you have any reservations about long approaches or bushwhacking, just read a bit from this book and you'll realize just how easy we have it now.

[tobytortorelli]

c'mon! put down the Krak-ass and read something good. "Along the western slopes of the Oregon Coastal Range...LOOK OUT!!...Metalic at first,seen from the highway down through the trees....sometimes i live in the country, sometimes i live in the town; sometimes i get a great notion to jump into the river...an' drown....LOOK OUT!