11 Books to Feed Your Wanderlust
I’m not talking about Eat, Pray, Love, I’m talking about books where there may be a few days/weeks between showers. Books written by people who go on long hiking trips, sleep out of their cars, and travel long distances on bicycles. These are the kinds of books that get me excited about traveling and trying new things. They’re the types of people who help me understand that sometimes that leap of faith isn’t as scary as it seems — you can build your wings on the way down.
11 Books to Feed Your Wanderlust
Wild: From Lost to Found on the PCT
Reese Witherspoon will be staring in the film adaptation of Wild this year, so add this to your summer reading list before it comes out. Basically, the author (Cheryl Strayed) loses everything and decides to go for a walk…an 1,100 mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, to be more exact. She was 26 years old at the time and decided to go on this trip by herself…she writes about her shortcomings, weaknesses, and being very along on the trail.
I read I Hike by Lawton (Disco) Grinter on a plane and ended up needing extra cocktail napkins because I was crying into my ginger ale during one of the chapters. Alex was nice enough to remind me to laugh more quietly during the other chapters of the book (oops!). I Hike is full of “mostly true stories” from over 10 years and 10,000 of long distance hiking. After listening to the Trail Show podcast a few times, it was nice to get a little bit more history on Disco and P.O.D. (there is a hilarious story about the benefits of hiking in a skirt involving P.O.D.). This book is hilarious and a super easy read as each chapter is a short story.
Alex read Bicycle Diaries a couple of years ago and demanded to know why I didn’t include it in this list (it was originally 10 Books to Feed Your Wanderlust). This is David Byrne’s memoir about traveling across different countries on his bike. Get this book for the bike-advocate (or the new hot term: active transportation advocate) in your life. Byrne discusses what the conditions of roadways and city planning say about the state of a city while also covering what it’s like to visit foreign places on a fold-up bicycle.
This is a great coffee table book…but for small coffee tables, because this book isn’t large at all. I received a copy of Slow is Fast by Dan Malloy (Author), Kanoa Zimmerman (Author), Kellen Keene (Author) and handed it over to Alex as soon as it came to the door. The three authors share their story of traveling along the California coast using only human-powered travel…mostly by bicycle. They surf and meet interesting characters as they travel down the coast and capture photos, interviews, video, and more in this book/DVD combo. It’s the type of book that’s easy to flip through (minus the two-page full-color spread of roadkill they encountered along the way) but also good for getting an idea of what truly makes California unique.
The New American Road Trip Mixtape
What do you do when you get your heartbroken? Load up your station wagon and hit the road. At least, that’s what Brendan Leonard (of semi-rad.com) did as he traveled and climbed his way across the American West. Like, I Hike, it was interesting to read a more personal side of somebody’s story, especially after following them online for a few years. I think The New American Road Trip Mixtap will resonate with other late-twenties/early-thirties folks who aren’t quite sure where we fit in with the old idea of the American Dream.
High Infatuation: A Climber’s Guide to Love and Gravity
Steph Davis writes about how she found rock climbing, how it empowered her, finding love (even as a nomad), making friends, and what lead to her becoming a high-profile athlete. This book focuses mostly on climbing and doesn’t really cover her career in BASE jumping or wingsuit flying. I loved that this was sort of Steph’s origin story and the information she shares on climbing culture in Yosemite. Knowing that not all climbers start when they are super young made me feel better about starting pretty “late” in life. Her writing is conversational, which made it easy for me to blow through the book in a weekend.
A few years ago, I celebrated Campfire Chic’s anniversary with a blog party (a new post goes up each hour for 24 hours) and Alex shared his list of outdoor/adventure books he recommends. I pulled the list from that post, and they are as follows:
- A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
- The Last Season
- Into the Wild
- The Adventures of Lewis and Clark
- Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Next on my list: Learning to Fly: An Uncommon Memoir of Human Flight, Unexpected Love, and One Amazing Dog by Steph Davis (the author of High Infatuation, listed above). It’s Steph’s book that covers when/why/how she started BASE jumping and wingsuit flying. It was published just months before her husband passed away in an accident while they were wingsuit flying in Italy and I’ve put off reading the book because I know it’ll be incredibly sad to read about their relationship when I know the outcome.
What books would you add to this list?
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