Outdoorsman and Mountain Man Books...WHAT TO READ BS Thread

I love McCarthy but The Road is just too disturbing for me.

The Silo series was better than most of the other YA dystopian sci-fi books my wife has recommended to me.

 

The Old Man and the Boy, by Robert Ruark.

 

One of the best mountaineering/adventure books I've ever read. Touching the Void - Joe Simpson. If you don't know this true life story, I highly recommend it.

Book Summary
Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge, breaking his leg. In the hours that followed, darkness fell and a blizzard raged as Yates tried to lower his friend to safety. Finally, Yates was forced to cut the rope, moments before he would have been pulled to his own death.

The next three days were an impossibly grueling ordeal for both men. Yates, certain that Simpson was dead, returned to base camp consumed with grief and guilt over abandoning him. Miraculously, Simpson had survived the fall, but crippled, starving, and severely frostbitten was trapped in a deep crevasse. Summoning vast reserves of physical and spiritual strength, Simpson crawled over the cliffs and canyons of the Andes, reaching base camp hours before Yates had planned to leave.

How both men overcame the torments of those harrowing days is an epic tale of fear, suffering, and survival, and a poignant testament to unshakable courage and friendship.

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/touching-the-void-joe-simpson?variant=32118036037666

A novel I read last year that is very well done. The River by Peter Heller. This one reminds me to always go prepared into the woods. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_River/Bo5fDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

 

I detest The Road and anything by Cormac McCarthy. Just absolutely hate his writing style.

You are the only other person I’ve ever encountered that read The Remaining series. I loved those books. I highly recommend Wolves by DJ Molles if you haven’t read it. Great book.

I read Wool, and did like it, but never got around to the other ones. I’ll put them on my list.

Post Apocalyptic fiction is probably my favorite genre. Swan Song by Robert McCammon is probably my favorite. The Stand by Stephen King is a classic also.
The Passage by Justin Cronin is one of my favorite books. The sequels aren’t as good, but still entertaining.

As for outdoors stuff, I haven’t read a ton of it. Always liked Louis L’Amour though. The Haunted Mesa is one I’ve read multiple times.

 

This one?

A World Slowed: The Jared Chronicles

https://www.amazon.com/World-Slowed-Jared-Chronicles/dp/1081027649/ref=nodl_

 

Great books!

 

I think I've read that book a dozen times since I was a kid. Probably the only book that I flat wore out. The Walking Drum is another of his that is not a western, but is excellent.

 

The Road was hard to finish. That’s part of the authors point. Everything about that book, from the lack of punctuation to the story arc puts the reader right there on that bleak road. It’s brilliant and immensely disturbing. I get why people don’t like it. I’m going to read Blood Meridian next.

Have you read Molles’s Harden series? Immediately follows The Remaining. Molles seems to be the most plausible in the genre. Haven’t read Wolves yet.

I did read The Passage series. Agree with you. Will check out McCammon, thanks!

I have to say, my favorite books of all time are J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings, C.S. Lewis’s The Space Trilogy, and Andrew Peterson’s The Wingfeather Saga.

 

Cormac McCarthy is not light reading. But, absolutely spellbinding. All The Pretty Horses, No Country For Old Men, Cities of the Plain, The Crossing.... these are not blissful stories of the John Wayne movie westerns. Blood Meridian is a great story of survival and death that made up the western expansion of the 1850's.

And while thinking about western adventure/exploration... Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. Fantastic!

 

This is a good one

The Tracker: The True Story of Tom Brown Jr.

The Tracker: The True Story of Tom Brown Jr.: Brown Jr., Tom: 9780425101339: Amazon.com: Books

 

The Walking Drum is one of my favorites. I lost count of how many times I read it. I gave copies to my sons.

 

Which McCarthy books have you tried? I didn't like All the Pretty Horses because half of it is in Spanish and The Road is too scary but his other work, especially No Country For Old Men, is amazing. The lack of punctuation takes some getting used to but the prose itself is beautiful, even when he's describing something really bleak or gruesome.

 

Blood Meridian is fantastic. I love Out of the Silent Planet but haven't had a chance to read the others yet. When I was young, I made the mistake of watching the LotR movies before reading the books and couldn't get through the books but I really liked The Hobbit.

 

Not sure if this qualifies, but I enjoyed it. He lives on a mountain and saved my favorite dog breed. True story.

 

"The Saga of Hugh Glass" The original "Revenant" story. Makes the movie seem like a camping trip

 

He is a helluva writer in my opinion. I admit to referring to a dictionary a good bit when I read his books. Did you see the movie adaptation of All The Pretty Horses? I liked it better than the pro critics. Gorgeous movie to watch, faithful to the novel. And, Penelope Cruz is easy on the eyes too.

 

Outdoorsy, adventure and fun:

 

If I had to pick a favorite out of Lewis's trilogy, it would be a difficult choice between the 2nd and 3rd books.

Tolkien's descriptions can err on the cumbersome side for some, but I find it incredibly immersive.

 

I haven’t read the Harden series, but I will. McCammon has some really great stuff. Boy’s Life is a masterpiece in my opinion.

 

I’ve read The Road, and attempted No Country For Old Men (one of only two books in my life I ever started and didn’t finish ). I understand that a lot of people appreciate his style, but I can’t enjoy it. I understand what he’s trying to accomplish, but the lack of punctuation, run-on sentences, etc grate on me. I feel like it’s effective in moderation, but reading an entire book in that style is draining.

That said, the story of The Road is good, and I’m sure the others are too. It’s just the style that I can’t get past. I don’t know how faithful it is, but I watched the movie version of No Country For Old Men after giving up on the book and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

No Country for Old Men was an epic movie. One of Tommie Lee Jones best character performances. The Road was made into a good movie as well. As bleak as any post apocalyptic movie could be.

 

The movie is pretty faithful but the book is even better.

 

That's the one. The second and third are out also. I've read the second, but not the third one yet.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HJNRWHL?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_1&storeType=ebooks

Chains of Tyranny (The Jared Chronicles)

https://www.amazon.com/Chains-Tyran.../ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

 

I’ll take your word for it and stick to the movies.

 

Cool. I’ll check them out.

 

This one might be of interest...

$13 Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass

https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Your...+your+way+without+a+map&qid=1613765649&sr=8-3

 

Boy’s Life is The Great American Novel. About perfect.

I try explaining to people when I recommend it, so they won’t dismiss a novel with a 12y.o. protagonist. Seriously. One of the best books EVER.

 

If you like outdoors humor, anything by Patrick F. McManus will have you holding your sides laughing.

I'll go through my shelves tomorrow and see what else I can come up with. Here's a few more I thought of off the top of my head:

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

White Fang by Jack London

The Call of The Wild by Jack London

Klondike by Pierre Burton

Into Thin Air by John Krakauer

Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read

The Survivor's Club by Ben Sherwood

 

It really is tough to explain. One of my favorite books of all time, and I struggle to even tell someone what it’s about.

 

I started the Harden series yesterday. Had to download the Kindle app since it’s not available on iBooks. I switched to digital a few years ago for the convenience. While I love a real copy of a book, it’s great to be able to instantly get a copy of whatever I want, especially with bookstores becoming scarce. (It’s also nice to be able to change the font size since my eyes have gone to crap. Guess constantly reading for over forty years is catching up to me.)