Great Outdoor Adventure Books

I love to read. Ever since I was a little kid I've loved books. My tastes run to nonfiction, but some fiction, namely classics (i.e. Charles Dickens, Jack London), historical fiction, and some military thrillers (Tom Clancy's first few years' books were some of my favorites). In the past few years I've come across several very enjoyable outdoor adventure books. They're either true or based on true stories. Some of these books I've read several times, and I've found that a couple of them, especially, are perfect for reading inside on cold, bleak, snowy winter days.

Two of my favorites, pictured here, are Indian Creek Chronicles and North to the Night. North to the Night, especially, captures my imagination. It's about a man's winter spent above the Arctic Circle in his boat. He and his wife live on the boat year-round, and he decides to spend an entire winter, with its 24 hours of darkness, polar bears hunting him, and completely frozen world, locked in the sea ice. He has to burn fuel to operate a heater just to give himself enough space to eat and sleep inside his boat - the rest of the boat's interior is a block of ice.



Two more books I enjoy are The Last River and Skeletons on the Zahara. The Skeletons book is based on a true story. It's about some merchant seamen who embark on a trade voyage and are captured and enslaved in the desert in Africa. The story of their ordeal makes a very compelling read.


The Last River is the story of the first descent by kayak of the Tsangpo River. Some of the events of the story are debated among the extreme paddling crowd, but the account of the logistics and effort put forth by the team, including all the challenges of various kinds, is interesting.


Finally, In the Land of White Death details the odyssey of a crew of Russian explorers who were trapped too far north on their 19th century voyage. Another book based on a true event, the story of the men's challenges and the ways they overcame them makes for a great read.

If you enjoy the outdoors, adventure, and/or tales of human effort against the most difficult of odds, these books are all great reads.