These outdoor adventure books will entertain, thrill and inspire you!

Looking for good outdoor adventure books to read this summer, or at another point in the year? Here’s a few I would recommend.

A few are classics and I believe all of them might be someday. They will entertain, thrill and inspire you! I believe they are worth your time.

My list

⁠1. “Dove,” by Robin L. Graham.

A teenager sails around the world solo and meets the love of his life. As part of his journey, he spends time at Nanuya Levu, which is a remote and beautiful island in Fiji. The afterward was the best part for me. ⁠

⁠2. “Touching the Void,” by Joe Simpson.

A classic mountaineering survival story that I reference in Called to the Wild that includes betrayal, survival and redemption.

⁠3. “A Walk In the Woods” by Bill Bryson.

A hilarious account of Bill Bryson thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. If it was good enough for Robert Redford to star in a movie about it, it’s good enough for you to read :)⁠

⁠4. “Denali’s Howl” by Andy Hall.

An intriguing mountaineering story set on Alaska’s famous peak.⁠ This is considered the deadliest accident on Denali…kind of the Into Thin Air of Denali (see number nine on this list).

⁠5. “Astoria” by Peter Stark.

A riveting historical expedition disaster story—what could have happened to Lewis and Clark if things hadn’t gone so well.⁠

⁠6. “Emerald Mile” by Kevin Fedarko.

This rafting story tells the harrowing tale of the fastest and wildest descent of the Grand Canyon at high water. ⁠

⁠7. “Colorado 14er Disasters” by Mark Scott-Nash.

Entertaining, albeit tragic, lessons about hiking Colorado’s high peaks that some people approach as merely “a stairmaster with a view,” as Lou Dawson once said. More than just good arm-chair adventure quarterbacking, these stories entertain but also teach you along the way.

⁠8. “Blind Descent” by Brian Dickinson.

This Mount Everest survival features Brian Dickinson, a former US Navy Air Rescue Swimmer, whose passion became mountaineering. A story about a Christian mountaineer, which can be pretty rare in the outdoor literary canon.

⁠9. “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer.

Probably the most famous mountaineering book of all time, the excellent prose makes this read more like literature than adventure chatter. I found it interesting reading it lately as I now the same age as the author and my perspective was similar. ⁠

⁠What’s your number 10?

Did you catch that there is only 9 outdoor adventure books on my list? ⁠What outdoor adventure book would you recommend to be the 10th book on my list? Reply in the comments.