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Do you have favorite reading material to take on backpacks? Any particular authors?

I go to the library and pick up a small paperback by some author I like. I look for a battered old one, or go to used bookstore. I look for one that is likely to capture my attention quickly, usually a mystery or something like that.

I have a big library of outdoor literature at home, a big collection of Grand Canyon river running books, Southwest non-fiction and tales of Alaska, Arizona history, Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, Colin Fletcher, Charles Bowden, Ann Zwinger, Michael Ghiglieri, etc. etc. But as for what I actually carry on a backpacking trip, it varies a lot. I have been known to carry a larger book on a short weekend trip, when weight and space are not a consideration. Recently I dragged the biography Harvey Butchart: 20,000 miles in the Grand Canyon, a 400 page tome, on a weekend trip. I really like to read at night in my sleeping bag with a flashlight, and it does help me to relax and fall asleep, so it's important to me.

Some purists are picky about what they bring, saying that your consciousness should be raised and all that New Age stuff, so you should bring poetry or philosophy. But I don't like reading poetry or philosophy. (snore) I like reading what interests me at that moment. I think it's silly for other people to tell you what you should be reading in the outdoors.

I have, however, been known to bring an old paperback copy of The Man Who Walked Through Time on backpacking trips in the Canyon. Last time I did this we ended up camping at one of the places Colin had camped on the South Bass Trail, and also we found a very small but interesting rock formation alongside the trail that he had described perfectly. Interesting to see how it had held up after almost 50 years! Although I and others have had criticism of this book for various reasons, I still enjoy re-reading it about every 5 years or so.

"I really like to read at night in my sleeping bag with a flashlight,"

omg ... I'm so glad I'm not the only one who does that

It's a great time for audio osmosis for class, etc...I seem to remember everything I assimilate when in "the zone."

FASB Exposure drafts. I'm probably the only one and I don't recommend them.

azbackpackr wrote:Some purists are picky about what they bring, saying that your consciousness should be raised and all that New Age stuff

im not sure what that is intended to mean Liz, but if I know you, you'll agree on oxymoron. Ed Abbey for instance was a purist, but despised all the "new age" crap and probably with good reason.
I agree reading will relax your mind and help it fall asleep. I do bring a small book on solo overnights. Last time this happened, was in West Fork when I went in solo and read all but the last few pages of Krakauer's "into the wild". It was raining so i had little to do anyway...

te-wa wrote:

azbackpackr wrote:Some purists are picky about what they bring, saying that your consciousness should be raised and all that New Age stuff

im not sure what that is intended to mean Liz, but if I know you, you'll agree on oxymoron. Ed Abbey for instance was a purist, but despised all the "new age" crap and probably with good reason.
I agree reading will relax your mind and help it fall asleep. I do bring a small book on solo overnights. Last time this happened, was in West Fork when I went in solo and read all but the last few pages of Krakauer's "into the wild". It was raining so i had little to do anyway...

I can see eye-to-eye with Abbey to a point in that some of what he considered "new age crap" was a distraction from his ultimate goals. It's hard to get people motivated to go out and sabotage things when they're stoned and beating bongos...

The Economist and/or one of the Truly Tasteless Jokes books

After many times of forgetting to bring something to read, I REALLY knew where I was going the next day after looking at the map till it was sleep time.

Well, what I meant had nothing whatever to do with Ed Abbey. He was furthest from my mind, he's been dead almost 20 years. This train of thought is more current. It seems I have read this idea in some magazines, on some websites, maybe not in books. It is this: There seems to be a sub-group of backpackers who believe ALL BACKPACKERS should bring only very high-minded reading material when we are out in the wilderness, or no reading material at all. This sub-group would favor poetry, philosophy, and books of a spiritual nature. The only problem I have with this idea is that they seemed to be saying that we ALL should do as they do.

The reason I called them purists is because they are advocating we all are supposed to cultivate a spiritual consciousness while backpacking, and that somehow if we are reading Michael Crichton (RIP Michael--he just passed away) or Tony Hillerman (ditto, he just passed away) we are polluting our minds with mindless pulp fiction.

I think if they want to lug their Bible, Book of Mormon, Bhagavad-Gita, Koran, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Masters of the Far East, or the Apocrypha OR William Blake, Socrates, etc. etc., on their bp trips, well groovey-dude for them. But they want to tell ME to read this sort of literature? That is where I part ways with them, that they are advocating what I might choose to read! I don't want to read deep spiritual stuff on a trip, nor poetry nor philosophy. I find it very tedious reading, and it would just be dead weight in my pack.

I'd rather read pulp fiction BECAUSE it is easier to read, and I really only need to bring it because it helps me to fall asleep. I do find a spiritual connection when I'm out there, but I tell ya, once I crawl into my sleeping bag all I want to do is to prevent insomnia. And I have brought spiritual reading on a trip, but it didn't help me with the spiritual connection at all, it just felt kind of contrived. The spiritual thing may happen to you, but not because you read a book. It just happens.

Now do you see what I'm saying?

azbackpackr wrote:Well, what I meant had nothing whatever to do with Ed Abbey. He was furthest from my mind, he's been dead almost 20 years. This train of thought is more current. It seems I have read this idea in some magazines, on some websites, maybe not in books. It is this: There seems to be a sub-group of backpackers who believe ALL BACKPACKERS should bring only very high-minded reading material when we are out in the wilderness, or no reading material at all. This sub-group would favor poetry, philosophy, and books of a spiritual nature. The only problem I have with this idea is that they seemed to be saying that we ALL should do as they do.

The reason I called them purists is because they are advocating we all are supposed to cultivate a spiritual consciousness while backpacking, and that somehow if we are reading Michael Crichton (RIP Michael--he just passed away) or Tony Hillerman (ditto, he just passed away) we are polluting our minds with mindless pulp fiction.

I think if they want to lug their Bible, Book of Mormon, Bhagavad-Gita, Koran, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Masters of the Far East, or the Apocrypha OR William Blake, Socrates, etc. etc., on their bp trips, well groovey-dude for them. But they want to tell ME to read this sort of literature? That is where I part ways with them, that they are advocating what I might choose to read! I don't want to read deep spiritual stuff on a trip, nor poetry nor philosophy. I find it very tedious reading, and it would just be dead weight in my pack.

I'd rather read pulp fiction BECAUSE it is easier to read, and I really only need to bring it because it helps me to fall asleep. I do find a spiritual connection when I'm out there, but I tell ya, once I crawl into my sleeping bag all I want to do is to prevent insomnia. And I have brought spiritual reading on a trip, but it didn't help me with the spiritual connection at all, it just felt kind of contrived. The spiritual thing may happen to you, but not because you read a book. It just happens.

Now do you see what I'm saying?

I knew what you were getting at; those people are usually the same ones who go out once a year and do some high-mileage, low-AEG trip with their pristine pastel-colored designer outdoors clothing and stick their nose in the air when they see the likes of me coming down a nearby peak. Hey, at least they're out there...

Although, I did see a guy out in the middle of nowhere one time sitting in a meditation pose on a boulder reading the I Ching wearing an alligator smile. I doubt the notion of how much more refined he was than the others out that day even entered his mind

azbackpackr wrote:Now do you see what I'm saying?

If not, please don't ask again. I'm afraid azbackpackr will pop right out of my monitor on the next round. (I do agree that anyone who expects me to read a certain thing or think a certain way is wasting their time).

Seriously, though, I prefer natural history, guidebooks, local history, geology, almost anything that will occupy my thoughts. I get a kick out of reading Sigurd Olson when I'm in the desert and Edward Abbey or Craig Childs when I'm in the lush, green mountains.

I went with my girlfriend to Goodwill a couple weeks ago so she could find some cheap used crap to throw together as a Halloween costume, and while browsing used book section I spotted a stack of 1960's Arizona Highways magazines for $.69 each. I cleaned the section out (18 to be exact) and they have been traveling with me lately. Before that, the most recent book I've brought along was "Walk Across America" by Peter Jenkins. Highly recommended! I generally prefer outdoor themed reading material when I'm camping.

azpride wrote:I spotted a stack of 1960's Arizona Highways magazines for $.69 each. I cleaned the section out (18 to be exact) and they have been traveling with me lately.

Don't you just love finding treasures like that??? A couple years ago I found an entire collection of The Black Stallion series at a funky little antique store over in Ajo. I was crazy about those stories when I was a kid, and I cleaned them out, too ... all 20-some of them.

desert spirit wrote:

azpride wrote:I spotted a stack of 1960's Arizona Highways magazines for $.69 each. I cleaned the section out (18 to be exact) and they have been traveling with me lately.

Don't you just love finding treasures like that??? A couple years ago I found an entire collection of The Black Stallion series at a funky little antique store over in Ajo. I was crazy about those stories when I was a kid, and I cleaned them out, too ... all 20-some of them.

Yeah, I was really really really excited. They seem to have been quite a bit better back then, too.

I try to avoid potboilers when I'm camping/backpacking. I spent a memorable evening in Rose Canyon a few years ago staying awake until 4 a.m. reading David Morrell's 'The Brotherhood of the Rose.' Bad idea.

I like that series, A Walk Across America. There are three books, I think, or maybe just two, but Peter Jenkins went on to write other books, one about China. He also got into doing technical climbing in TREES in the Southeast, maybe Georgia or Tennessee, where he eventually settled. I think the second book in the series is called "The Walk West." Yeah, just two books. He got married at some point and continued the walk with his wife, as I recall.

Another person who had a life-changing experience like that was Robin Graham. He wrote "Dove," a tale about sailing solo around the world. It took him about 5 years, and he also got married along the way. Great book--especially since as I recall he was only about 14 or 16 or so when he began his solo sail from California across the Pacific. Unfortunately, Robin Graham was killed later on, after he had built a cabin in Montana and settled there with his wife, he was killed in a motorcycle crash.

I could probably count on my hand the number of times I've brought a book on a backpack in the last 6-7 years, but it'd either be a Ed Abbey or a WWII paperback (history major, if I ever feel like graduating)

It doesn't matter where I am, I usually have something to read in my bag.