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Life on the Mississippi (Oxford World's Classics) Mark Twain The spirit of the Mississippi flows through all Mark Twain's best work and here the romantic heyday of the steamboat is recalled in a characteristically nostalgic mixture of journalism and autobiography. He describes people and places with affection and humour, but of the Mississippi itself, on which he was once a cub pilot travelling between New Orleans and St Louis, he writes with repect and loving devotion. |
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Into the Wild Jon Krakauer By examining the true story of Chris McCandless, a young man, who in 1992 walked deep into the Alaskan wilderness and whose SOS note and emaciated corpse were found four months later, internationally bestselling author Jon Krakauer explores the obsession which leads some people to explore the outer limits of self, leave civilization behind and seek enlightenment through solitude and contact with nature. 'an astonishingly gifted writer: his account of 'Alex Supertramp' is powerfully dramatic, eliciting sympathy for both the idealistic, anti-consumerist boy - and his parents' Guardian 'a compelling tale of tragic idealism' The Times |
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Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson From the author of "Notes from a Small Island" and "The Lost Continent" comes this humorous report on his walk along the Appalachian Trail. The Trail is the longest continuous footpath in the world, and it snakes through some of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in America. |
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: 25th Anniversary Edition Robert M. Pirsig "The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called 'yourself.'" One of the most important and influential books of the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live and a meditation on how to live better. The narrative of a father on a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest with his young son, it becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions. A true modern classic, it remains at once touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward. |
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The Oregon Trail; sketches of prairie and Rocky-Mountain life Francis Parkman A breezy, first-person account of a two-month summer tour of Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas when Francis Parkman was 23, including three weeks spent hunting buffalo with the Oglala Sioux. |
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Travels with Charley: In Search of America John Steinbeck In 1958 Steinbeck stocked up a camper van and set off on a journey through nearly 40 states of the USA. Travelling alone with his dog and generally unrecognized, he was able to renew an intimate knowledge of the grass roots of American life that had underpinned his writing. |
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The Mountains of California (Modern Library Classics) John Muir When John Muir traveled to California in 1868, he found the pristine mountain ranges that would inspire his life’s work. The Mountains of California is the culmination of the ten years Muir spent in the Sierra Nevadas, studying every crag, crook, and valley with great care and contemplation.
Bill McKibben writes in his Introduction that Muir "invents, by sheer force of his love, an entirely new vocabulary and grammar of the wild . . . a language of ecstasy and exuberance."
The Mountains of California is as vibrant and vital today as when it was written over a century ago.
This Modern Library Paperback Classic includes the photographs and line drawings from the original 1898 edition. |
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Travels in Alaska John Muir John Muir first saw Alaska in 1879, only twelve years after it was purchased from Russia by the United States. Four more times, in 1880, 1881, 1890, and 1899, he was drawn back to this land of rivers and glaciers, sunsets and northern lights, campfires and Arctic stars. Few people have lived so many adventures, yet Muir was not a mere collector of adventure; the hazards he encountered - and many were spine-tingling - came as a result of his intense desire to examine new aspects of the natural world. |
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Up the Winter Trail: Coastal British Columbia Stories Wayne J. Lutz Hiking, boating, and survival off the grid in coastal BC, where mountains drop into the sea and people practice self-reliance and a different sense of purpose. Winter hiking adventures in the Powell River area. Off-road riding on quad and motorcycle. Boating and kayaking on the region's lakes.
The geography of the Powell River area serves as the backdrop for stories of locals who are isolated from the bustle of the surrounding world. Recreation stories for the stout of heart with a desire for wilderness adventure. These regional stories share common threads that paint a unique picture of the Powell River area and its inhabitants. Numerous maps and illustrations accompany the stories, broken into 17 chapters. |
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1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die Patricia Schultz It's a traveler's life list, a guide, an inspiration, a memory book. Open it to check out where you've been, and where you should go next. What to see and what to do and what to show the kids. Where to eat and where to stay. And how to change your life.
Covering the U.S.A. and Canada like never before, here are 1,000 spectacular, compelling, essential, offbeat, utterly unforgettable places. Pristine beaches and national parks, world-class museums and the Corn Palace, mountain resorts, salmon-rich rivers, scenic byways, Chez Panisse and the country's best taco, lush gardens and Holden Arboretum, mountain biking on the Maah Daah Hey trail, historic mansions, vineyards, hot springs, the Talladega Superspeedway, classic ballparks, and more. Includes more than 150 places of special interest to families, and, for every entry, the nuts and bolts of how and when to visit. |