Genres

Hiking

Hiking is a long, vigorous walk for pleasure along a trail in nature.

Lists

The bandit from Corte by Patrizia Ines Roggero

The House at Zaronza by Vanessa Couchman

The Book of Lost and Found by Lucy Foley

France by Region: Corsica - Corse

66 books — 1 voter

Let the Games Begin by Rufaro Faith Mazarura

Obscure Sport Romances

42 books — 2 voters

AWOL on the Appalachian Trail by David Miller

Grandma Gatewood's Walk by Ben Montgomery

Best Appalachian Trail Books

86 books — 184 voters

The Lost Treasure of the Templars by James Becker

The Cotswolds Town and Village Guide by Peter Titchmarsh

Walking the History of England (nonfiction)

43 books — 18 voters

One Day at a Time 2017 by Hollie Bell-Schinzing

Best Adventure Travel Memoir

282 books — 201 voters

Hunting Trips of a Ranchman & The Wilderness Hunter by Theodore Roosevelt

Annals of the Former World by John McPhee

My Life With the Eskimo by Vilhjálmur Stefánsson

MeatEater Reading List

45 books — 6 voters

Featured News & Interviews

New Nonfiction to Read This Women's History Month

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“ I love going out of my way, beyond what I know, and finding my way back a few extra miles, by another trail, with a compass that argues with the map…nights alone in motels in remote western towns where I know no one and no one I know knows where I am, nights with strange paintings and floral spreads and cable television that furnish a reprieve from my own biography, when in Benjamin’s terms, I have lost myself though I know where I am. Moments when I say to myself as feet or car clear a crest or ...more ”
― Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost

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“ The Native Americans, whose wisdom Thoreau admired, regarded the Earth itself as a sacred source of energy. To stretch out on it brought repose, to sit on the ground ensured greater wisdom in councils, to walk in contact with its gravity gave strength and endurance. The Earth was an inexhaustible well of strength: because it was the original Mother, the feeder, but also because it enclosed in its bosom all the dead ancestors. It was the element in which transmission took place. Thus, instead of The Native Americans, whose wisdom Thoreau admired, regarded the Earth itself as a sacred source of energy. To stretch out on it brought repose, to sit on the ground ensured greater wisdom in councils, to walk in contact with its gravity gave strength and endurance. The Earth was an inexhaustible well of strength: because it was the original Mother, the feeder, but also because it enclosed in its bosom all the dead ancestors. It was the element in which transmission took place. Thus, instead of stretching their hands skyward to implore the mercy of celestial divinities, American Indians preferred to walk barefoot on the Earth: The Lakota was a true Naturist – a lover of Nature. He loved the earth and all things of the earth, the attachment growing with age. The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. It was good for the skin to touch the earth and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth. Their tipis were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The birds that flew in the air came to rest on the earth and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing. That is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life-giving forces. For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly; he can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him. Walking, by virtue of having the earth’s support, feeling its gravity, resting on it with every step, is very like a continuous breathing in of energy. But the earth’s force is not transmitted only in the manner of a radiation climbing through the legs. It is also through the coincidence of circulations: walking is movement, the heart beats more strongly, with a more ample beat, the blood circulates faster and more powerfully than when the body is at rest. And the earth’s rhythms draw that along, they echo and respond to each other. A last source of energy, after the heart and the Earth, is landscapes. They summon the walker and make him at home: the hills, the colours, the trees all confirm it. The charm of a twisting path among hills, the beauty of vine fields in autumn, like purple and gold scarves, the silvery glitter of olive leaves against a defining summer sky, the immensity of perfectly sliced glaciers … all these things support, transport and nourish us. ...more ”
― Frédéric Gros, A Philosophy of Walking

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