Into Thin Air; Jon Krakauer; classic and controversial account of the Everest 1996 disaster-this book changed my life engendering a fascination for the highest places and their environs and inhabitants.
The Climb, tragic ambitions on Everest; Anatoli Boukreev and Gary Weston De Walt an account of the same event from a different angle
Left For Dead; Beck Weathers....the story of the chap who was, well, left for dead on Everest-astonishing
High Exposure-an enduring passion for Everest and unforgiving places; David Breashears....another Everest one but with an autobiographical element from a respected filmaker and mountaineer.
Savage Summit-The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World's Most Feared Mountain; Jennifer Jordan.......fascinating account of the female climbers who have climbed K2, a must for the lasses
Summit Fever; Andrew Grieg...hugely entertaining account of how an armchair climber became a participant on an expedition to the Mustagh Tower in the Karakoram
Touching the Void; Joe Simpson....if you havent heard of this you must have been on Mars for the last 10 years....read it!
The first Fifty-Munro bagging without a beard;Muriel Gray ...an accessible and irreverent tale of hillwalking and bagging munros
Patagonia; Bruce Chatwin...it's a classic and IMHO is partly dreary, partly fascinating account of travels around...guess where? yup, Patagonia (it's bigger than you think)
A Walk in the Woods; Bill Bryson....hilarious account of walking (some of) the Appalachian Way...
Into the Wild; Jon Krakauer...thought provoking account of young idealist's doomed adventure in the Alaskan wilderness.
White Spider; Heinrich Harrer - The Man himself - Classic account of the ascent of the Eiger[/size]
Dark Summit; The Extraordinary True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season
The Beckoning Silence; Joe Simpson - Slow starter but picks up - Another book on the Eiger among other things.High Risk by Matt Dickinson - probably among the worst novels I have ever read, but the author had 'accidentally' climbed Everest at some time in his life and the descriptions of the main character attempting the climb really opened my eyes to what it's like up there. (No, I don't fancy giving it a go!).
I have just read an extract of 'Just for the love of it' by Cathy O'Dowd (the first American woman to summit Everest, I believe) and I shall be reading more.
Currently reading Death on the Ice by Robert Ryan, a speculative novel based on Scotts polar expedition.
Forbidden Land;The history of the struggle for the right to roam mountains and moorland written by Tom Stephenson
'I bought a mountain' by Thomas Firbank..... a wonderful book about hill farming in Snowdonia. If you like Snowdonia you will love this book.
'Feet in the Clouds:A Story of Fell Running and Obsession' by Richard Askwith stories of fell running heroes, awesome athletes most people won't have heard of together with the authors own obsession with trying to complete the Bob Graham round. A really well written sports book.
Granny Trek by Beryl Griffiths story of how 65 year old Beryl walked 600miles from Lowestoft to St Davids Head to raise money for Childrens Hospice South West. Profits from the book go to the charity too.
Cairngorm John: A life in mountain rescue. Some interesting bits in the book although not perhaps as interesting as I'd hoped.
Touching my fathers soul - 'we shouldnt believe that small wrongdoing can do no harm, because even a small spark can ignite a giant pile of hay. similarly the value of the smallest good deed should not be underestimated, for even tiny flakes of snow, falling one atop another, can blanket the tallest mountains in pure whiteness'
Bread and Ashes by Tony Anderson, The Accursed Mountains by Robert Carver and The Places In Between by Rory Stewart. Not mountaineering books as such, more accounts of journeys through mountainous ranges focusing on the people, history and culture of the areas as much as the geography covering, respectively, Georgia, Albania and Afghanistan. Not easy reads particularly, but unrelenting in their honesty and fascination.
Also The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthieson. The search for these elusive creatures in the remote Inner Dolpo region of the Himalayas. I thought I wasn't going to like this with it's early dose of 70's Buddhist pseudo-hippy clap trap, but having got past the worst of that it proved to be one of the most fascinating reads of recent times and one that I find myself thinking back to frequently.
Learning To Breathe by Andy CaveIt was the first "Climbing" book I read and enjoyed the whole thing. Learnt alot about being a coal miner in the 70's as well, bloody hell they earnt their money. PP
