Travel and Exploration

Possibly Bryson’s most popular book, which is saying something. This is a travel memoir and comedy of errors about Bill Bryson’s attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail after years of living abroad. Joined, sometimes reluctantly, by his out-of-shape friend Stephen Katz, Bryson navigates the trail’s challenges while weaving in history, geology, and environmental issues. Hilarious as a book, but tough to adapt into a movie.

I remember reading this book in a hammock in the Philippines during a deployment and shaking with laughter. It’s a travel narrative about Bryson’s journey across Australia. He travels from cities to remote outback towns exploring the country’s laid-back charm, dangerous wildlife, and vast landscapes. Along the way, he dives into Australia’s past and present, with stories about explorers, convict settlements, and unique natural wonders. And he tries to ride a boogie board.

You can’t go wrong with Bryson. This one is a follow-up to Notes from a Small Island, which is also good. It chronicles Bryson’s return to explore Britain two decades later. Traveling from the southern coast to the far north, he reflects on what has changed, what has stayed the same, and the quirks that make the country unique.

This guy walked Afghanistan shortly after the fall of the Taliban. He covered hundreds of miles on foot in the dead of winter, and passed through remote villages and rugged landscapes rarely seen by outsiders. I found myself constantly googling historical landmarks he was walking past. I learned about major pieces of history that I was completely unfamiliar with, like the Minaret of Jam from the 12th century, and the Koh-I-Noor diamond. Along the way, Stewart encounters warlords, farmers, and nomads, piecing together the country’s complex history and culture through personal interactions. It’s a fascinating book, and Stewart has led a remarkable life. He’s had some public discussions with Sam Harris, and I’d agree with Sam’s take that Stewart often glosses over or handwaves away the misogynistic and violent aspects of the culture he’s writing about.

After losing his 1912 presidential bid, Theodore Roosevelt set out on one of the most dangerous expeditions of his life; a descent into the uncharted tributaries of the Amazon known as the River of Doubt. Roosevelt, already weakened by age and illness, led a small team through a world of disease, starvation, treacherous rapids, and hostile terrain.

Krakauer is another writer that you can’t go wrong with. All of his other books are also great, including Under the Banner of Heaven and Into Thin Air. Into the Wild follows the real-life journey of Christopher McCandless, a young man who gave away his savings, abandoned most of his possessions, and set out to live simply and self-reliantly. Krakauer retraces McCandless’s path from the American West to the Alaskan wilderness, where his quest for freedom and purity ended in tragedy.

A collection of essays and reporting on the world of mountaineering, Eiger Dreams collects Krakauer’s early writing about climbing before his later book-length works. The pieces range from profiles of legendary alpinists to accounts of his own adventures in places like Patagonia, Alaska, and the Alps, including the title essay about the Eiger’s treacherous North Face.

Jon Krakauer’s account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster blends his personal experience as a climber on the mountain with a reconstruction of the events that left eight people dead. He examines the decisions, risks, and human factors that turned a summit bid into one of the deadliest days in Everest’s history.

An account of modern exploration and historical detective work. In the early 1990s, wreck divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler discovered a German U-boat lying unidentified off the coast of New Jersey, a submarine no records suggested should be there. Kurson follows their years-long quest to uncover the wreck’s identity, weaving together the peril of deep wreck diving with the painstaking research needed to reconstruct its story. The book captures the physical danger of dives hundreds of feet below the surface, the obsession that drove the divers, and the human stories of the U-boat crew.