[pct-l] The Backpacker's Bookshelf

Howdy listers,
I'm a big Colin Fletcher fan and his books have already been covered. 
The prologue "Why Walk?" in "The Complete Walker" is my favorite piece
on hiking.  Here are a few that I have not seen listed yet:

"Wilderness and the American Mind" by Roderick Nash.  He was a professor
at my college (UC Santa Barbara) though regretfully I never took one of
his classes.  I carried and read the book on my PCT attempt in '79 and
loaned it to other thru hikers - it got universally great reviews.  I
have no idea if it is still available.

"Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose.  A biography of Meriwether
Lewis, and the Lewis and Clark expedition (maybe THE original "thru
hike").  It reads like a novel - I've read all 484 pages 3 times.  You'd
probably want to cut it up into sections for carrying.

"Across the Wide Missouri" by Bernard DeVoto.  This one chronicles the
life of mountain men when the Rendevous was going full tilt.  Another
one which reads like an exciting novel.

"Beyond the Hundredth Meridian" by Wallace Stegner.  Subtitled "John
Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West."  Some parts move kind
of slow but it has moments of magic.  Especially powerful while hiking
in the desert southwest. John Wesley Powell's short book "The Canons of
the Colorado" seems a little corny at times unless read while you're in
the Grand Canyon - then the superlatives seem right on.

"A River Runs Through It" by Norman Maclean.  The movie was just okay
(unless you're a fly fisherman and then it rates "good" for the stunt
casting alone) but the book is OUTstanding.  I still open it randomly
and read a few pages for inspiration.

Reading any of these books by the wavering light of a candle lantern in
the wilds of your choice enchants the words.
            
          Jeff Jones

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