Book Suggestion Help

billythrilly7th · Feb 9, 2008

I apologize for venturing into the Book forums.

But I have question.

I'd like to start reading. And there's a specific type of book or books I'm looking for.

What are the best books and/or authors who write about people in nature and solitude and journey's into the forests?

People who walk along streams and contemplate life away from society.

I've heard of books like Walden Woods or something like that.

What are the great books and great authors for that type of stuff?

I loved the Into The Wild book and movie. I love the Wilderness family.

Stuff like that.

Thanks.

Horseshoes · Feb 9, 2008

Walden by Thoreau
many things by Farley Mowat

Perks · Feb 9, 2008

Jack London?

Bo Sullivan · Feb 9, 2008

For contemplation try Thomas Hardy. His books are excellent!

billythrilly7th · Feb 10, 2008

thanks.

ColoradoGuy · Feb 10, 2008

Sigard Olson wrote several contemplative sort of books about Northern Minnesota. (Listening Point, Lonely Land, Runes of the North, others).

billythrilly7th · Feb 10, 2008

I look forward to reading them all and then heading into the woods to live away from society.

But have internet access.

Thank you again.

ORION · Feb 10, 2008

Mine.
Oh wait...maybe not...

Nyna · Feb 10, 2008

The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac has a section that takes place all alone on top of a mountain that is lovely enough that it made me want to be a hermit. (I have mostly gotten over that desire -- though not entirely.)

KTC · Feb 10, 2008

Awesome. Book.

MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. I fell in love with it when I was about 10 and it's a lasting love. It's as good today as it was over 30 years ago when I first read it. It is by Jean Craighead George.

Sam runs away from home and spends time in the Catskills. He contemplates the beauty of nature endlessly. It's a young boy's point of view and it is the dreamiest nature book I've ever read. Beautiful.

Here's a wikipedia write up on it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Side_of_the_Mountain

KTC · Feb 10, 2008

billythrilly7th said:
I look forward to reading them all and then heading into the woods to live away from society.

But have internet access.

Thank you again.

This is what the boy in My Side of the Mountain wanted too...to get away from society. His father finds him and actually leaves him there in his happiness. That really doesn't give away anything...but more happens on this 'getting away from society' theme. It sounds like what you're looking for exactly.

Bo Sullivan · Feb 10, 2008

billythrilly7th said:
I look forward to reading them all and then heading into the woods to live away from society.

But have internet access.

Thank you again.

Plug the computer into a tree then? Ha ha.

Seriously,

I will quote something from Thomas Hardy, and hope you will be converted for life in a contemplative way, through Thomas Hardy's work, and I hope I am allowed to do this for reference purposes:

Thomas Hardy
Life's Little Ironies (Short Stories) ...

"To please his Wife" ... (ch. Two)

"A month after the marriage Joanna's mother died, and the couple were obliged to turn their attention to very practical matters. Now that she was left without a parent, Joanna could not bear the notion of her husband going to sea again, but the question was, What could he do at home?"

The moral of the story is that she did not see him as useful at home and so he went to sea to please her and brought home a lot of money for many years. As the story goes on, they had a son, and her husband took their son with him on his sea journies. She did not appreciate her husband for his own worth, but idolised her son. Eventually her decision caused her own ruination. Did she lose her husband and son? Read the story! It is brilliant.

Barbara

Will Lavender · Feb 10, 2008

A little offbeat, and he's not contemplating as much as complaining, but Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is an excellent and hilarious tribute to hiking -- or at least attempting to hike -- the Applachian Trail.

Calla Lily · Feb 11, 2008

Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, IIRC. It's been many years since I read it.

IceCreamEmpress · Feb 11, 2008

Some classics of US naturalist writing:

The Outermost House: A Year on the Great Beach of Cape Cod by Henry Beston.

Icebound Summer and One Day at Beetle Rock by Sally Carrighar.

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold.

One of the best naturalists writing now, in my opinion, is Gretel Ehrlich. You can't go wrong with any of her books.

Cassie88 · Feb 12, 2008

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Adrift, Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan

CKing · Feb 17, 2008

some modern naturalists

continuing where Thoreau and Leopold left off, try these western writers (some of my favs):

Ed Abby the Monkey Wrench Gang, Desert Solitaire
Charles Bowden Blues for Cannibals, Frog Mountain, Blood Orchid
Doug Peacock Walking it Off
Terry Tempest Williams Refuge,

Hemingway's Nick Adams Stories are also good.

CKingston

billythrilly7th · Feb 28, 2008

Okay. I tried to read Walden.

I found it unreadable and boring. I really was excited and wanted to like it, but it didn't work.

I'll try some of the other ones.

billythrilly7th · Feb 28, 2008

Will Lavender said:
A little offbeat, and he's not contemplating as much as complaining, but Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is an excellent and hilarious tribute to hiking -- or at least attempting to hike -- the Applachian Trail.

That sounds like something.

KTC · Feb 28, 2008

I'm telling you...My Side of the Mountain. Just remember it's a YA.

billythrilly7th · Feb 28, 2008

KTC said:
I'm telling you...My Side of the Mountain. Just remember it's a YA.

I don't know what a YA is, but this will be my next book.

Hopefully the library has it.

Yep, I'm getting a library card, people!!

A little old school 1976 action about to happen.

Thanks for the book suggestion. I'll let you know.

kdnxdr · Feb 28, 2008

I second Annie Dillard!!!!!

I'm so in love with her nature writing.

kid

JBI · Feb 28, 2008

Honestly, if you like verse, get a copy of Wordsworth's Prelude. It is essentially what you are looking for. It's about natures role in the formation of ones self.

Jersey Chick · Feb 28, 2008

Farley Mowat's Never Cry Wolf is terrific - only it's up in the Arctic, as opposed to in the woods. But still...

Cassidy · Feb 28, 2008

Nuk Tessli: The Life of a Wilderness Dweller, by Chris Czajkowski

Book Suggestion Help

billythrilly7th

Horseshoes

lisapreston.com

Perks

delicate #!&@*#! flower

Bo Sullivan

billythrilly7th

ColoradoGuy

I've seen worse.

billythrilly7th

ORION

Sailed away years ago

Nyna

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Bo Sullivan

Will Lavender

Everything is what it seems.

Calla Lily

On hiatus

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago

Cassie88

Make mine a double entendre

CKing

billythrilly7th

billythrilly7th

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

billythrilly7th

kdnxdr

One of the most important people in the world

JBI

Jersey Chick

Up all night to get Loki

Cassidy

writing for kids and teens