Adventure Reading List: Explore Contributors Offer Their Top Choices to Stay Inspired

April 2, 2020

Stay home and read. Our Explore Contributors give their top picks for adventure books—all available for online order.

You’re staying home during this time—and we applaud your contribution to our collective health.

But we also know you might be, well, a little stir-crazy. The outdoors are calling you, and many of you cannot respond (right now).

Inspiration awaits. Books! We’ve polled Explore contributors to craft an ultimate list of reading choices for outdoorsy folks like you. Read on, order up, stay stoked and: “Hold fast, all storms pass.”

Will Gadd

(Explore columnist, mountain sports athlete)

My choice is Alive, by Piers Paul Read: A plane with 45 South American rugby players crashes high in the Andes, and weeks later two of the 16 survivors walk out. Likely the most amazing survival tale of all time, and a source of inspiration for me. @realwillgadd

Ryan Stuart

(Explore Field Editor, gear expert)

I just finished Beyond the Trees, by Adam Shoalts. The guy is a total badass. The way he travels upriver is insane and hardcore like few do these days. It reminds me of the suffering of the polar trips of the 1800s and early 1900s. @ryanpstuart

Chloe Berge

(Explore contributor, travel/lifestyle writer)

I’d recommend Upstream, by Mary Oliver. This collection of essays by the late American poet is a book I return to when I need a reminder of the beauty to be found in the everyday. Her observations and descriptions of the natural world inspire me to see things in a new light: a blade of glass, a tree, the particular quality of light at dawn. @chloeberge

Frank Wolf

(Explore contributor, author, adventurer)

I recommend The Orenda, by Joseph Boyden. I didn’t choose this book—it chose me. While on a 1,750-kilometre canoe trip from Yellowknife to Chantry Inlet in 2018, I came across a lone cabin in the barrens that had been ransacked by a grizzly. Seemingly untouched in the corner was a copy of The Orenda. For the rest of the journey, The Orenda had me gripped. This tale of Huron and Iroquois combatants in the very early days of colonization made me constantly reflect on the dynamic and vibrant Indigenous societies that used to exist not only in Eastern Canada where the story is set, but in all corners of the country. @frankwolf70

Nora O’Malley

(Explore contributor, journalist)

My favourite book is Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, by William Finnegan. I think it took me a year, maybe two, to finish reading this book because I just didn’t want it to end. @ponyuporeatit

Kevin Callan

(Explore columnist/blogger, author, YouTuber)

Anything by Sigurd F. Olson—but one of my favourite of his that I have read over many times is The Lonely Land. He was truly a gifted writer and wilderness traveller. Reading his work really puts you into a time and place. YouTube.com/KCHappyCamper

Kerry Hale

(Explore contributor, freelance writer)

My absolute favourite book from my all-time favourite author: Breath, by Tim Winton. I’ve returned to this one time and time again. It’s about surf culture: two boys growing up and finding themselves, pushing each other to the edge and beyond, about their aloof mentor and his teachings. It’s got twists and turns and language so authentic is bludgeons the reader between the eyes. So real and raw it hurts.

David Webb

(Explore editor-in-chief)

One book I still think of, years after my initial reading, is Into the Wild, by Jon Kraukauer. The tale of Chris McCandless and his quest for purity, and romanticism of “the wild,” has evoked a variety of responses from me over years, ranging from anger, at first, all the way to empathy. It’s a multifaceted saga that elicits different opinions from every reader. @davidebwebb

Alison Hodgins

(Explore online editor)

My favourite has to be A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, by Bill Bryson.This is the first travel book that got me hooked on non-fiction adventure stories. Even though I’m a female some 20 years his junior, Bryson put me right into his shoes—er, hiking boots—and allowed me to experience the ups, downs and hilarious moments of thru-hiking. I love this classic tale for his adventurous spirit without being an extreme explorer. @alison_abroad