Best books to read on long trips

Hey all! I'll be spending a pretty good chunk of the summer down in Peru doing a bit of everything and I'm wondering what book/books I should bring. I don't read at some ridiculous skill level and I am mostly looking for a book to read for a few hours at a time while waiting at high camp and whatnot. Anybody read anything lately that they really liked?? Haha this isn't necessarily a climbing question, but figured I'd ask the community!

Sam

Minus 148 Degrees: first winter ascent of Denali is a fantastic read

your in Peru so Touching the Voidis appropriate 

Get the first two books by Zachariah Wahrer, a fellow climber! It's a sorta sci fi/fantasy epic, and the first two books left me hoping he'll hurry up with number three! I got them as ebooks, but I think PB is available too. 

"Breakers of the Dawn", "Harbingers of the Dawn", I think.

Otherwise, our household enjoys the Preston/Childs books, among many, many others. A continuing series, but some are little sets of two or three, so you don't have to read 14 to get a story finished.

If you never read "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", that trilogy is a ripsnorter. And, if you like it, there's a decent 4th book by a dude who's name escapes me. He took over the characters after the authors death.

Depends a lot on what you like, though, doesn't it?

Favorite nonfiction includes "Devil in the White City" (a mass murderer and the Chicago World's Fair) and "The Big Burn" (huge fire in northern Idaho).

I work in a library, sooo....  :-) Helen

The Emerald Mile - Great book about the Grand Canyon.  

Ah! Peru.

"South" by Shackleton, I always recommend to everyone, but in your case, "Southern Mail", early aviation in South America.

the septuagint

I enjoyed both Touching the Void and The Beckoning Silence by Joe Simpson. 

Steve Roper's Camp 4 is a good read if you like climbing history. 

The Trad Climber's Bible by John Long and Peter Croft is a fun collection of short stories if you just want something to read in spurts. 

If your just looking for shits and giggles then Hells Angels by Hunter Thompson will fit that bill

For an adventure junkie looking for another genre of rad, I recommend "One Breath: Freediving, Death, and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits". It will have you glued to page. 

If you are into fiction, Ray Bradbury is an incredible short-story writer. "Martian Chronicles" is on the shorter side, but you can pace yourself because the stories are each segmented out. Many of them will leave you a lot to chew on as you climb!

If you don't read a lot and don't already know what you're interested in, the best thing you can do is buy a kindle and load it up with 200 or so e-books downloaded from the Pirate Bay. That way you have a whole library to peruse and will likely hit on something that will suit you. 

Old school Kindles (with e-ink, not back-lit tablets) have batteries that will last at least a month of regular use.

I've always liked reading anthologies on long trips.  The ones from Outside magazine are my favourites  - it's nice to read short(ish) stories, and if you don't like one you can always just skip it

I like reading short stories while traveling. They pack a punch but don't require long periods on uninterrupted reading. I'd recommend Flannery O'Connor's - The Complete Stories, and Raymond Carver's - What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

Also, place based reading is amazing, like H suggests.

Brent Weeks (any of the books) - Night angle and light bringing series

Patrick Rothfuss (will the series every finish?) - Name of the wind series

Lee Child - every and all Jack Reacher books (the 300 page books are very fast reads, those hard to put down stay up to 3 am to finish books)

Ken Follett - Pillars of the earth, world without end, the century series was pretty good

The Four Pillars of investing - If you are into saving for retirement you can't go wrong here

Boggleheads guide to investing - same as above

Staying alive in avalanche terrain - Amazing book with great knowledge

I think since you are traveling in S. America you may enjoy The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux.  Very worthwhile read that describes traveling by train from the US to Patagonia - just enough detail and history to keep you interested and curious to learn more.  Have fun

I'm partial to non-fiction climbing and nature books. Some of my favorites are: Annapurna, anything by John Long, The Tower, Hans Florine - On The Nose, Desert Solitaire, Yosemite In the Fifties (Long, Fidelman). 

Mark twight's 'Confessions of a serial climber'. I got it on Alex Honnold's recommendation. 

Reinhold Messner's 'Naked Mountain'

I really wanted to like Theroux but just couldn't get past half way...

Mark Twight's book is good. I liked it, but it sounds a lot like a guy that is suicidal, and wants you to be impressed by it. Not a reason not to read it, but I found his personality and drive interesting. 

+1 for Minus 148, The Snow Leopard, 100 Years of Solitude....and: 

(sorry, shameless plug)....

Plus one for all the above, especially Ray Bradbury. He's my bridge author I recommend to bright younger people who like sci fi. Sneaky transition to lit writing.

Sci fi fans, do check out Zachariah Wahrer, as in my first post. Maybe sorta John Scalzi??

OP, classic sci fi, if that floats your boat, read Robert Heinlein. "Stranger in a Strange Land" still holds up, sheesh, fifty years (!?!) later.

I also think you could enjoy anything by Robert Sawyer, sorta like Heinlein, wry takes on humanity's foibles, singles, and some trilogies. 

Collections, early Barbara Kingsolver, both fiction, plus essays (she often wrote Last Page pieces for Smithsonian). "High Tide in Tucson" is one. She's  lit writer, you'll like her, or not, nowhere in between. If you like her style, the big fat books are lovely. Not hard reading, but complex stories and ideas. 

For straight, enjoyable adventure books, don't ignore YA and even JUV authors. "Airborne" by Kenneth Oppel, reads just like Robert Lewis Stevenson (good reads right there. Get copies with the Wyeth illustrations). "Hatchet" is a great survival story, Gary something, sorry, can't grasp author at the moment. Paulson.

Come back and give us some direction, eh? 

Best, Helen

Most Beautiful Woman in Town or Notes of a Dirty Old Man..... Charles Bukowski

You should read the Twilight saga. It's a love story about a 105 year old vampire boning a teenage girl. It's great stuff. They even made a film based on it.