First recommendation! If you like the outdoors...

... then you might like Hiking Through by Paul Stutzman or Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.

 

Hiking Through is a great book. The author and narrator, Paul Stutzman, recounts his months-long hike through the entire Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. When I initially picked it up, I was prepared for long stretches of slow-moving text as Stutzman hiked through the never-ending woods. I needn't have been. Stutzman, hiking the trail as he sought for some sort of answer from God about his wife's death, expertly interwove his realizations and religious (and otherwise) ponderings with every footstep. That's not to say, however, that this book is only for those of faith. The religious/philosophical parts of the text were not at all preachy, and Stutzman himself even said that it was up to the reader whether or not s/he wanted to skip over those parts. I have read several books about the Appalachian Trail (I've always wanted to hike it myself), and this one is by far one of the best.

 

 

 

 

Into the Wild is something of a classic. It's the story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who has just graduated college. With no warning, he decides to leave his family and his future and walk off, quite literally, "into the wild". It's a heartwarming story that reveals a culture not many people know about - that of wanderers and vagabonds, of people who go "where the wind takes them". At the same time, it's also a devastatingly tragic story of a young man who made it so far, only to lose everything. Based very closely on a true story (Krakauer did his research - interviewing Chris's family and even reading his journal from his final days), it is not only one of the better "outdoors" books, but one of my favorites on my bookcase.
(I particularly love the little blurb on the back of the book, because it captures the essence of the story so well: "In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter....")