For me I have to say that life would not be the same without the written word...a trite, off the cuff comment; maybe...my story is that I came from a family that valued reading highly, and in 1960 landed in a grim and cold England from the USA at the impressionable age of 8; and because of the mismatch between the UK and the USA educational systems I ended up way behind my (British) peers, and did not start to read properly until I was nearly 13 - and since then have never stopped...
And thus our book boxes on every trek...it was Tilman, that great mounatin explorer and adventurer, who said his greatest luxury was a box of books - he would cut down on food to bring more books...rest assured we bring enough of both!
So below are the books on trekking that I could not live without; and those with an asterix mark the ones we are bringing along.
A short walk in the Hindu Kush - Eric Newby*
two old friends set off to Afghanistan to climb a 6000m mountain...knowing little about climbing.
Kim - Rudyard Kipling*
India, life, the shadowy era of the great game; if there is one book on Asia you should read, this is it.
Siddartha - Herman Hesse
A short but illuminating story
The Inheritance of loss - Kiran Desai*
An award winning story set in the foothills of the Kanchenjunga region
Around Kanchenjunga - Douglas Freshfield*
The first westerner to circle the mountain
Kanchenjunga Adventure - Frank Smythe*
Britains long forgotten poet mountaineer describes his 1930s journeys
The Great Arc - John Keay*
My very favourite writer with the gripping story of how the mountains were mapped
Kanchenjunga - Sacred mountain*
An amazing book, an overview of the myths surrounding and a history of the mountain
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