Books About Places

[Buc]

One of my favorite genres to read is books about places. I thought I’d start a thread for folks to post their favorite books about travel and CB places, whether or not you’ve visited them.

As a start, here’s my current selection: Far Appalachia: Following The New River North, by Noah Adams.

Mr. Adams is a journalist who has hosted shows on NPR for years. This book chronicles his travels through Appalachia over the course of a year.

 

[LMHS]

I prefer well researched books about murders where I can learn something new (not necessarily new ways to commit murder). Different time periods as well as different places. One of the books I read years ago had a scene set in Bandelier Nat'l Monument (NM). I actually made it there. It was just like the author described, except for the deer who were uncommonly forward. They didn't want to move off the sidewalks. Stubborn things.

I prefer to use websites like onlyinyourstate.com and atlasobscura.com

 

[Buc]

If I could go back in time and do one thing I didn’t do, it would be setting out to hike the Appalachian Trail in 1999. I spent months planning the hike, but ended up sticking around because I got a promotion at work.

Now that I have young kids, setting out to through hike is not going to I happen in the foreseeable future, but I can still live vicariously through the writing of others.

I started reading Bill Bryson’s A Walk In The Woods more than twenty years ago, but never finished it. I’m working on it again, and enjoying it immensely.

 

[LMHS]

The nice thing about the AT (Appalachian Trail) is how accessible it is. You can jump on the AT at so many places. You can do day hikes and overnights. I used to live two miles from the AT in NC. We would have people drive to the end of our road (public), park and walk up to the Trail or they would come off the trail and walk down to have someone pick them up. I've known people who have day hiked or weekend hiked most of the trail. So you can still hike the trail but do it in sections. Have someone drop you off and hike a day or a few days to a campground where your family is staying at. Get off the trail where it crosses a highway.

 

[Buc]

The nice thing about the AT (Appalachian Trail) is how accessible it is. You can jump on the AT at so many places. You can do day hikes and overnights. I used to live two miles from the AT in NC. We would have people drive to the end of our road (public), park and walk up to the Trail or they would come off the trail and walk down to have someone pick them up. I've known people who have day hiked or weekend hiked most of the trail. So you can still hike the trail but do it in sections. Have someone drop you off and hike a day or a few days to a campground where your family is staying at. Get off the trail where it crosses a highway.

I was just thinking about doing little trips like that while we’re traveling in the summer. My oldest son will be six in June, which is the perfect age for a first overnight hike.

I’ll probably take him somewhere near home first, just to see if he enjoys it. It’s only about 5.5 miles to the nearest USFS wilderness permit office.

 

[Mrgunguy]

Bill Bryson’s book, “A Walk In The Woods” is a great book. I read it twice, and laughed my butt off both times. Everyone should read it.

I volunteered to work on the AT with the Carolina Mountain Club years ago and was, with my girlfriend at the time, responsible for maintaining the section between the Deerpark Shelter and Garenflo Gap. Many great memories on that section. We hiked sections of the AT from Springer Mountain, GA to Mount Katahdin, ME But never did get them all in.

So, keep in mind, you can always section hike the trail and do it over a long period of time. No, it’s not exactly like hiking the whole thing all at once, but I’m not sure if I want to be that dirty for that long a period of time anyway, LOL!

 

[Rich W.]

For non-fiction (sort of) the first book that came to mind for me was also “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson. The book was great, recently saw the movie and it was just ok by comparison as usual.

For fiction here’s a short list of authors (not sure this is what you’re looking for) with typical story locations:

John Lescroart - San Francisco
Michael Connoly - LA
John Sandford - Minneapolis and the twin cities
John Grisham - Mississippi
James Lee Burke - Louisiana, commonly New Iberia New Orleans, also Montana and Texas
D. J. Donaldson - New Orleans
Jonathan Kellerman - LA
Nelson Demille - NYC and area, and others

 

[SkyForMiles]

This will be a fun thread to follow. I enjoy learning about the settlement and development history of region/area/town and then setting out to visit those areas. When there, trying to imagine what the more natural landscape area was like in that historical period. I especially enjoy the advent of photography and using those early period pics to visit and see how much has changed, but then also get a feel for how different and/or enjoyable the area must have been prior to development. In addition, how very challenging an area was to navigate yet today, can simply zoom around, up and down by vehicle. Crawford Notch for example, as explorers struggled to navigate the difficult pass from Native American lore; Navaho Bridge as another, trying to find a way to cross the mighty Colorado. Today we can just drive up/across without much consideration for the trials of the past. Looking forward to additional books mentioned.