Sure, some campers obsess over every ounce, meticulously calculating each gram before setting out. But even for the weight-conscious, there’s something irresistible about packing a few books—a portal to epic hiking journeys, close encounters with wild creatures, and the serenity of untouched landscapes.
Whether you prefer to get in the mood beforehand or want to relax at the campsite, few things compare to the right book. These four books transport you to camping or hiking trips in the wilderness of the U.S. and the rugged coastlines of England. And for those who count every gram, there’s always the trusty e-reader!
1/ Wild (Cheryl Strayed)
“A Journey from Lost to Found” perfectly summarises this story. In the early ’90s, author Cheryl Strayed hit rock bottom. Her mother died of lung cancer, her father was long out of the picture, her family fell apart, her marriage ended due to her infidelity, and she experimented with heroin.
Instead of spiralling further, Strayed sets off to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, a long-distance path that traces the spine of the U.S. from Mexico to Canada. With zero hiking experience, she lugs a backpack, nicknamed The Monster, half her body weight. Don’t read this as a how-to guide but as a cautionary tale. Strayed braves scorching heat and snowstorms, rattlesnakes and bears. She faces broken toenails, dried-up water sources, and encounters with unsavoury characters. Yet, step by step, kilometre by kilometre, she finds herself.
While Strayed rarely describes the natural surroundings—the inner journey is more important than the one through the landscape—Wild brims with relatable moments. The camaraderie, the blisters, shared noodles by the campfire, and the almost sacred moments, like picking a fresh T-shirt from a supply box or taking the first shower in weeks, “a nearly holy experience.”
2/ The Salt Path (Raynor Winn)
Like that of Strayed, British author Raynor Winn’s life collapses. First, she loses her successful B&B in Wales, then her husband Moth is diagnosed with a terminal illness. As hopeless as they’re helpless, the couple sets off with barely manageable backpacks to hike England’s 1,000-kilometre-long South West Coast Path.
Along the way, they make all the beginner mistakes. Memorable is when they misjudge the tides and hastily move their tent at night in their underwear. Which camper can’t relate? Meanwhile, they gorge on nature and each other, and a glimmer of hope appears at the end of the tunnel. Winn’s descriptions of the wild landscapes are beautiful, and the resilience of two people in tough times is heartwarming. The core message: enjoy life and be grateful for what you have.
Winn has since written two sequels: Landlines, where she walks from Scotland’s far north to England’s southwest, and The Wild Silence.
3/ The Wild Places (Robert Macfarlane)
In my view, British author Robert Macfarlane is the best nature writer of his generation—a writer with the expertise of a field biologist, the pen of a poet, and the wonder of a child. In The Wild Places, he ventures into the remaining wild pockets of the British Isles. The further he explores these remote parts of his homeland—from the rugged coasts of Cape Wrath to the holloways of Dorset, from the Essex marshes to the Rannoch moor—the more he realizes that “every islet and peak, every hidden valley, has been visited and inhabited, at some point in the last five millennia.”
But Macfarlane doesn’t see this as a pessimistic message. Instead, he asserts, humans and wilderness cannot be separated. He seeks the wild not only in dramatic landscapes of “rock, height, and ice”, but also in less obvious places closer to home. For instance, by crawling on hands and knees through a hedge to follow a badger trail through the underbrush. Macfarlane climbs trees, swims in phosphorescent water, and camps under open skies, in forests and fields, on cliffs and mountaintops. A remarkable book by a remarkable man.
4/ A Walk in the Woods (Bill Bryson)
The title sums up this book perfectly. Travel writer Bill Bryson, together with his childhood friend, the grumpy, overweight alcoholic Stephen Katz, follows the Appalachian Trail, the East Coast equivalent of the Pacific Crest Trail.
CNN calls A Walk in the Woods “the funniest travel book ever written.” Each page offers a humorous encounter or observation. Right from the start, before they even set foot on the trail, there’s a hilarious scene with an outdoor store clerk who sends them off with a wheelbarrow full of gear.
But Bryson is more than a comedian. His in-depth research is something every travel writer could take notes from. He dives into topics like the laziness of his fellow Americans, who, on average, walk only 1.4 miles a week, “including all kinds of steps: from car to office, office to car, in supermarkets or malls.” Bryson calculates that every forty minutes on the Appalachian Trail equals the average American’s weekly walking distance. Something to think about on your next hike.
This post first appeared in Dutch on Pasar.