Adventure and Travel Books I Have Loved This Year
As an avid reader, I tend to power through books. Here is a collection of adventure and travel books, both fiction and non-fiction, that I have loved in the past year. Some are light, fluffy, and feel good, while others have prompted me to question life and examine my childhood in Papua New Guinea through a new lens. I hope this collection is as inspiring and thought-provoking to others as it has been to me.
I'll start with "This Road I Ride" by Juliana Buhring, which documents her (at the time) world-record ride around the world after only learning to ride a bike properly a year before. That's just astounding.
The book is well-written, introspective, painful, and joyous. It also sent me down a cult-researching rabbit hole that I'm not sure I've recovered from. This isn’t just a document of an extraordinary world record ride.
This is about exploring the depths of yourself and making something amazing out of deep pain.
I'll say the same for "The Sunset Route" by Carrot Quinn. This book also hit me hard. The other day, I ordered pizza and was reminded of a very challenging scene in the book. I love books that linger for months after you've read them. But also, this book has a healthy sprinkling of adventure as Carrot rides (jumps? hitchhikes?) trains all over the USA, telling her story as an avenue to examine their childhood in Alaska.
"The Backyard Adventurer" by Beau Miles was a fun and philosophical collection of stories by my favorite person to watch on YouTube.
It made me nostalgic for places I've traveled around Victoria and helped me consider what it is about adventure I love most.
This man is an exceptional storyteller in both written and video formats. Read this if you want to inject more adventure into day-to-day life.
Jenny Tough made two appearances on this list. The first is “Solo: What Running Across Mountains Taught Me About Life” her autobiographical account of a challenge she set herself to run across a mountain range on every continent.
I first heard Jenny on the Tough Girl Podcast, and I've been watching this story being told on her YouTube channel ever since. Jenny was the first woman I saw setting herself massive challenges and documenting them through video on YouTube.
The things she has achieved, both physically and in building a business and brand to help her live this life full-time, are just mind-boggling to me.
She has been inspiring me for almost a decade, and reading this book was a real immersive treat.
Her second book on my list is a collection of short stories she has collated from other women doing extraordinary adventures.
Technically, Anna McNuff makes two appearances on my list, too, as a contributor to Jenny Tough’s "Tough Women Adventure Stories".
I’ve read all of Anna McNuff’s adventure books, mostly as a form of escapism. "Barefoot Britain" is different. There’s something in the depth with which she describes her physical and emotional difficulties throughout her attempt to run the length of Britain barefoot that really found a place in my heart. The maturity with which this story is told is special, and I absolutely plowed through it.
I’ve always enjoyed the delight and energy that McNuff brings to the adventure world, but getting a proper glimpse at the shadow side that she and the rest of us all deal with was the difference between a fun story and an excellent story.
Recently, I was in the mood for something adventurous yet not too challenging to read, and 537 Days of Winter by David Knoff came to my rescue.
The author's account of living in Antarctica under extreme conditions during the Covid-19 outbreak is an easy page-turner filled with spectacular imagery of a place I crave to visit.
Unfortunately, they don't need physios on Antarctic expeditions, so I'll have to live vicariously.
Moving on to something more challenging, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is a book that I found so good that I picked it up for a second time after reading it in my early 20s.
It tells the story of a family who move to the Congo in the 1950s as Baptist missionaries. Having read it twice now, I have reflected heavily on my childhood in Papua New Guinea, where my parents were missionaries.
For anyone who has had a similar experience of arriving as an outsider in a different dominant culture, this book may help you come to terms with a shared experience.
As the saying goes, you can leave the Congo, but the Congo never leaves you. This is something I grappled with heavily while spending a year living in North East Arnhem Land in Australia in 2020/21, effectively reliving parts of my childhood.
Lastly, we have another book that scored very low on the "light and fluffy" scale, The Beach by Alex Garland. This book kept me enthralled, kept me awake at night, and sparked many conversations with patients and friends.
After finishing the book, I immediately watched the movie for the first time because I was curious about how some of the less cinematic but pivotal scenes would be played out. I was relieved to find that the food poisoning scene, which was crucial to the book's plot, was not included in the movie.
The Beach makes you question what it means to be sane, what paradise really means, and what privilege does to those who don't hold it.
To me, the book reinforced the lesson I learned a while ago: when something is cheap or free for you, someone elsewhere is paying the price. I don't think that was the point of the book, but it was my resounding lesson.
These adventure and travel books have been a source of inspiration and introspection for me over the past year. From world record bike rides to barefoot runs across Britain, these stories have taken me on a journey of self-discovery and exploration. Whether you're looking for a light and fluffy feel-good read or a deep dive into the complexities of the human experience, there's something for everyone on this list. Happy reading!