Adventure Bookshelf

“A border is always a temptation.”
-Larry McMurtry

The Peoples Guide to Mexico holds a place of honor amongst the collection of adventure books upon my shelf. It is a book both practical & charming, informative & entertaining, useful whether in Mexico or far from it’s borders.

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“You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated.”
Sir Edmund Hillary

Mountaineering legend & humanitarian Edmund Hillary has passed on at the age of 88. Hillary, who alongside sherpa Tenzing Norgay, was first to climb Mount Everest, the world highest mountain in 1953.

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” So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it.”
Harold Acton

Pronounced “Mo-leh-skeen-eh” by those in the know or think they are, moleskine notebooks have a reputation as the legendary portable medium of choice for the expression of famous artists - Hemingway, Van Gogh & Picasso to name a few. Read the rest »

Although decried by many as another step in the downfall of the printed word, the internet is a excellent tool for those who love books and reading. Modern databases offer cool opportunities for readers to catalog, interact and share. Here are three book related websites we like:

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“Writers and travelers are mesmerized alike by knowing of their destinations.”
-Eudora Welty

Narrative historian Fergus Fleming brings a collection of vignettes to the page with Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration.

Forty-five different narratives chronicle three separate eras -

• The Age of Reconnaissance
• The Age of Inquiry
• The Age of Endeavor

Opening with Marco Polo in Mongolia in 1271 ending with Roald Amundsen disappearing in the Arctic on a rescue mission in 1928, the chapters span an amazing collections of adventures and the purpose for their undertaking. Read the rest »

“..Then the whole fascinating vision vanished,
enveloped in cloud once more..”
Noel Odell
Geologist/Oxygen Officer
1924 Everest Expedition

“We will stomp to the top with the wind in our teeth.” Is a quote attributed to George Mallory and a little less cliche than his enduring catch phrase - “Because it is there.” Whether he did ‘stomp to the top‘ though has become the key question in a mountaineering riddle now eight decades in consideration.

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