"100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time"

Not my list, and copied from someone who made a lot of typos, but an interesting list, nonetheless. At least it should keep us all reading for a while!

Extreme Classics: The 100 greatest adventure books of all time from Adventure Magazine July/August 2001

1. The Worst Adventure in the World Aplsey Cherry-Garrard (1922)
2. Journals Meriweather Lewis and William Clark (1814)
3. Wind, Sand and Stars Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1940)
4. Exploration of the Colorado John Wesley Powell (1875)
5. Arabian Sands Wilfred Thesiger (1959)
6. Annapurna Maurice Herzog (1952)
7. Desert Solitaire Edward Abbey (1968)
8. West With the Night Beryl Markham (1942)
9. Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer (1997)
10. Travels Marco Polo (1298)
11. Farthest North Fridtjor Nansen (1897)
12. The Snow Leopard Peter Matthiessen (1978)
13. Roughing It Mark Twain (1872)
14. Two Years Before the Mast Richard Henry Dana (1840)
15. South Ernest Shackleton (1919)
16. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush Eric Newby (1958)
17. Kon-Tiki Thor Heyerdahl (1950)
18. Travels in West Africa Mary Kingsley (1897)
19. The Spirit of St. Louis Charles Lindberg (1953)
20. Seven Years in Tibet Heinrich Harrer (1953)
21. Journals James Cook (1768)
22. Home of the Blizzard Douglas Mawson (1915)
23. The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin (1839)
24. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom T.E. Lawrence (1926)
25. Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa Mungo Park (1799)
26. The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe (1979)
27. Sailing Alone Around the World Joshua Slocum (1900)
28. The Mountain of My Fear and Deborah: a Wilderness Narrative David Roberts (1968, 1970)
29. First Footsteps in East Africa Richard Burton (1856)
30. The Perfect Storm Sebastian Younger (1997)
31. The Oregon Trail Francis Parkman (1849)
32. Through the Dark Continent Henry M. Stanley (1878)
33. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains Isabella Bird (1879)
34. In the Land of White Death Valerian Albanov (1917)
35. Endurance F.A. Worsley (1931)
36. Scrambles Amongst the Alps Edward Whymper (1871)
37. Out of Africa Isak Dinesen (1937)
38. Scott's Last Expedition: The Journals Robert Falcon Scott (1913)
39. Everest: The West Ridge Thomas Hornbein (1965)
40. Journey Without Maps Graham Greene (1936)
41. Starlight and Storm Gaston Rebuffet (1954)
42. My First Summer in the Sierra John Muir (1911)
43. My Life as an Explorer Sven Hedin (1925)
44. In Trouble Again Redmond O'Hanlon (1988)
45. The Man Who Walked Through Time Colin Fletcher (1968)
46. K2 - The Savage Mountain Charles Houston and Robert Bates (1954)
47. Gipsy Moth Circles the World Francis Chichester (1967)
48. Man-Eaters of Kumaon Jim Corbett (1944)
49. Alone Richard Bird (1938)
50. Stranger in the Forest Eric Hansen (1988)
51. Travels in the Arabian Deserta Charles M. Doughty (1888)
52. The Royal Road to Romance Richard Halliburton (1925)
53. The Long Walk Slavomir Rawicz (1956)
54. Mountaineering in the Sierre Nevada Clarence King (1872)
55. My Journey to Lhasa Alexandra David-Neel(1927)
56. Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke (1863)
57. Running the Amazon Joe Kane (1989)
58. Alive Piers Paul Read (1974)
59. Principall Navigations Richard Hakluyt (1589-90)
60. Incidents of Travel in the Yucatan John Lloyd Stevens (1843)
61. Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex Owen Chase (1821)
62. Life in the Far West George Frederick Ruxton (1849)
63. My Life as an Explorer Roald Amundsen (1927)
64. News From Tartary Peter Fleming (1937)
65. Annapurna: A Woman's Place Arlene Blum (1980)
66. Mutiny on the Bounty William Bligh (1790)
67. Adrift Steven Callahan (1986)
68. Castaways Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (1555)
69. Touching the Void Joe Simpson (1989)
70. Tracks Robyn Davidson (1980)
71. The Adventures of Captain Bonneville Washington Irving (1837)
72. Cooper's Creek Alan Moorehead (1963)
73. The Fearful Void Geoffrey Moorhouse (1974)
74. No Picnic on Mount Kenya Felice Benuzzi (1953)
75. Through the Brazilian Wilderness Theodore Roosevelt (1914)
76. The Road to Oxiana Robert Byron (1937)
77. Minus 148 Degrees : The First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley Art Davidson (1969)
78. Travels Ibn Battuta (ca 1354)
79. Jaguars Ripped My Flesh Tim Cahill (1987)
80. Journal of a Trapper Osborne Russell (1914)
81. Full Tilt Dervla Murphy (1965)
82. Terra Incognita Sara Wheeler (1996)
83. We Die Alone David Howarth (1955)
84. Kabloona Gontran de Poncins (1941)
85. Conquistadors of the Useless Lionel Terray (1961)
86. Carrying the Fire Michael Collins (1974)
87. Adventures in the Wilderness William H.H. Murray (1869)
88. The Mountains of My Life Walter Bonatti (1998)
89. Great Heart James West Davidson and John Rugge (1988)
90. Journal of the Voyage of the Pacific Alexander MacKenzie(1801)
91. The Valleys of the Assassins Freya Stark (1934)
92. The Silent World Jacques Cousteau (1953)
93. Alaska Wilderness Robert Marshall (1956)
94. Letter and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians George Catlin (1841)
95. I Married Adventure Osa Johnson (1940)
96. The Descent of Pierre Saint-Martin Norbert Casteret (1954)
97. The Crystal Horizon Reinhold Messner (1982)
98. Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River John Kirk Townsend (1839)
99. Grizzly Years Doug Peacock (1990)
100. One Man's Mountain Tom Patey (1971)

By my quick count I've read 28 of these and parts of about 4 more. That leaves me plenty more reading to do. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

thank you for posting this these are the types of reads i enjoy it will be a good goal for me to read some of these

What? No "Ghosts of Tsavo", by Philip Caputo?

BF <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Another life list. I better get started...........

I just want to state that this is not my list; I'm just passing it along. I'm sure there are a lot of more worthy books (some of which have been published since the date of the list). I do know that a least a few of the books on the list will send you right off to sleep--I found "The Snow Leopard" to be one of them. Interesting search for the never-found snow leopard, but I have no interest whatsoever in buddhist theology. YMMV!

#68 is, IMHO, extraordinary. The version listed is out of print but there are other translations of Cabeza de Vaca's memoirs. Cabeza de Vaca was shipwrecked off the coast of what is now east Texas in 1528 and over the next eight years gradually worked his way west to what is now Mexico. What is extraordinary is his attitude towards the Indians, whom he regarded as souls in need of conversion and whose culture he respected. He was shocked when he got close to Mexico and found that the Indians were afraid of him, and even more shocked when he found that the Spanish had cruelly enslaved the Mexican Indians. It's also interesting to note his egalitarian attitude towards the black slave who was part of the shipwrecked party. I read this account (probably abridged) many years ago in my second-year college Spanish class and was fascinated by it.

Every list is as weak as the judgement and experience of the list maker. We won't hold you accountable! The value of a list is that it gives you something to look at, a starting place. Thanks for sharing it, warts and all.