UKH

Hello hive mind. What books should I have read? I am thinking about climbing, climbing history, biographies and stories?

I have read a few and enjoyed them; Joe Brown, Jim Perrin's Willan's book, Fiva, and a few others I cannot remember. I have looked to the Boardman Tasker list but would like your thoughts.
I have really atruggled with Menlive by Jim Perrin.
I am off to Scotland now so may not be able to interact much but really welcome your input.

In reply to puppythedog:

On the Heights and The Great Days by Walter Bonatti - brilliant reads
Touching the Void - Joe Simpson
Savage Arena - Joe Tasker
Anything by Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman
Scrambles amongst the Alps - Edward Whymper
My climbs in the Alps & Caucasus - A F Mummery
The White Spider - Heinrich Harrer
Space below my feet - Gwen Moffat
Welsh Rock & Cumbrian Rock (Jones / Milburn et al), The Mountain Men & The First Tigers (Hankinson) and A history of British mountaineering (Irving) - All of these will give you a good idea of mountaineering history oh and an oft forgotten / overlooked gem is Fergus Flemming 'Killing Dragons'
If you can borrow (or if u rich - buy) a copy of The Black Cliff (Wilson), Rock climbers in action in Snowdonia (Smythe /Cleare) and High Peak (Byne & Sutton) are all great reads about rock climbing.
Mountaineering in Scotland & Undiscovered Scotland by WH Murray are superbly written too.
Most expedition books are quite 'samey' but Annapurna by Maurice Herzog is a must as is John Hunts 'The ascent of Everest'. You could try Francis Younghusband 'The epic of Mount Everest' which gives a good insight into the first three British attempts on Everest.
Novels - The best by far is Elizabeth Coxheads 'One green bottle' and I quite like Glyn Carr's detective novels like Death on Snowdon & Murder on Milestone Buttress. The fall by Simon Mawr is good as is Dougal Haston's Calculated Risk.

The above should keep you going for a year or two and the books are easily found on abebooks.com or occasionally on well known auction sites. I like Jim Perrins books and Menlove was brilliant but know what you mean as it can be overly 'wordy'
Cheers
Allan

In reply to puppythedog: Easy. Just google the "best" lists from Neate, Chessler and Tony Astill.
Of course it's all a matter of opinion.

In reply to puppythedog:

Psychovertical by Andy Kirkpatrick is very funny, lots of moments of "how is this man not dead".
Mad Bad and Dangerous to Know by Ranulph Fiennes is really good too, not much in the way of climbing but definitely some fantastic adventuring.

In reply to puppythedog:

Another classic to add to your list: Paul Pritchard's Deep Play, a brilliant evocation of cutting edge climbing in the 1980's. His second book, The Totem Pole, is also extremely good: a very moving and humane account of his fight to recover after a horrific head injury.

In reply to puppythedog:

The two books by Mick Fowler are worth looking at & I thought the biography of Alex MacIntyre by John Porter was the best mountaineering book I'd read in years. From the classics, I'd recomend Starlight & Storm by Gaston Rebuffat and Conqistadores of the useless by Lionel Terray. The last of the books from Rene Desmaison is very good but I don't think its been translated into English

In reply to puppythedog:

I really enjoyed Alex Honnolds - Alone on the wall & Echoes by Nick Bullock

In reply to Allanfairfechan:

Great list,

And,
My Life, Heckmair
Summits and Secrets
Conquistadors of the useless
Always a little further

And the ascent of rum doodle

In reply to puppythedog:

Weir's Way.
On Scottish Hills by W. Kersey Holmes
High Adventure - Edmund Hillary

In reply to puppythedog:
Thank you all. Keep them recommendations coming. I'll turn it into a list when I get back from Scotland.
I'll add in Freedom Climbers. Just a brilliant read about Polish High Altitude Mountaineering in the eighties and nineties.

In reply to puppythedog:


I completely agree with you. I read it the other day [from the library] and thought it was very, very good [and also an eye-opener].

In reply to puppythedog:

Let's go climbing - Colin Kirkus. Read it for the enthusiasm, rather than as a 'how to' book though...

In reply to puppythedog:

I'd agree that Annapurna is simply required reading. And Killing Dragons is brilliant, especially as a one book primer on the history.

One of my favourites that I rarely see suggested: Climbing Days, by Dorothy Pilley.

And the Boardman-Tasker omnibus (their four books collected together) does get a little samey, but it gives a great insight into the climbing scene of the time.

In reply to puppythedog:

Deep Play by Paul Pritchard is probably one of the best climbing books IMO. Documents a seminal time in British rock climbing and is really well written, a little weird but this adds to it.

I really enjoyed Johnny Dawes' autobiography, but know some who didn't. It's certainly an acquired taste and you need to have a keen interest/knowledge of the era he talks about. I have a fairly keen interest in that time and still got lost but its amazing what he did. A true genius on the rock. The book is very strange but it perfectly reflects Johnny's character.

In reply to puppythedog:

Alone at the Top, and, if you think that's impressive, The Ascent of Rum Doodle.

In reply to Mike Mead:


Alone at the summit?

In reply to Mike Mead:

What's this with Rum Doodle? I read it many years ago and thought it one of the unfunniest books I've ever read. Perhaps in my old age I ought to give it another go?

In reply to puppythedog:

Check out my blog for some book lists and my personal impressions of mountaineering books... but it is a matter of opinion! http://armchairmountaineer.com

In reply to tommybets:

Thank you, I will

In reply to Allanfairfechan:


FWIW, 'Rock Climbers in Action in Snowdonia' is now available as a reprint: http://www.francisfrith.com/uk/pages/john-cleare

In reply to Doug:


The English edition of a couple of Desmaison's books - entitled 'Total Alpinism' - is the most gripping climbing book I have ever read, I think. Highly recommended if you can get hold of it.

In reply to puppythedog:

One Mans Mountains by Tom Patey is a classic.

In reply to puppythedog:

The book I recommend when this topic comes up is "Rock Jocks, Wall Rats and Hang Dogs" by John Long. It contains some of the best (and sometimes funniest) writing about rock-climbing that I know - like the original tale about the dope-filled plane that crashed in the Sierra Nevada in winter, which somehow was turned into the plot of "Cliffhanger"; a day soloing with John Bachar; watching Tobin Sorenson pushing himself to his limits and beyond; the Canadian alcoholic who would only dry out on the big walls; in the deep-end Valley initiation with Jim Bridwell; with a very young Ron Fawcett on the Nose; etc., etc.

The only downside is that much of the book appears to have been stitched together from articles, but considering that the original articles were brilliant that doesn't matter. Unlike most climbers, Long can write with real style.

In reply to puppythedog:

Blimey Pup some quite glaring omissions from your reading there. As well as those mentioned above I would say there is no better toilet book than the Who's Who of British Climbing, a mini biography per page of many of the greats of British climbing. Above all else, I think you need to look at The White Spider and Touching the Void, but depending on what you're into there is some beautifully descriptive writing in Tears of the Dawn more recently, which sets it aside from many other offerings. I'll send some down once I'm done with The Wire. I'd also like to take this opportunity to recommend libraries, apparently we're about to lose some of them. I was able to cover a lot of this thread off via the tax I'm already paying, and didn't end up filling precious space within the house with books.

In reply to puppythedog:
'Mountains of the Mind' by Robert McFarlane is brilliant: think of it as a very early history of mountaineering: starts with geology and the formation of mountains, through early surveyors and explorers, and ends with Mallory's Everest attempt. I got my copy on ABE for a few ££.

In reply to MarcusP:

its brilliant if you've never read any of the books on which its based & know little about mountaineering history.

In reply to Doug:

I think that was pretty much my first response - I'll dig it out and see if we're being a bit unfair...

In reply to Doug:

OP was asking for starting points, not deep cuts.