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Who do you like to read? - Nonfiction outdoor/adventure authors

John Keller

John Keller

Joined
Aug 23, 2024
Messages
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Location
Kalama, Washington
My days on the water are for the most part behind me, but I still enjoy reading about adventurers, especially in western Canada. R.M. Paterson is my favorite author and I also have a great appreciation for Sigurd Olsen.

Anyone out there have other authors of similar talent to recommend?

John Keller
Kalama River, WA
 
By far my favorite is PG Downes. Sleeping Island and Distant Summers volume 1 and volume 2.

There are a lot of books about John Hornby. Reading them all will help tell the whole story.

Towards Magnetic North.

True North

Great Heart

Unflinching

The Old Way North

Alan
 
John Keller said:
Anyone out there have other authors of similar talent to recommend?
Click to expand...

John, welcome to site membership! Feel free to ask any questions and to post messages, photos and videos, and to start threads, in our many forums. Please read Welcome to CanoeTripping and Site Rules! Also, because canoeing is a geographic sport, please add your location to the Account Details page in your profile, which will cause it to show as a clickable map link under your avatar. Many of the site's technical features are explained in Features: Help and How-To Running Thread. We look forward to your participation in our canoe community.

Is your topic limited to nonfiction outdoor/adventure authors, or do you want responses for favorite authors in general?
 
I happen to like some of Pierre Berton's works. According to a bibliograpy I saw he did some 50 books on Canada, mostly historical, including some Northern Canada topics. Hey, the guy was born in Whitehorse Yukon, so he's gotta be good, right?

It's not canoeing, but his "Arctic Grail" is a good documentary. It's a history of trying to sail from the Northern Atlantic Ocean to the Bering Strait west of Alaska, the hard part being from Baffin Bay, or even Foxe Basin north of Hudson Bay, to the Beaufort Sea by weaving between the islands north of the Canadian mainland and dodging ice choking the channels. I also liked his "Klondike", another documentary of the 1897/98 Klondike Gold Rush. It should be required reading for anyone interested in the Yukon River.

He has lots of other books, one on the history of Niagara Falls (basically the commercialization of it, including for electrical power production), another on the great railroad across Canada, many others. I've not read them all. I don't know what's in print, but many may be available in digital editions.
 
Sweetfancymoses said:
What are you reading?
Click to expand...

I do see a possible distinction between John's proposed topic here, which focuses on favorite authors, and our long-running What are you reading? thread, which doesn't necessarily involve current reading of favorite authors. It could be a brand new author, for example. I never knew whether that thread was supposed to be limited to nonfiction outdoor/adventure books, either, as I read a lot but rarely in that genre.
 
Not an aficionado of canoeing or outdoor exploration/adventure books, but to the extent I can recall, I enjoyed John McPhee and Bill Mason in that genre. My favorite authors are of fiction novels, but I sense that is not intended as the topic here.
 
Glenn MacGrady said:
I do see a possible distinction between John's proposed topic here, which focuses on favorite authors, and our long-running What are you reading? thread, which doesn't necessarily involve current reading of favorite authors. It could be a brand new author, for example. I never knew whether that thread was supposed to be limited to nonfiction outdoor/adventure books, either, as I read a lot but rarely in that genre.
Click to expand...
John appears to be looking for adventure books ideally set in western Canada. He describes his target authors as having similar talent to R.M. Paterson and Sigurd Olsen, the latter, if my memory serves me right, not first and foremost an author of western Canadiana. I browsed the first three of the 39 pages of What are you reading? and found four hits. I think making John aware of the existence of this thread was well within the scope of his question.
 
MyKneesHurt said:
Farley Mowatt has long been a favorite, although he would be mostly central Ca
Click to expand...

Sweetfancymoses said:
John appears to be looking for adventure books ideally set in western Canada. He describes his target authors as having similar talent to R.M. Paterson and Sigurd Olsen, the latter, if my memory serves me right, not first and foremost an author of western Canadiana. I browsed the first three of the 39 pages of What are you reading? and found four hits. I think making John aware of the existence of this thread was well within the scope of his qu
Sweetfancymoses said:
What are you reading?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Still learning my way around the Canoe Tripping forum and discovered the What are you reading thread after I posted my question. Thanks. Lots of great suggestions on this site!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Glenn MacGrady said:
Not an aficionado of canoeing or outdoor exploration/adventure books, but to the extent I can recall, I enjoyed John McPhee and Bill Mason in that genre. My favorite authors are of fiction novels, but I sense that is not intended as the topic here.
Click to expand...
I have some of Bill Mason's publications but John McPhee is a new name to me. Thanks.
 
Glenn MacGrady said:
John, welcome to site membership! Feel free to ask any questions and to post messages, photos and videos, and to start threads, in our many forums. Please read Welcome to CanoeTripping and Site Rules! Also, because canoeing is a geographic sport, please add your location to the Account Details page in your profile, which will cause it to show as a clickable map link under your avatar. Many of the site's technical features are explained in Features: Help and How-To Running Thread. We look forward to your participation in our canoe community.

Is your topic limited to nonfiction outdoor/adventure authors, or do you want responses for favorite authors in general?
Click to expand...
Nonfiction outdoor/adventure authors. Especially British Columbia-based. I'll see if I can change the topic title to be more specific. Thanks.
 
Alan Gage said:
By far my favorite is PG Downes. Sleeping Island and Distant Summers volume 1 and volume 2.

There are a lot of books about John Hornby. Reading them all will help tell the whole story.

Towards Magnetic North.

True North

Great Heart

Unflinching

The Old Way North

Alan
Click to expand...
Thanks Alan. If there is a way to modify the topic title slightly I would appreciate some hand-holding on doing so.
 
John Keller said:
Thanks Alan. If there is a way to modify the topic title slightly I would appreciate some hand-holding on doing s
Click to expand...

You're able to edit your posts (up to 48 hours if I remember correctly) but I don't believe you can edit the title. I went ahead and did it.

Alan
 
Alan Gage said:
You're able to edit your posts (up to 48 hours if I remember correctly) but I don't believe you can edit the title. I went ahead and did it.

Alan
Click to expand...

Yes, members can edit posts for 48 hour after posting. After that, the edit button disappears. Within the 48 hour edit window, thread starters should be able to edit the thread title by editing their OP.
 
Col Townsend Whelen, Brad Angier, the McGuffins, Eric Severied, Calvin Rutstrum, Horace Kephart, Bill Mason.
My friend went on a 3 week canoe trip in northern Minn in 1938. His outfitter was Sig Olsen. Always liked his writing.
 
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