by Jon Krakauer (1996)
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself.
Bill Bryson
The Appalachian Trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America. Bill Bryson, accompanied by his idiosyncratic friend Stephen Katz, sets out to hike this magnificent footpath. Bryson faces raging rivers, bears, and eccentric fellow hikers with razor-sharp humor.
Michael Finkel
In 1986, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight walked into the woods of Maine and did not speak to another human being for twenty-seven years. He lived in a hidden tent encampment through brutal winters, surviving exclusively by burglarizing nearby summer cabins for food and batteries.
Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson retraces the European backpacking trip of his youth, traveling by train from the northern tip of Norway down through Amsterdam, Florence, and Istanbul with trademark sharp wit and historical observation.
Colin Thubron
Colin Thubron covers seven thousand miles along the historic Silk Road, trekking across western China, the mountains of Central Asia, northern Afghanistan, and Iran by local bus, horse, and camel.