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In preparation for this month's Featured Collection, I looked back at the books I had read in the past year and noticed a pattern -- many of them were memoirs about life in nature: in a cabin by a pond, aboard a handbuilt sailboat, hiking the John Muir Trail, and so on.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey (917.92 A12)
A memoir of a season as a park ranger at Arches National Monument in Moab, Utah, Desert Solitaire reads more like a collection of stories and essays on the theme of the desert than a more traditional narrative.
The Voyage of the Cormorant by Christian Beamish (910.45 B366)
The memoir of a man who builds an 18-foot boat in his garage and sails it from Southern California to the tip of Baja California, surfing and camping along the way.
Almost Somewhere by Suzanne Roberts (917.94 R647)
After graduating from college, Roberts and two friends hike the John Muir Trail in twenty-eight days. As much a coming-of-age story as it is a travelogue.
Walden by Henry David Thoreau (814 T48wsh)
A man builds a cabin near Walden Pond and attempts to live there self-sufficiently for two years. Since first reading it in high school, I have returned to Walden a number of times.
Other memoirs in nature that you might be interested in are:
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (917.404 B916)
The Man Who Walked Through Time by Colin Fletcher (917.91 F61)
Nature Writings by John Muir (508.74 M95)
Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (92 S913)