Here are my favorite books in the travel and adventure genre. In my opinion, even the greatest literary novels can’t beat a true story by a real person! These adventurers and their tireless efforts to reach their goals never fail to inspire me. I give these books my highest recommendation. (I’ve just started this list, so there will be more to come soon.) Let me know your favorites in the comments below.
Favorite adventure books
Into Thin Air
You probably know this book, but what you don’t know is that I met someone who was there. You can read Göran Kropp’s story on my website. And you can even buy his book with an alternative POV.
As for Krakauer’s blockbuster book, it’s a gripping, firsthand account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster that claimed multiple lives and permanently altered modern mountaineering. Reporting from the summit itself, Krakauer recounts how small decisions, commercial pressure, and an unexpected storm cascaded into tragedy. The book is part survival story, part investigation, and part personal reckoning, as Krakauer wrestles with guilt, responsibility, and the limits of human judgment in extreme environments. Clear-eyed and deeply human, Into Thin Air explores why we’re drawn to the edge—and what the mountain demands in return.
The Happy Isles of Oceania
Paddling the Pacific
All of Theroux’s books are great reads filled with keen insight and big ideas. And the words are a joy to read. Once my book, Falling Uphill, was compared to Theroux, and I thought that I couldn’t get a better compliment. This is his most adventurous book, an eighteen-month tour of the South Pacific, exploring fifty-one islands by collapsible kayak. The Great Railway Bazaar is his most popular. And here is my favorite quote.
A tourist doesn’t know where he’s been. A traveler doesn’t know where he’s going.
Paul Theroux
Annapurna
I found this book in Kathmandu while having my own adventure in the Himalayas. Maybe that led to the excitement because I read this book in two days. Can you imagine launching an expedition for a mountain whose exact location is not even known!? In 1950, the Himalayas hadn’t been completely or accurately mapped. It’s hard to imagine not being able to find an 8-kilometer-tall mountain, but this was only the first challenge, followed by icy cliffs, blizzards, and the slow deterioration of the mind brought on by the hazards of high altitudes never before experienced. As Herzog describes, even descending the mountain was a challenge: “Every inch was a torture I was resolved to ignore.” He was the leader of the nine-man French expedition and one of only two to reach the summit. This is as dramatic a story as you’ll ever read.
You Can Never Find A Rickshaw When It Monsoons
I stumbled upon this book in my favorite local used bookstore and couldn’t believe my eyes. As a children’s author myself, Mo Willems is one of my favorite authors. You may know his best-selling Caldecott winners: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale. Discovering that he wrote and illustrated a book about his world travels seemed too good to be true. Mo wrote this book during his gap year after college. At the end of every day, he day drew a picture of the most memorable event. Each illustration is both charming and insightful. If you’ve traveled — or want to — you should read this book. You’ll get a glimpse into the inner workings of the world and the young mind of Mo Willems.
A Walk Across America
When I announced my dream to cycle across America, this book was gifted to me. (When it is said that an author is a gifted writer, this is what it means.) I had never imagined such a thing was possible, and I never imagined someone was feeling and thinking the same things. “I started out searching for myself and my country,” Peter Jenkins wrote, “and found both.” Jenkins’s journey to find himself set the stage for me to do the same.
His son also wrote a coming-of-age book about his 16-month bike ride from Oregon to Patagonia. To Shake the Sleeping Self. I enjoyed it, but was disappointed that he disregarded his father’s influence.
Kon-Tiki
This is the first true travel adventure I have ever read, and it changed my life! Read the story here.
Kon-Tiki is the record of an astonishing adventure — a journey of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean by raft. Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, biologist Thor Heyerdahl suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by an ancient race from thousands of miles to the east, led by a mythical hero, Kon-Tiki. He decided to prove his theory by duplicating the legendary voyage.
Greenlights
I’m not the type of person who follows celebrities. And I especially hate it when celebrities (meaning their ghostwriters) write books. But not this book. The words are undoubtedly McConaughey’s and surprisingly full of poetic flair. It’s an honest memoir full of adventures, like being challenged to a wrestling match by the village champion, off the map in Mali, Africa. The lesson learned: It’s not about winning or losing but accepting the challenge. I love how McConaughey tackles life head-on. More so, I love feeling inspired to tackle my own life head-on.
Favorite bicycle touring books
Over The Hills
A Midlife Escape by Bicycle Across America
A journalist chronicles his cross-country cycling adventure at the age of 54, a journey marked by both physical challenge and his unsuccessful attempt to quit smoking while doing the trip. This is a book that both myself and our guest adventurer, Forrest, read before embarking on our own cross-country trips. Read Forrest’s story about this book.
The Wheels of Chance
A Bicycling Idyll
H.G. Wells wasn’t just a visionary when it came to time machines or men walking on the moon, he also wrote the very first book about bicycle touring, which helped give rise to the female emancipation movement. Though mostly fiction, Wells used real places in plotting the novel, and the entire route can be cycled in real life.
Read this book for free on our website.
Also, don’t miss HG Well’s bicycle quotes.
Taming the Bicycle
This humorous essay by one of America’s greatest authors gave birth to many famous quotes about riding a bicycle. (Can you spot the famous quotes?) It was written in 1884 shortly before women suffragists like Frances E. Willard, Hellen Keller and Susan B Anthony began to adopt the bicycle as an expression of freedom of movement and freedom of mind.
Read this short story for free on our website.
Also, don’t miss Mark Twain’s bicycle quotes.
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