You’ve got your boots, your sleeping mat and your water bottle. You throw in your plate, your mug and your camera. And what with that trowel, headlamp and first aid kit – well, there isn’t a lot of room for anything much extra.

But if there’s one thing I wouldn’t be without on a trip – any trip – it’s a book to read. Idon’t care if I’ve got a five minute bus journey, or a plane trip to the other side of the world and they’ll only let me have a shoebox for hand luggage, the FIRST thing on my list is a novel. And heading out into the great outdoors just makes me salivate at the thought of sitting up against a great and ancient tree trunk, or curling up by the fire and pulling a battered paperback out of my backpack.

Of course, getting yourself outside is all about appreciating the environment you are in. But just because you are immersing yourself in a book during a break in your journey doesn’t mean you are losing touch with the fantastic scenery that surrounds you. In fact, if it is the right novel, it may actually accentuate the experience.

Take a book like Nicholas Drayson’s ‘A Guide to the Birds of East Africa’. It doesn’t sound like much from the title, but it is actually a delightful story about a mild-mannered Kenyan widower who is secretly sweet on the woman who leads the local bird walking club. When someone else starts competing for her affections, he and his nemesis embark on a competition to see who can spot the most bird species in one week. What follows is a series of disasters, laughter and much skullduggery – and I challenge you to read a novel like this and not start noticing the birds around you with great intensity for at least a week afterwards!

And what about if you decided to take a copy of Peter Carey’s novel ‘The True History of the Kelly Gang’ on your next hike in the wilderness? You’d be hard-pressed not to compare your own landscape to that of the harsh Australian bush while reading it.

But maybe fiction just doesn’t work for you on an outdoor trip, and you’d prefer to be inspired, amused or entertained by other people’s hiking experiences. Bill Bryson’s ‘A Walk in the Woods’ is an obvious choice, or perhaps something a bit more exotic, like Rory Stewart’s ‘The Places in Between’ in which he walks across Afghanistan.

My greatest joy is to read books that are set in the place I am going – whether it is fiction, memoirs or travel stories. And I can’t think of any better place to do this than on a hike in which you can really take the time to appreciate the landscape of the place you are in.

But as an Australian who lives in Europe – I need your help! My trips to the U.S. have been limited to a few days in New York and a weekend in San Francisco, and my only perspective of the American wilderness comes from old episodes of Little House on the Prairie. So I figure if I want to know more about the U.S, you guys are the people to ask. What are the books that you think best tell the stories of the places you love to explore with hiking boots and a compass?

At Packabook we categorise books into the places they are set. We will soon be tackling the millions of books written about or set in the United States, and trying to find the ones that really give us a window on each state. We are looking for those books that make you feel you have been there, or at least want to go! From Minnesota to Texas, I would love to hear your thoughts on the novels and travel stories of the places you love the most.

Who better to do that than those who are prepared to tackle rivers, mountains and hiking trails with only the bags they can carry, all in a bid to explore the country they love. You guys are the experts and I look forward to exploring your country through books, at least until I get the chance to go there myself.

Why not make some suggestions in the comments below. We’d love to hear them.

Suzi at Packabook

Packabook is a place to find travel novels and travelogues set in particular countries.

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Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson’s first novel Gloryland is the first person story of Elijah Yancy, an African American raised in post Civil War South Carolina that hikes out of the South to Nebraska, becomes a Buffalo Soldier, and eventually finds himself guarding the new Yosemite National Park in the early 20^th Century.

Johnson is such a wonderful storyteller that Gloryland reads less like a novel and more like an old man telling you his life story. The book is so beautifully written that I found line after line that I wanted to quote, but to keep this review concise I’ll only share a couple of my favorite quotes like the words Yancy offers after seeing a beautiful woman:

“She woke me up from a sleep so deep I didn’t even know I’d been dreaming all my life…You don’t need eyes to see beauty once you got it inside your head. You don’t need hands to feel beauty, once it seeps into your bones.”

Ranger Johnson’s time in Yosemite hasn’t been wasted and comes through in his poetic words, and not since John Muir has a love letter to Yosemite so elegantly been written. Anyone that has ever seen the Sierra Nevada Mountains or visited Yosemite understands the beauty that is difficult to express in words, or even pictures, but somehow Johnson captures the splendor of the land in his novel. I have spent many weeks walking and visiting with Yosemite and feel connected in a spiritual way that only can be understood by others that have properly experienced this heaven on earth. Yancy understands this when he states, “God is everywhere, but I’m thinking he prefers some places more than others. I’m thinking he spends a lot of time in these mountains.”

For those seeking the typical novel, or for those that have never truly explored natural lands, this may not be the book for them as it is more of a spiritual journey and discovery than a fast paced read. Some chapters ramble and are superfluous, but this is appropriate if you remember that it is told from the perspective of Elijah Yancy remembering stories from his past.

This is a novel I want my children to read someday. To teach them about their country and the struggles of strong people that made America the great place it is today. This piece of historical fiction is simultaneously educational and entertaining as history flows naturally from the narrator’s lips. Ranger Shelton Johnson is not only a great American patriot, but also a great writer with a unique voice. This book will make a cherished gift during the holidays and is highly recommended.

The step-by-step approach to identifying trees is really cool and reminds of the Choose Your Own Adventure books I read as a kid. This tree book is as much fun now as those books were then, except that you never fall into an endless, black pit with the Arbor Day book. To identify a tree you follow various paths based on questions until you’ve narrowed the search down to your tree.

Other tree books I own use photographs as illustrations. While photographs have value they usually don’t show texture or other identifiable characteristics of a particular tree making identification difficult. What Tree is That? uses illustrations hand-drawn by artist Karina Helm. Helm has extensive experience creating natural history and scientific illustrations and her experience and talent shows in the beautiful and detailed images, images that make identification easy.

I read several books per month and own dozens of outdoor manuals, travel guides, and nature identification guides and I rate this book among the best. I highly recommend getting your own copy of What Tree Is That? as it will become a treasured part of your collection and a family heirloom as well.

The most interesting part of the book to me was not about the Chris McCandless, the subject of the book, but a deviation in the story where Jon writes about an extreme climbing trip in Alaska where he risked death climbing Devils Thumb.  I think that Jon should write a life biography because he has some great stories to tell. Maybe he’s just waiting until he’s older and has a few more adventures to write about?

Jon Krakauer is a great writer that tells a good story and leaves out the fluff.  Pick up anything he’s written and he’ll take you on an adventure you won’t soon forget.