Books like The only kayak by Kim Heacox

After graduating college, journalist Jon Krakauer traces the true story of Christopher McCandless, a young adventurer who abandoned possessions, took the name Alexander Supertramp, and ventured into Alaska’s wilderness, where he met his untimely death.

Bill Bryson humorously chronicles a two–person hike along the Appalachian Trail, mixing lively anecdotes with insightful looks at its history, ecology, and the people who live along the route.

Christopher McDougall explores how the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico excel in ultra‑long distance running, revealing clues that could reshape training for contemporary athletes and shed light on the human running machine.

Henry David Thoreau’s vivid account of Maine’s wilderness, exploring its landscapes, wildlife, and people while warning against commercial exploitation, captures a vital perspective on nature’s preservation.

From award-winning journalist Lee Sandlin comes a riveting look at one of the most colorful, dangerous, and peculiar places in America's historical landscape: the strange, wonderful, and mysterious Mississippi River of the nineteenth century. Beginning in the early 1800s and climaxing with the siege of Vicksburg in 1863, Wicked River takes us back to a time before the Mississippi was dredged into a shipping channel, and before Mark Twain romanticized it into myth. Drawing on an array of suspenseful and bizarre firsthand accounts, Sandlin brings to life a place where river pirates brushed elbows with future presidents and religious visionaries shared passage with thieves -- a world unto itself where, every night, near the levees of the big river towns, hundreds of boats gathered to form dusk-to-dawn cities dedicated to music, drinking, and gambling. Here is a minute-by-minute account of Natchez being flattened by a tornado; the St. Louis harbor being crushed by a massive ice floe; hidden, nefarious celebrations of Mardi Gras; and the sinking of the Sultana, the worst naval disaster in American history. Here, too, is the Mississippi itself: gorgeous, perilous, and unpredictable, lifeblood to the communities that rose and fell along its banks. An exuberant work of Americana -- at once history, culture, and geography -- Wicked River is a grand epic that portrays a forgotten society on the edge of revolutionary change. - Jacket flap.

A Journey through Alaska

Isabella L. Bird chronicles her Himalayan journey on horseback, living with Tibetans for four months and detailing their rituals, villages, monasteries, and culture.