Books similar to Into the Wild?

August 2, 2008 1:28 PM

I am looking for books similar to Krakauer's "Into the Wild." I used to prefer fiction, but after reading this book, I am craving some non-fiction similar to this book in a few particular ways...

What amazed me about Into the Wild was that it was a true, verifiable story, making it that much more powerful than any fiction. I loved all the different people's accounts of the main character, his story, and what he meant to them. So, I'm looking for non-fiction books that have one or both of these attributes:

1. A story almost too incredible to be true, but the reader is convinced that it is through evidence or testimonial.

2. It provides a deep understanding of a unique and fascinating person (e.g. Chris/Alex in Into the Wild) and his/her motives and beliefs, which radically differ from most people's.

Also, bonus points if the story is about outdoorsy/adventuring type stuff like Into the Wild. Not a requirement though.

posted by TSGlenn to media & arts (50 comments total)

Can we assume you've read Krakauer's "Into thin air" and "Under the Banner of Heaven"? I think they meet your criteria.
posted by found missing at 1:39 PM on August 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Endurance fits the bill.
posted by Knappster at 1:43 PM on August 2, 2008

I'm not really even a fan of this genre, but I got a free advance copy of Hell or High Water a few years back at Book Expo, and I just loved it. Just might fit the bill for you
posted by timsteil at 1:49 PM on August 2, 2008

The Golden Spruce, by John Valiant, would probably be up your alley.
posted by box at 1:50 PM on August 2, 2008

Thanks for the answers so far... also, despite my note at the end about liking adventure/outdoorsy stories, I don't want answers to focus only on that category. I'd like a variety of other types of stories too. Perhaps I shouldn't have included that note...
posted by TSGlenn at 1:52 PM on August 2, 2008

I thought that "Into thin air" was even better.
posted by lungtaworld at 1:53 PM on August 2, 2008

(seconding lungtaworld) -- you're looking for "Into Thin Air" - amazing stuff.
posted by mrmarley at 1:58 PM on August 2, 2008

The Orientalist by Tom Reiss and Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile are both books about amazing individuals who lived lives that seem way too incredible to be true.
posted by extrabox at 1:59 PM on August 2, 2008

oh yeah, I think you would also get into Desert Solitaire
posted by mrmarley at 2:00 PM on August 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

My go-to books in this genre:
The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill
They Lived on Human Flesh by Enrique Hank Lopez, about the Uruguayan rugby team
posted by knile at 2:06 PM on August 2, 2008

While it's less overtly dramatic, I actually think the story of the defense lawyer Jan Schlichtmann at the heart of Jonathan Harr's A Civil Action fits this bill. An extraordinary book that creeps up on you gradually and lingers for a long time.

A more obviously exciting and truly mindboggling story (but far less well written) is Journal Of The Dead: A Story of Friendship And Murder in the New Mexico Desert.
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 2:12 PM on August 2, 2008

Keep the River on Your Right (there's also a related documentary)

The Final Frontiersman

The Stars, The Snow, The Fire: Twenty-Five Years the Alaskan Wilderness

Typee, Omoo, and Mardi (fiction, but based largely on Melville's personal experience).
posted by ryanshepard at 2:22 PM on August 2, 2008

Issac's Storm by Erik Larson.
posted by melodykramer at 2:34 PM on August 2, 2008

John Muir's A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf should also fit the bill.
posted by ryanshepard at 2:36 PM on August 2, 2008

Did anyone say "Into Thin Air" yet? Oh, they did? Okay then.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:55 PM on August 2, 2008

Great questions, great responses. I love this stuff and will probably come up with some more responses, but for now here are a couple that go together:

In the 70's everyone I knew read Alive, the story of the Uruguayan rugby team that crashed in the Andes and whose experiences led to the bumper stickers reading "rugby players eat their dead"; I thought it was really good but was blown away by Miracle in the Andes, the same story as told by the survivor who hiked out of the Andes and got everyone rescued. Deep Survival is a collection of similar stories. For wilderness adventure in general, Thor Heyerdahl is a good source for some classics.
posted by TedW at 2:58 PM on August 2, 2008

A different kind of wilderness, but just as moving and real: Among the Thugs, and Monster.
posted by StickyCarpet at 3:04 PM on August 2, 2008

Long Way Round, by Ewan McGregor (yes, the actor) and Charley Boorman. They rode their motorcycles around the world. Great stories about their encounters with Asia, in particular. They also produced a...documentary? mini-series?...about this that was really good.

A Walk Across America, Looking for Alaska, and Across China, all by Peter Jenkins. The Alaska and China books were my favorites of his.

seconding Under the Banner of Heaven.
posted by Mimzy at 3:07 PM on August 2, 2008

Touching the Void, perhaps. A Walk Across America is very good, as has been said. Also, perhaps A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.
posted by Autarky at 3:24 PM on August 2, 2008

I haven't read this book, just seen it on someone's shelf, but The Grizzly Maze, about Timothy Treadwell and his obsession with bears (the subject of Herzog's film Grizzly man, which was fascinating) might be up your alley. There are several other books on Treadwell, though I can't vouch for any of those either. I'm such a help, I know :P
posted by Madamina at 3:30 PM on August 2, 2008

...despite my note at the end about liking adventure/outdoorsy stories, I don't want answers to focus only on that category.

But for those that do be sure to check out these previous AskMe threads: 1, 2.

National Geographic's The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time.

Outside's The 25 (Essential) Adventure/Explorer Books.

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Ice Story: Shackleton's Lost Expedition

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World

One Man's Wilderness

An Island to Oneself

Kon-Tiki

Adrift
posted by ericb at 3:35 PM on August 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat is an oldie but a goodie.
posted by Pigpen at 4:11 PM on August 2, 2008

The works of Jack London.
posted by Artw at 4:25 PM on August 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

2nding Touching the Void.
posted by cnc at 4:37 PM on August 2, 2008

Along the lines of "Endurance," Nansen's "Farthest North" is an amazing story of willingness to stake ones life on a theory and of the extremes that people can survive.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 4:45 PM on August 2, 2008

Not wilderness, but almost unbelievable and incredibly unique and fascinating main character: Richard Feynman. Actual out of this world adventure: The Last Man on the Moon; really interesting insights into NASAs culture.
posted by TedW at 5:24 PM on August 2, 2008

Surprised no one has mentioned it, but A Perfect Storm might interest you.
posted by TedW at 5:31 PM on August 2, 2008

Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac.
posted by vertigo25 at 5:33 PM on August 2, 2008

Not outdoorsy, but check out Them: Adventures with Extremists and The Men Who Stare at Goats, both by Jon Ronson, both chock-full of unique, fascinating people and their OMGWTFBBQ stories.
posted by grippycat at 5:43 PM on August 2, 2008

Grizzly Maze is really good. And, though he's not precisely what you're asking for, David Quammen is my favorite nature writer.
posted by box at 5:55 PM on August 2, 2008

Hobo by Eddy Joe Cotton is a pretty interesting recount of a 19-year-old kid leaving home and hopping trains for a few years.

The entire time I read it I had to go back and keep looking at the dates because it felt like it could only happen 50-years-ago but he started in 1991.
posted by M Edward at 6:00 PM on August 2, 2008

The Hot Zone- Ebola comes to Virginia
Lost Moon- Apollo13- Jim Lovell
Failure is not an option- Nasa from Mercury to Apollor by Gene Krantz
posted by Gungho at 6:45 PM on August 2, 2008

Some great suggestions so far, I would add The Terrible Hours to the list.

"In The Terrible Hours, Maas reconstructs the harrowing 39 hours between the disappearance of the submarine Squalus during a test dive off the New England coast and the eventual rescue of 33 crew members trapped in the vessel 250 feet beneath the sea."
posted by travis08 at 7:02 PM on August 2, 2008

If you want to branch away from the outdoorsy books, true crime written by serious journalists will often meet your criteria perfectly. Blind Eye, by James B. Stewart, for example, is a great character study of a sociopath who masqueraded as a doctor. It's pretty similar to Catch Me If You Can, but more grim. Perhaps you're looking for something more feel-good, but books like these are definitely both jaw-dropping and provide a deep understanding of unusual characters.

Also, now that I've mentioned James B. Stewart, that reminds me of something else. I'd suggest you take a look at a certain genre of books that you might think sounds totally boring (I did), but comprises some of the most fascinating and character-revealing non-fiction books around: books about the financial sector. Asparagirl did a great round-up in a comment a little while back that might actually get you excited about the genre. Here it is.
posted by painquale at 7:26 PM on August 2, 2008

Oh, and Dave Eggers's What is the What is partly fictionalized (it's based on interviews and mostly non-fiction), but it is easily one of the best books in the "survivor" genre I have ever read. It totally redeemed Eggers for me.
posted by painquale at 7:32 PM on August 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

You might find this previous thread of interest, and I stand by my endorsement of northern derring-do. James Houston totally fits your bill.
posted by kmennie at 7:59 PM on August 2, 2008

National Geographic Adventure magazine named 'Worst Journey in the World' the number one adventure book of all time. It was a stunningly impressive book to me.
posted by X4ster at 8:14 PM on August 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

David Howarth wrote two books about WWII far north adventures populated by near-mythically persevering Danes and Norwegians, both of which were fascinating (if you choose only one, the second is best--I recommend it all the time as an example of Norwegians being nigh unkillable). Don't be put off by the fact that they're "war books"--it's more about the men than killin'. :

Sledge Patrol.

We Die Alone.
posted by RedEmma at 8:26 PM on August 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Also:

Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls: True Stories of Castaways and Other Survivors by Edward E. Leslie.

Alone, by Byrd.
posted by RedEmma at 8:42 PM on August 2, 2008

In the Heart the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is the non-fiction account of the ship that was part of the inspiration for Moby Dick.

And of course, there's The Perfect Storm.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:49 PM on August 2, 2008

Shouldn't have neglected to add Ann LaBastille's Woodswoman: Living Alone in the Adirondack Wilderness, Vladimir Arsenyev's Dersu Uzala (the film is also not-to-be-missed), and John McPhee's Survival of the Bark Canoe. If you're at all interested in Buddhism, I also recommend Bill Porter's Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits.

Liao Yiwu's The Corpse Walker may also be up your alley.
posted by ryanshepard at 9:57 PM on August 2, 2008

Lastly (I could on and on here ;), I can't recommend Walter Harding's The Days of Henry Thoreau enough - a beautifully written portrait of the ur-wilderness-minded American iconoclast.

If you enjoy it, Robert Richardson's Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind digs deeper into Thoreau's reading and influences, and will lead you to dozens of other good books!
posted by ryanshepard at 10:15 PM on August 2, 2008

The writing is a little bit awful, but the story - now that, I can recommend! The Hot Zone, By Richard Preston about the Ebola and Marburg viruses. Just fascinating and horrific. Will make you suddenly see the danger in the ease of international air travel and the implications with the spread of disease. I read it in about two sittings.
posted by lottie at 2:44 AM on August 3, 2008

Seconding "What is the What."

Also, I recently finished When a Crocodile Eats the Sun - a first-hand account of the downward spiral of Zimbabwe in the last few decades. Warning: do not read if you prefer your heart unbroken.
posted by allkindsoftime at 4:18 AM on August 3, 2008

Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson, about the Chicago World Fair, near the end of the 19th century, and one of the first known serial killers stalking that fair. The accounts of building the fair are fascinating, and the stuff about the killer is completely harrowing, because it's true.
posted by lunasol at 7:11 AM on August 3, 2008

These come to mind:

Papillion.

The Last Run. Read it dammit.
posted by qsysopr at 8:38 AM on August 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

other doomed romantic loners who were cut from the same cloth as Chris McCandless...

Everett Ruess - A Vagabond for Beauty

The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst
posted by codefinger at 9:18 AM on August 3, 2008

You might try The Places In Between by Rory Stewart.
posted by gudrun at 10:42 AM on August 3, 2008

Nthing Touching the Void. In general, anything by Joe Simpson — The Beckoning Silence, for example, about the dangers of obsessive mountaineering, is a wonderful meditation on mortality and death as well as a nail-bitingly suspenseful narrative.
posted by gentle at 11:28 AM on August 4, 2008

And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts, about the first 5 years of the AIDS epidemic. A classic non-fiction page-turner.
posted by marsha56 at 6:17 PM on August 15, 2008