UKC

Going on a trip to Pakistan next week and need a book to read that'll inspire me. Fiction or non-fiction. I haven't read a lot of mountain literature so... any ideas?

In reply to Bloodfire:

Fiction: A Song of Fire and Ice (a.k.a. Game of Thrones)

Non-Fiction: Feeding the Rat - Al Alvarez or The Villain - Jim Perrin

In reply to Bloodfire:

HW Tilman's "The Seven Mountain - Travel Books"

Equally well written is his "The Eight Sailing/Mountain - Exploration Books"

In reply to Bloodfire:

The Satanic Verses?
Might not inspire you, but will certainly keep you on your toes...

In reply to Bloodfire:

Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East"

A cracking read.

In reply to Bloodfire:

I wasn't a massive fan of A Song of Ice and Fire - I made it half way through the second book and had to give up (which is not like me at all). If you want something along the same lines, I can highly recommend Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles series. Such a brilliant story, so eloquently told.

In reply to Bloodfire:
I recently started reading the Master and Commander series not having read a sea story since my teens decades ago. I find Patrick o' Brian's writing remarkable, far better than the quite enjoyable film and full of humour and running jokes very much to my taste. I passed them on to a long term climbing friend who has also become fairly taken with them.

The characterisation is such that I'm less interested in the battles than the characters on board ship and their interactions. While he doesn't do so much descriptive prose I've never felt so vividly that I've been aboard ship because of the way he describes the characters and their dialogue.

Probably be shot down in flames here, but a jolly good read if not intellectual enough for some here probably! Cheaply available in charity shops as well.

In reply to Bloodfire:

For non-fiction, what about Freedom at Midnight, about the Partitioning? Explains a lot about the roots of both modern India and Pakistan - not to mention some of the on going tensions.

Quite topical as well, given current events:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Historic-enclave-swap-68-years-aft...

Climbing books, on the other hand, are often incredibly dull (I collect them, have several hundred, but find them generally turgid and uninspiring). If you want sufferfest, Annapurna isn't bad. Tom Weir's East of Kathmandu is nicely written and as someone has mentioned, Feeding the Rat is a great biography of a real character. Terray's Conquistadors of the Useless is quite absorbing in places.

In reply to wercat:
interestingly they were recommended to me by a climbing friend, I read the lot, all good books

and I agree about the relationships and the feeling of looking into another time

enjoy

Edit "master and commander series"

In reply to Bloodfire:

The Great Game - Hopkirk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Great-Game-Secret-Service/dp/0719564476

Makes you realise any inconveniences in Gilgit or Skardu are trivial compared with what they put up with.

In reply to tehmarks:


Well, you're in the minority then!
Rothfuss is also good but the second one got a bit waffley and the third one is taking a Martinesque amount of time to come out

I have just read the 2 best books of my year so far:
Johnathon Frantzen's 'freedom'....my god that man can write!
and Donna Tartt's 'the Goldfinch'....an 800 page yarn that had me hooked literally from page 1