The Easton Press 'Greatest Adventure Books of All Time' list

Early last year, I posted two great recommended reading lists called “National Geographic’s 100 Best Adventure Books” and “Outside Magazine’s Best Adventure Books.” Earlier today I ran across a similar list called “Easton Press Greatest Adventure Books of All Time.”

Easton Press is a book publisher based in Norwalk, Conn. that specializes in high-quality, leather-bound books. They offer a number of book collections, ranging from classics to works of modern literature and science fiction. Their longest running and most popular series is “The 100 Greatest Books Ever Written.”

The Easton Press Greatest Adventure Books of All Time includes 13 volumes and features “accounts and memoirs of the world’s great explorers and adventurers: Lewis and Clark, Ernest Shackelton’s account of the voyage of the Endurance, Touching the Void. From the highest mountains to the deepest deserts, this series celebrates the spirit of the world’s adventurers. These books define great adventure, books that will inspire and thrill for generations to come. Each is written by the adventurer who actually lived it, those who have known fear and were brave enough to push beyond.”

Books on the list include:

- The Worst Journey in the World by Aspley Cherry-Garrard

- Annapurna by Maurice Herzog

- Journals of Captain Scott’s Last Expedition by Robert Falcon Scott

- South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage by Ernest Shackelton

- Farthest North by Fridtjof Nansen

- The Exploration of the Colorado River by John Wesley Powell

- First Footsteps in East Africa by Richard F. Burton

- Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger

- The Journals of the Expedition – 2 Vols. by Lewis and Clark

- West with the Night by Beryl Markham

- Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

- Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine De Saint-Exupery

For more information about Easton Press and the books mentioned above, visit their Web site at www.eastonpress.com. Be warned, these books are not cheap. Books in the adventure series are $69.70 each, but they are probably worth it. They are bound in genuine leather with moiré end pages, 22k-gold accents, gilded page edges and a sewn-in bookmark. (Moire is a silk fabric that’s subjected to heat and pressure rollers after weaving to give it a rippled appearance, so I'm guessing that moiré end pages have a rippled and lustrous finish.)

In the end, how many of these great adventure books have you read? Which did you like or dislike? Which would you recommend and why? Let us know in the comments section below.

If you’re interested in reading more about “Outside Magazine’s Best Adventure Books” list, visit http://leepeacock2010.blogspot.com/2010/05/outsides-best-adventure-books-list.html.

To see the “National Geographic’s 100 Best Adventure Books” list visit http://leepeacock2010.blogspot.com/2010/04/ngs-100-best-adventure-books.html.