Best Books About Hiking Shared by Erin Burke

Erin (00:00)
I was starting this project during a time where we couldn’t travel. So what’s the next best thing is reading about places that we can’t go to.

but now that we can travel again, I mean, they go so hand in hand because books and travel are both about exploring the world and learning about new places, getting different perspectives. And so they just complement each other so well.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (00:32)
Today’s episode will be fun. It’s definitely hiking related, but not in the way that you would typically think.

I have Erin Burke from Flying Off the Bookshelf on today.

Erin is an expert in pairing books with destinations, whether it’s a place you want to travel or a place you want to hike. So I brought her on here to give us some awesome recommendations for books, both nonfiction and fiction that are related to hiking or just being in the outdoor space.

Get your notes app ready. Your TBR is definitely gonna be extra long by the time this episode is done. Erin has some great recommendations. These could even be some good ideas for friends or family who are looking to get you a gift, maybe for the holiday season or a birthday, and you don’t need any more hiking gear. So if they wanna give you something hiking related, these books are a great option.

All right, so I don’t want you to wait. I hope you’re ready to go. Let’s get into it.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (01:28)
Hi, Erin. Thank you for joining me today.

Erin (01:31)
Thanks for having me. I’m excited to talk to you today.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (01:33)
I can’t wait to get into all the books that you’ve read, because that’s why I have you on here, But before we even get into that, where are you located?

Erin (01:41)
So I am in Huntsville, Alabama. So the rocket city where we have space camp. ⁓

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (01:44)
okay.

That’s fun. You

know, actually, think my cousin’s daughter went to space camp down there.

Erin (01:53)
Yeah, my daughter

is going later this year on a school trip because when you live in Huntsville you go to space camp as a field trip.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (02:00)
my goodness,

That is so fun. So how long have you been in Alabama then? Did you grow up there?

Erin (02:05)
Yes, I grew up here and I love it here. I love ⁓ being close to my family and my husband’s family. It’s great to have this as a home base and of course we love to travel, but I always love returning home and this is such a great area. It’s so family friendly and we have great trails here. We have great outdoor spaces here in Huntsville.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (02:24)
I love that, well I’m glad you brought that up, because I wanted to ask, I know I see you hiking with your family on Instagram, on social media, is that something that you did growing up?

Erin (02:33)
I wouldn’t say we hiked a ton, but we did do outdoor stuff. Like there were times that we went camping and ⁓ we have, there’s like a nearby summer camp that I grew up going to that my family was involved in. And so the outdoors were part of my life growing up.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (02:50)
Obviously I love that because I make the kids spend a lot of time outdoors too. But so I know you are an avid reader and on your website you share a lot of great book recommendations, especially with your travels. what is your relationship with books? Like did you just grow up reading all the time? are you a librarian? I don’t think you’re a librarian. Correct. Okay.

Erin (02:53)
Yeah.

No, I’m not. I actually, almost became a librarian.

I almost went to library school and then just kind of didn’t work out with things that were going on in life. But yes, yes, that

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (03:20)
If you need a new career, it could be a good option for you.

Erin (03:23)
true. That is true. But yeah, I grew up reading. I’ve always loved books so much. I mean, from the time, like my grandmother used to babysit me while my parents were at work and she would take me to story time at the library. And I just never looked back. I’ve always loved books so

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (03:40)
That’s how my daughter is. She is a huge reader, loves loves books. And I always joke that I couldn’t afford her reading habits. I’m so grateful for libraries.

Erin (03:49)
my gosh, yes. Yes,

my daughter is the same way. I mean, I love buying books and she, I’ve heard it recently, people say that book reading and book buying are two different hobbies. And I like that because I feel that way. But my daughter also loves to go to the bookstore and buy books. And I’m like, I’ll take you to the library this weekend.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (04:03)
Yeah

You

We’re running out of space on no, agree though. I think I think book reading and then book buying because book buying isn’t just book buying. It’s collecting, right? My sister’s an avid reader and she has multiple books that she tries to get certain covers for and stuff like that. yeah, definitely. No, that’s they’re two different hobbies. I agree with that. Now on your website, you share a lot of ⁓ books that relate back to travel. So

Erin (04:13)
Yes.

Yes, it is.

⁓ yeah, yeah.

Hahaha

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (04:36)
What made you decide to start doing that? Because it’s a great concept, I think. It’s fabulous.

Erin (04:41)
Yeah, I mean,

I think that they just go together so well. I actually, this site started as a pandemic project. And so it kind of started, I mean, travel and reading are my two favorite things. But it was,

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (04:47)
Okay. ⁓

Erin (04:53)
I was starting this project during a time where we couldn’t travel. So what’s the next best thing is reading about places that we can’t go to.

but now that we can travel again, I mean, they go so hand in hand because books and travel are both about exploring the world and learning about new places, getting different perspectives. And so they just complement each other so well.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (05:19)
I do love that because you’ll read about a place maybe you’ve never been before and you’re like, I want to go there. And I love when you get to finally get to the place that you’ve read about and you’re like, wait, she said she could easily walk from this place to this place. Hold on. I don’t think that was actually possible. When my kids were younger, made them, I made them, I asked them politely to read one of my favorite books growing up, which was The Mixed Up Files of Mrs.

Erin (05:37)
That’s true.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (05:49)
Basil, Basil E, Frankweiler right? And, you know, it takes place in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And after my son had read it, he really wanted to go to the art museum. So was like, let’s do it. So we did a day trip up to New York and he got to, he’s like, oh, they talked about this fountain and this. I’m like, so I think it’s fun when you’re reading about a place and then you can relate back to it. It’s almost like familiar for you. It’s not a strange place that you’re visiting.

Erin (05:49)
⁓ yes, Basley Frankweiler, yes.

Yeah, that’s awesome.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (06:12)
in preparation for your travels, do you read books ahead of time to kind of get an idea of where you’re going or do you read about it afterwards or both?

Erin (06:22)
I think I do both. I try to read at least a book or two before I’m going somewhere because I feel like it really enriches your experience while you’re there. But then of course I can never get through all the books that I like. I’ll make a list and I can’t get through them all before I go. So I’ll still read about places after I go there, which I think then that enriches your reading experience because you have that context of having been there. Yeah, yeah. Except the only problem is that it just really makes me want to go back.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (06:30)
Mm-hmm.

You can picture everything. Yeah, yeah.

Erin (06:51)
So.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (06:53)
obviously this is a hiking podcast, not just a travel and book podcast. So I wanted to bring you on here because you had shared on your Instagram books about was it Yosemite or just national parks in general? I think it was. Yeah. And I love that concept. So I wanted to have you on here to share books.

Erin (07:05)
National parks, yes.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (07:12)
about hiking and whether they’re fiction or nonfiction. So I made you do some homework and I appreciate the efforts, but would you be so kind to share some of the books that you would recommend for anyone who loves to hike so if they can’t get out, let me read about hiking somewhere.

Erin (07:28)
Yeah, yeah, I’ve got a

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (07:30)
OK, sounds good.

Erin (07:30)
start with a nonfiction title. So

one of my favorite books about national parks is called Leave Only Footprints. My Acadia to Zion Journey Through Every National Park. It’s by Connor Knighton and he was a CBS correspondent.

and he went through like a breakup and decided to spend the year traveling national parks. And then I think he kind of did it on his own and then talked CBS into letting him do segments to like fund the venture. but he spends a year going to every national park. And I feel like this book is really, I mean, I always knew I enjoyed going to national parks, but I feel like reading this book is what made me really want to make it a goal to eventually get to all of them.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (08:11)
That’s awesome.

Erin (08:11)
And

one thing that’s really unique about this book is he doesn’t just tell it chronologically, he sorts the national parks by kind of themes. So he has a chapter on like water or sound. I think there’s one on food and he takes kind of these more philosophical and abstract concepts and applies them to what he’s learning about each national park. it was really interesting.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (08:19)
Okay.

I

Erin (08:36)
I learned a lot about the national parks. There’s lots of like kind of thoughtful philosophical life thoughts, but it’s also a very funny book. There are parts that I was laughing out loud. So that’s that’s one of my favorites, I think about national parks.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (08:51)
I feel like you’re gonna make my, as they say, the TBR list very long with this. But that sounds great, I wanna read that for sure.

Erin (08:54)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I love that one. And then there’s another one kind of ⁓ in a similar vein about traveling to national parks called America the Beautiful with a question mark. One woman and a borrowed Prius on the road most traveled and it’s by Blythe Roberson and she sets out to solo visit several national parks at the beginning

She talks a lot about kind of the difference between men and women taking these kind of let me go find myself in the outdoors kinds of trips and kind of how they are seen different culturally.

And also her family had like very pointed feedback, like you’re a woman, you’re going to get murdered. And so she’s like, I don’t think so, but thanks for your input. Yeah. So she goes, I don’t think she goes to all of the parks, but she goes to a lot of them and really kind of talks about that, that let me go find myself mentality and how that has manifested itself in our culture.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (09:43)
I hope not.

Okay.

Erin (10:00)
differently for men and women. She talks about kind of, I guess I want to say the ethics of visiting national parks and kind of explores how some of them are overcrowded, but then there’s other ones that don’t get visited as much and kind of what that means and how that impacts ⁓ the local kind of area and people and how that impacts the national park itself.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (10:12)
Mm-hmm.

Erin (10:24)
she had a lot of good hiking stories in this book, I feel like. ⁓ I always remember she talks about running into the same people on the trails because she would go to one national park and hike and meet some people and go to the next one and see the same people because they were all doing the same circuit. So that’s another one that I really enjoyed about national parks and getting outside in the national parks too.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (10:40)
They all had the same

Erin (10:46)
And then let’s see, fiction. There’s one, I just finished this one and it is called Heartwood by Amity Gage. this is one like, if you have any anxiety about like going out hiking, maybe don’t read this one. Because it is about a woman who goes missing on the Appalachian Trail. So, ⁓ but it is, it’s very interesting. So,

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (11:02)
⁓ okay.

no, okay.

Erin (11:13)
you get three perspectives, this woman named Valerie who has gone missing and she is writing in her journal kind of about what happened to her, how she went missing. She’s and she’s kind of doing it in the format of a letter to her mother. And then there is the warden who is in charge of the search and trying to find her. And then there’s another woman named Lena who lives in a nursing home ⁓ miles away, but she kind of becomes

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (11:26)
Interesting, okay.

Erin (11:43)
through the internet like an amateur sleuth kind of deal, trying to find out what happened. it’s kind of a slower suspense, but it’s very interesting. And this takes place on the Appalachian Trail in Maine. And the descriptions, I’ve never been to Maine actually, and certainly not on the Appalachian Trail there, but the descriptions of the hiking trails there and the conditions and how different it is. mean, being from Alabama,

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (11:46)
Hmm,

Mm-mm.

Erin (12:10)
I’ve done a lot more hiking like in North Carolina and stuff and kind of Appalachian Trail adjacent kind of trails there and the descriptions of how different it is up north than it is in the more southern parts of the trail I thought was really interesting. It made me want to go see what the trails are like up there.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (12:17)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

guessing that the author, I mean, I don’t know if you know, but did the author actually hike in that area? I mean, to be so descriptive, I’m assuming they’ve hiked there.

Erin (12:37)
Yeah,

I think that she definitely did some research on the ground research up there.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (12:40)
Yeah,

I like the three different perspectives too. That’s kind of an interesting ⁓ approach.

Erin (12:45)
Yeah, it was. It was,

yeah, it was definitely an interesting story. I’ll give you another one that is another nonfiction. And this is called Walking One Step at a Time. And it’s by Erling Kagg. I think I’m saying that right. He is Norwegian. So this is a book in translation, but he is

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (12:49)
That sounds good.

Okay.

Okay.

Erin (13:12)
very much an outdoorsman and explorer. Like he has climbed Mount Everest and like hiked to the North Pole and stuff like that. Yeah, but he is definitely, but this is just a book. It’s a short book and it’s just about walking and getting outside and it’s about what it means to be out on a walking trail or a hiking trail and how kind of with a history of walking and humanity walking

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (13:19)
Wow. Some credits there.

Erin (13:42)
how walking makes us slow down and observe our lives and kind of get away from the rush of everyday life. And it just kind of, I feel like makes you look at your time outdoors a little differently and more thoughtfully. So that’s another one that I’ve really enjoyed.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (13:42)
Fascinating.

that kind of would speak to a lot of people, I think, for their reasoning to get out on the trail or just to be out in like a park somewhere. It doesn’t have to be like a fancy hike, right? Just walking around the park just to enjoy nature. ⁓

Erin (14:14)
Yeah, for sure. Because I think,

you know, this makes me think of, we’re talking about travel and books and how they go well together because I think that travel is accessible to you no matter what, because whether you are traveling on a big trip or you’re just traveling through a great book. And I think the same can be said for outdoors, whether you’re reading about it, you’re doing a big hike or I mean, just getting outside and going for a walk on your neighborhood trail or your local park is yeah.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (14:26)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Just getting outside. Yep. Yep.

Erin (14:43)
for sure. Yep.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (14:44)
It’s so important. It’s so important. It’s OK.

Erin (14:46)
got, okay, another book

that I have not read this one, But I actually, downloaded this book onto my iPad a couple days ago. It’s called A Walk in the Park, The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon.

by Kevin Fadarko. this one is on my list. I really want to read it soon. And it is about him and his buddy and they do like a giant hike in the Grand Canyon. And I think like they’re not very prepared. and it’s, know, yeah. But yes, for sure. But it ⁓ has gotten like fantastic reviews. I’ve heard it’s.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (15:18)
which isn’t the best, but leads to good stories.

Okay.

Erin (15:27)
It’s really good. And so I have downloaded that one recently.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (15:30)
I haven’t read anything about the Grand Canyon, so actually that one would be fun to read,

Erin (15:34)
Yeah, I’ve heard that audiobook is really good on that one too.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (15:37)
Okay,

well that’s good to know. That’s good to know. When I reached out to you about this, I was thinking, I haven’t read too many books about hiking, but I did remember reading, and I looked it up, because I wanted to share it with you to see if you’ve ever read it or not. It’s a young adult novel, but it’s called The Distance From Me To You, it’s about a young woman who, she’s…

pushing off college for a little bit and she’s gonna do the Appalachian Trail with, she was supposed to do it with her friend, but her friend backs out. So she ends up doing it by herself. She doesn’t tell her parents that she’s doing it by herself. And so she starts in Maine and makes her way down to Georgia in the book. ⁓ But it’s also like a romance, cause she meets a guy on the trail and like, you know, there’s some drama that ensues, but it was fun to read though, because again, it’s like, you know, you’re getting these descriptions of places.

Erin (16:08)
no.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (16:26)
Some of the places I had hiked, other places I hadn’t hiked yet, but it was nice. It was a good fiction read for hiking and easy to easy on. As a young adult, it’s easy to digest, you know, whatever, but it was still fun. So do you have any favorite books then?

Erin (16:38)
Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah, I’ll have to

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (16:47)
about the outdoors. mean, obviously the ones you just shared with us, I’m assuming are some of your favorites. Do you have any other ones that you didn’t share that you just love or those are the ones?

Erin (16:57)
No,

I’m gonna say The River by Peter Heller.

I love this book. It is a kind of a slow burn kind of suspense. I’m telling you about suspense books. I don’t read a ton of suspense, but I guess like there’s something about the outdoors and like something’s out there that could get you Yes. So this is a book about two boys who I think there it’s like

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (17:13)
Yeah, there’s always something about the outdoors and it brings up

Erin (17:22)
summer during college or they’re about to go to college or something and they go on a canoe trip up in the northeast and they’re very cut off from humanity that you know no self-service or anything like that and slowly kind of things start to feel some things are going on like they start to smell smoke and realize like I think there’s a wildfire nearby and then they meet another couple

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (17:45)
Hmm.

Erin (17:48)
kind of that are camping on the banks of the river that they’re canoeing and something weird is going on with them. Something seems off. ⁓ so they just are continuing down this journey, hoping to survive to the end as things start to go wrong. But it is ⁓ beautiful nature writing, ⁓ very, a beautiful story of friendship between these two boys.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (18:09)
Okay.

Erin (18:15)
I loved that aspect of it. And then, I mean, I’m not going to spoil it, but you get to the end and like, my gosh, like I read this years ago and I feel like I still like haven’t recovered from that ending. So it’s, it’s so good. It’s so good. It’s definitely a slow burn of a book. So don’t expect a true page turner, but it’s, it’s really good.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (18:27)
wow, okay, okay. I think you sold me on that one now. Okay.

Okay.

It’s

good, but if it stuck with you all these years, obviously it’s worth the read, definitely worth the read. Now, is there any ⁓ books that you’ve read about a destination that you haven’t been to yet, like, or maybe that destination wasn’t on your radar, but then you read a book about it and now you’re like, I need to go there. Did you ever have one of those moments?

Erin (18:42)
yeah, I loved it.

Ooh.

Well, I feel like, I mean, I want to go everywhere.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (19:03)
I know,

that’s the thing, right? I’m like, is there a place I haven’t thought of? I don’t know.

Erin (19:08)
I will say though, one

thing I love about reading is I love that I can also read about places that I cannot go to. yeah, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s a good example read, Endurance.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (19:15)
True, I’m like, I’ll never go into Antarctica. I’ll be happy to read about Antarctica. I’m never gonna be there.

yeah.

Erin (19:25)
about Shackleton’s voyage, that book is so good. It’s unbelievable. Yeah, if you wanna read a book about Antarctica, read that one, yeah. But like I just started a book called Endling, it’s by Maria Reva, and it’s about Ukraine. And so, I mean, that’s somewhere that I am sure I will never go, especially with the situation there now. And so, it’s so interesting to be able to read about places like that and get context for.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (19:30)
Mm-hmm. And yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Erin (19:53)
places that are not accessible to us and to help us understand them better. I’m really enjoying that book.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (19:57)
you said,

like you said earlier, you know, if you can’t travel, you can still travel through books.

Erin (20:03)
Yes, for sure, because when you can’t, you can be out there. I think reading about it is the next best thing.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (20:07)
No,

I agree, I agree. And that was one of the reasons I wanted to have you on here. I’ve been asking all of our guests this question. And since you are a hiker, I don’t know if you’ll find this difficult or not, but this is like my sendoff question. But if you could only do one kind of hike for the rest of your life, would you prefer to hike to waterfalls or would you prefer to hike to like a scenic view?

Erin (20:29)
scenic view for sure. I love getting to a scenic view and just being able to sit there and take it in.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (20:30)
Okay.

Mm

hmm. You feel so small. You’re just looking out over the vast, wherever you are and you just, yeah, I agree. Everyone looks like little ants if you see people. Sometimes where we are, if we’re up in the mountain and you can look down and you can see the town and you see like the train tracks or whatever and it looks like not even like a model train. It looks even smaller than that.

Erin (20:38)
Yes. Yes.

Yes, yeah, if you see people, that’s true.

yeah. Yeah, I love

getting up somewhere though where you can’t see anything. Like you can only see wilderness and you’re like, wow, this world is so big and there’s no sign of humanity out there. yeah.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (20:59)
Yeah. Yeah.

It’s so vast. Yeah, that is kind

of crazy when you when you have that. So if everyone wants your book recommendations and travel information, where can they find you?

Erin (21:15)
Yeah, so my blog is called Flying Off the Bookshelf and it’s the same Instagram, Flying Off the Bookshelf, Facebook. Those are, I would say…

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (21:24)
and you have lots of information

on there. I was having fun on your website earlier looking at all your book recommendations. I love the concept and I love the information and everything. So definitely visit her website if you need book ideas, And I’ll make sure that there’s a list of the books that you recommended. I’ll make sure that’s in, the show notes.

Erin (21:30)
well thanks.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (21:45)
Erin, thanks again so much for coming on here and sharing your recommendations with us. And I appreciate all your knowledge

Erin (21:52)
thanks so much for having me. This was fun.