Here quite some of the books and webs I have referenced in various posts and we have talked about in our long chatty outings.
This is a bit random mix of a list. For those avid readers looking for more things to read. Or for my buddies. Those with whom I spend hours chatting. So that I can easily reference them to this post. That way I can continue saying my number one sentence: “Everything (all my knowledge) is in the web!” 😄
Half of the book is not relevant for Hong Kong nor the activities we do (we don’t have big mountains here). But if this web didn’t exist (check preparations section 😉) and I’d want to recommend only one book to start with adventure outings this would be it. The basics of outdoor planning, map reading, navigation, safety, cross training, camping, Leave no trace, ropes, etc. All in more than 1600 pages. I read it relatively recently and it was really fun to find tons of things completely in line with what I had been writing about for years.
For the real mountains and geology of Hong Kong. Only on paper. If you have limited home space or you are not into buying physical books, this and quite some others are available in the public libraries. For a long while I was a regular visitor. I used to reserve and borrow books from all around the territory. These days I read mostly ebooks though. Mainly Kindle and other apps on me phone.
Another recommendation from Tyler. To know more of what we see while coasteering and swimming.
Stories of two decades of a marine police in HK. Starting from the 70s to the handover to China. Very entertaining book among others because I could imagine the locations. The smugglers chases in the Tolo Channel, the Vietnamese refugee camps in Soko Island, and quite some others.
The book that started the barefoot, minimalist running trend. Controversial science, but an interesting read. “Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness” by Scott Jurek to understand a bit more about how people get hooked on trail running and the long distance. “What I talk about when I talk about running” by Haruki Murakami. A mid-pack runner who is at the same time a great writer explaining the feelings created by running. For a while, I read tons of other books of him. Introduction to the very peculiar Japanese mindset.
Very old-looking book. I will try to add something a bit more modern. But you get the idea. Learning the basics. How to stretch and strengthen your body so that you can enjoy all kind of activities or just your daily life pain free. The cross training post in extended version.
Do you have friends who are super vocal vegans, keto, paleo, non-carb, carnivorous, or whatever? A book that explains the cult-like nature of some of these movements. One of the several books that made me more plant-based, but still “flexitarian” 😉
The start of the popularization of through-hiking in the USA. With hikers spending months hiking the Appalachian Trail and others.
Quite often in our long chats we talk about ecology and a better world. The feeling that I have quite often is that most of us are not aware of how complex the world is. The author above explains extremely thoroughly (get ready for really lengthy explanations) how certain parts of the world work: energy, food production, the four building pillars, risks… Explaining how “let’s get rid of plastic” or “we should all be eating organic products” is… not viable these days. He proposes ways to improve, but understanding really how things work. House of cards where we live in.
1984 & Brave New World are classics that explained a dystopian future that is getting closer to reality by the day. I really like to recommend this second one as not as extremely well known + short and easy to read. One of those books that I have re-read several times. On the opposite side of the spectrum “Atlas Shrugged” from Ayn Rand. Extremely tedious. A book that I’d suggest to my too left-leaning friends if it were 200 pages instead of the almost 1200… One of those bedside books of the pro-capitalists.
Sapiens made Yuval Noah Harari one of the most well-known historians. His two next books became instant best sellers too. Controversial in his scientific approach & some of his conclusions. A fun read anyhow. How humans thrived by flexibly cooperating in large numbers. But also how we live and fight for imagined realities, constructs that are not “real”: money, countries, religions…
Guns, Germs, and Steel and “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins marked me more significantly. Maybe because I read them long before, in the early 2000s. Understanding the very basics of how the civilizations and our own bodies survived & evolved throughout centuries.
Similar to Malcolm Gladwell. His books were my fun easy re-introduction (after my formal education) to psychology. The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, David & Goliath. Easy reads that pushed me to read more complex and rigorous psychology books. What I used to jokingly call the “people’s manuals”. Allowing you to understand more how people, one by one and in crowds, behave. If you read Spanish, I loved Eduard Punset‘s work. Similar to the previous, but more interesting “El viaje a” three-book series. A pity that most of his books are not translated into English.
Even earlier I read this book trying to understand my super local friends and my first romantic relationship here. It helped me start realizing how several of my deepest values and my understanding of the world were not universal. How two people, even considering themselves, at least, agnostic, could be defined by their ancestors’ beliefs. Christian with an A to B mindset (you need to work hard to get to your goals, heaven for the religious). Vs the need to flow with the surrounding, don’t antagonize, in small improvement cycles (with Buddhist rebirths & Confucian values). A lot more, purposely, controversial “Can Asians think?” by Kishore Mahbubani. Is Western civilization universal? Does the West promote human rights for altruistic reasons? Not the best book but I was just trying to challenge further my values to understand better where I live. Kinda how I used to watch Fox when I lived in the US. To try to listen to people with beliefs that were completely foreign to me.
Kissinger was far from neutral in his views but in this book he tried to be more descriptive. In these 600 pages “briefly” introduced old Chinese history (initial 200 pages) before describing extensively all the main episodes of the XX century. He was heavily involved, as part of several of the US administrations in those times. “When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order” by Martin Jacques. Written in 2009 but still an interesting read for those new to the region. Showing why the Europe-USA modernity was not the only possible option and how the world could change in the following decades.
On pure fiction too many I could recommend. Long years ago I started reading all the classics in English, to improve my command of the language. I liked almost all from Jules Verne, “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “The three Musketeers” from Dumas, “Anna Karenina” from Tolstoy, “To Kill a Mockingbird” from Harper Lee, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, “The Romance of Lust“, etc. If reading old books like Miguel de Cervantes’s “Don Quixote” or Journey to the West, beware of what edition you read. I tried the original Spanish version of the former and the most literal translation of the latter. Tough reads. I would suggest simplified versions instead.
But each one has their preferences. To give you an example. In a trip to Laos I brought “The Alchemist” from Paulo Coelho. I read it in two days on the slow boat on the Mekong River. In Luang Prabang, I swapped to “The karaoke world of Cortous Haire” by Bjorn Turmann. I almost do not remember anything about the first book, but I have great memories of the latter. Nothing but an easy read that I really liked. Because of the expat life that I never experienced but I had heard of from the old timers here and how the main character approaches everything new he finds in South East Asia.
Sci-fi. Several from Asimov. The The Three-Body Problem. The Broken Earth series from N.K. Jemisin.
I could not have ended up with the first version of this list without recommending a book from a good friend in Hong Kong. Anduirnaëch: Rage of the Forest by Gonzalo Rohmer Zamm. Epic fiction Lord of the Rings style. I read the 800 pages in Spanish in no time. Now also available in English.
Webs
www.hkadventurer.com was one of the first websites I found searching for information about waterfalls and others. HK old-timers who started to write in English about their outings in 1997. It was difficult to find locations in. It seems it is down sometimes. In archive.com you can find quite some information still, if that happens.
Colin also had his own web: scrambling.hk But it was hacked a long time ago and since it’s down. A pity that the information saved is really small in the Time Machine.
While searching for more information pre or post-checking new streams I have frequently found posts from wildconqueror.com. In Chinese, but nowadays relatively easier to understand with Google Translator and others. Teenagers who explored the streams all over Hong Kong. Now, 20+ years later, parents who bring their kids to those. I have met a few of them randomly.
Sankala is another good information source. Their difficulty ratings are very consistent and they have checked tons of streams too. No maps though.
Gohikinghk with maps. A few coastal walks, streams, and tons of dry hiking.
x00 streams 😆 He started, if I recall correctly, calling the web 300 mountain streams. Then he increased to 600 and now he is trying to document 900. All over Hong Kong. Some tiny creeks. The information per post varies a lot and I use it little. Less useful than the previous three.
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