Reading Adventure

• Highly recommended for virtually everything: Bill Bryson: A short history of nearly everything. Get to know why there are mountains after all, and how we learned to walk upright in order to climb them..... Once you have clicked on the link, don't forget to come back here.

• Ever got enticed by the weird pictures of Escher, the music of Bach, or the twisted logic of mathematical paradoxes? Ever wanted to understand Goedel's Incompleteness Theorem? GEB (Douglas R. Hofstadter: Goedel, Escher, Bach) is a profound and entertaining meditation on human thought and creativity, and will keep you busy for months when stranded on an island.

• Do you know why the toast always falls on the buttered side? Even if you know, there are about 25 other mysteries of the daily life, that all have a real explanation. Check out Jay Ingram: The Velocity of Honey, and become wiser than before.

• Mechanical worlds - in nature and human engineering. Steven Vogel's: Cat's Paws and Catapults is an eye-opener, and explains why many things are as they are.

• And here another curiosity: Schott's Original Miscellany. Useless knowledge? Perhaps. But impossible to put down.

The Armchair and Real-World Traveler

• The Appalachian Trail is literally in the way of any serious hiker in the eastern part of the USA. You can buy a guide book, or read Bill Bryson: A walk in the woods. And decide whether you are still up for the hike.

• Appropriate reading when attempting to climb Mt. Mulanje is Lauren van der Posts's: Venture to the Interior. Only available second hand through the internet (Barnes and Nobles, Amazon). Once you are done with this - or even without - Flamingo Feather by the same author is more gripping.

• f you thought the Ruwenzoris are something to know about: - Literature is very scarce. The best book perhaps is from Guy Yeoman: Africa's Mountains of the Moon, and can be had second hand through book dealers (Barnes and Nobles, Amazon)