The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time
National Geographic's Extreme Classics: The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time. National Geographic's Adventure magazine was published between 1999 and 2010. This list was released in 2004.
- 1
The Worst Journey in the World
Apsley Cherry-Garrard · 1922 · 2 lists
- 2
Journals
Meriwether Lewis, William Clark · 2013 · 2 lists
- 3
Wind, Sand and Stars
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry · 2004 · 1 list
- 4
The Exploration of the Colorado River
John Wesley Powell · 1961 · 1 list
- 5
Arabian Sands
Wilfred Thesiger · 1959 · 1 list
- 6
Annapurna
Maurice Herzog · 1951 · 1 list
- 7
Desert Solitaire
Edward Abbey · 1968 · 2 lists
- 8
West With the Night
Beryl Markham · 1942 · 2 lists
- 9
Into Thin Air
Jon Krakauer · 1996 · 1 list
- 10
The Travels of Marco Polo
Marco Polo · 1818 · 1 list
- 11
Farthest North
Fridtjof Nansen · 1897 · 1 list
- 12
The Snow Leopard
Peter Matthiessen · 1978 · 1 list
- 13
Roughing It
Mark Twain · 1872 · 1 list
- 14
Two Years Before the Mast
Richard Henry Dana · 1000 · 1 list
- 15
South
Ernest Shackleton · 1919 · 1 list
- 16
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush
Eric Newby · 1958 · 1 list
- 17
The Kon-Tiki Expedition
Thor Heyerdahl · 1950 · 2 lists
- 18
Travels in West Africa
Mary Kingsley · 1897 · 1 list
- 19
The Spirit of St. Louis
Charles Lindbergh · 1953 · 2 lists
- 20
Seven Years in Tibet
Heinrich Harrer · 1952 · 1 list
- 21
Journals (Cook)
James Cook · 1893 · 1 list
- 22
The Home Of The Blizzard
Douglas Mawson · 1914 · 1 list
- 23
The Voyage of the Beagle
Charles Darwin · 1839 · 2 lists
- 24
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
T. E. Lawrence · 1996 · 3 lists
- 25
Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa
Mungo Park · 1799 · 1 list
- 26
The Right Stuff
Tom Wolfe · 1979 · 5 lists
- 27
Sailing Alone around the World
Joshua Slocum · 1900 · 2 lists
- 28
The Mountain of My Fear
David Roberts · 1968 · 1 list
- 29
Deborah
David Roberts · 1970 · 1 list
- 30
First Footsteps in East Africa
Richard Burton · 1856 · 1 list
- 31
The Perfect Storm
Sebastian Junger · 1997 · 1 list
- 32
The Oregon Trail
Francis Parkman · 1978 · 1 list
- 33
Through the Dark Continent
Henry M. Stanley · 1878 · 1 list
- 34
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains
Isabella L. Bird · 1879 · 1 list
- 35
In the Land of White Death
Valerian Albanov · 2001 · 1 list
- 36
Endurance
Frank A. Worsley · 1931 · 1 list
- 37
Scrambles Amongst the Alps
Edward Whymper · 1869 · 1 list
- 38
Out of Africa
Isak Dinesen · 1937 · 5 lists
- 39
Scott's Last Expedition
Apsley Cherry-Garrard · 1922 · 1 list
- 40
Everest
Thomas Hornbein · 1965 · 1 list
- 41
Journey Without Maps
Graham Greene · 1936 · 1 list
- 42
Starlight and Storm
Gaston Rébuffat · 1957 · 1 list
- 43
My First Summer in the Sierra
John Muir · 1998 · 2 lists
- 44
In Trouble Again
Redmond O'Hanlon · 1988 · 1 list
- 45
The Man Who Walked Through Time
Colin Fletcher · 1968 · 1 list
- 46
K2 the Savage Mountain
Charles S. Houston · 1979 · 1 list
- 47
Gipsy Moth Circles the World
Francis Chichester · 1800 · 1 list
- 48
Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Jim Corbett · 1945 · 1 list
- 49
Alone
Richard Byrd · 1938 · 1 list
- 50
Stranger in the Forest
Eric Hansen · 1988 · 1 list
- 51
Travels in Arabia Deserta
Charles M. Doughty · 1888 · 1 list
- 52
The Royal Road to Romance
Richard Halliburton · 1925 · 1 list
- 53
The Long Walk
Richard Bachman · 1979 · 1 list
- 54
Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada
Clarence King · 1872 · 1 list
- 55
My Journey to Lhasa
Alexandra David-Néel · 2023 · 1 list
- 56
- 57
Running the Amazon
Joe Kane · 1989 · 1 list
- 58
Alive
Piers Paul Read · 1920 · 1 list
- 59
The Principal Navigations
Richard Hakluyt · 2006 · 1 list
- 60
Incidents of Travel in Yucatan
James Stephens · 2025 · 1 list
- 61
Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex
Owen Chase · 1999 · 1 list
- 62
Life in the Far West
George Frederick Ruxton · 1849 · 1 list
- 63
My Life as an Explorer
Roald Amundsen · 2008 · 1 list
- 64
News from Tartary
Peter Fleming · 1936 · 1 list
- 65
Annapurna
Arlene Blum · 1980 · 1 list
- 66
Mutiny on the Bounty
William Bligh · 1962 · 1 list
- 67
Adrift
Steven Callahan · 1920 · 1 list
- 68
Castaways
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca · 1993 · 1 list
- 69
Touching the Void
Joe Simpson · 1988 · 1 list
- 70
Tracks
Louise Erdrich · 1988 · 1 list
- 71
The Adventures of Captain Bonneville
Washington Irving · 1800 · 1 list
- 72
Cooper's Creek
Alan Moorehead · 1963 · 1 list
- 73
The Fearful Void
Geoffrey Moorhouse · 1974 · 1 list
- 74
No Picnic on Mount Kenya
Felice Benuzzi · 1952 · 1 list
- 75
Through the Brazilian Wilderness
Theodore Roosevelt · 1914 · 1 list
- 76
The Road to Oxiana
Robert Byron · 1937 · 1 list
- 77
Minus 148
Art Davidson · 1 list
- 78
- 79
Jaguars Ripped My Flesh
Tim Cahill · 1987 · 1 list
- 80
Journal of a Trapper
Osborne Russell · 1914 · 1 list
- 81
Full Tilt
Dervla Murphy · 1965 · 1 list
- 82
Terra Incognita
Vladimir Nabokov · 1990 · 1 list
- 83
We Die Alone
David Howarth · 1955 · 1 list
- 84
Kabloona
Gontran de Poncins · 1941 · 1 list
- 85
Conquistadors of the Useless
Lionel Terray · 1963 · 1 list
- 86
Carrying the Fire
Michael Collins · 1975 · 1 list
- 87
Adventures in the Wilderness
William H. H. Murray · 1869 · 1 list
- 88
The Mountains of My Life
Walter Bonatti · 1995 · 1 list
- 89
Great Heart
James West Davidson, John Rugge · 2006 · 2 lists
- 90
Journal of the Voyage to the Pacific
Alexander Mackenzie · 1995 · 1 list
- 91
The Valleys of the Assassins
Freya Stark · 1978 · 1 list
- 92
The Silent World
Jacques-Yves Cousteau · 1953 · 1 list
- 93
Alaska Wilderness
Robert Marshall · 1970 · 1 list
- 94
Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians
George Catlin · 1841 · 1 list
- 95
I Married Adventure
Osa Johnson · 1940 · 1 list
- 96
The Descent of Pierre Saint-Martin
Norbert Casteret · 1955 · 1 list
- 97
The Crystal Horizon
Reinhold Messner · 1989 · 1 list
- 98
Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River
John Kirk Townsend · 1905 · 1 list
- 99
Grizzly Years
Doug Peacock · 1990 · 1 list
- 100
One Man's Mountains
Tom Patey · 1971 · 1 list
