The Greatest Books of All Time on Exploration

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
14348 Ship Fever and Other Stories Andrea Barrett 1996 American English
14363 Water Music T. C. Boyle 1982 American English
14497 Blue Blood Being Ni Kuang 1985 Chinese Chinese
14498 The Lure Of The Gangdise Mountains Ma Yuan 1985 Chinese Unknown
14599 Passage To Juneau Jonathan Raban 1999 British English
14680 Thing Explainer Randall Munroe 2015 American English
14764 Curious George H. A. Rey 1941 American English
14788 Two Planets Kurd Laßwitz 1897 German German
14816 The Big Sky A. B. Guthrie 1947 American English
14832 The Complete Adventures Of Curious George H. A. Rey 1969 American English
14858 Alone Richard Byrd 1938 American English
14859 Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1863 British English
14899 Great River Paul Horgan 1954 American English
14928 White Shadows In The South Seas Frederick O'Brien 1919 American English
14939 The City And The Stars Arthur C. Clarke 1956 British English
14985 Cooper's Creek Alan Moorehead 1963 Australian English
14985 Carrying the Fire Michael Collins 1974 American English
14985 The Rifles William T. Vollmann 1994 American English
14985 The Baroque Cycle Neal Stephenson 2003 American English
14985 Take Back Plenty Colin Greenland 1990 British English
14985 The Luminous Dead Caitlin Starling 2019 American English
14985 The Songs Of Distant Earth Arthur C. Clarke 1986 British English
14985 Short Nights Of The Shadow Catcher Timothy Egan 2012 American English
14985 Orbitsville Bob Shaw 1975 British English
14985 Foundation And Earth Isaac Asimov 1986 American English
14985 The Long Earth Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter 2012 British English
14985 The Collector Of Worlds Iliya Troyanov 2006 German German
14985 Press Here Herve Tullet 2010 French French
14985 The Wager David Grann 2023 American English
15587 The Alien Realm Bo Yang 1996 Chinese Unknown
15634 Messer Marco Polo Donn Byrne 1921 American English
15639 Beasts, Men And Gods Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski 1922 Polish Polish
15652 The Covered Wagon Emerson Hough 1922 American English
15726 The Exploration of the Colorado River John Wesley Powell 1875 American English
15734 Infortunios De Alonso Ramirez / The Misfortunes Of Alonso Ramirez José F. Buscaglia-Salgado, Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora 1690 Mexican Spanish
15752 South Ernest Shackleton 1919 British English
15760 Travels in West Africa Mary Kingsley 1897 British English
15843 First Footsteps in East Africa Richard Burton 1856 British English
15862 Through the Dark Continent Henry M. Stanley 1878 British English
15881 In the Land of White Death Valerian Albanov 1917 Russian Russian
15888 Endurance F. A. Worsley 1931 British English
15900 Scrambles Amongst the Alps Edward Whymper 1871 British English
16501 Scott's Last Expedition Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922 British English
16511 Journey Without Maps Graham Greene 1936 British English
15916 Atlas Gerardus Mercator 1595 Belgian Latin
15916 The Hunting of the Snark Lewis Carroll 1876 British English
15916 Diving Into The Wreck Adrienne Rich 1973 American English
15916 Enterprise Stardust K. H. Scheer 1961 German German
15916 Little Fur Family Margaret Wise Brown 1946 American English
15916 The Wilder Shores Of Love Lesley Blanch 1954 British English
15916 Brazilian Adventure Peter Fleming 1933 British English
15916 The Sea And The Jungle H. M. Tomlinson 1912 British English
15916 The Fur Trade In Canada Harold A. Innis 1930 Canadian English
15916 The Confessions Of A Beachcomber E J Banfield 1908 Australian English
15916 Australia Twice Traversed Ernest Giles 1889 Australian English
15916 Two Expeditions Into The Interior Of Southern Australia, 1828 31 Charles Sturt 1833 Australian English
15916 10,000 Light Years From Home James Tiptree Jr. 1973 American English
15916 Roanoke Hundred Inglis Fletcher 1948 American English
15916 Northwest Passage Kenneth Roberts 1937 American English
15916 Lively Lady Kenneth Roberts 1931 American English
15916 The Cruise Of The Snark Jack London 1911 American English
15916 A Rose For Winter Laurie Lee 1955 British English
15916 La Salle And The Discovery Of The Great West Francis Parkman 1869 American English
15916 Tschiffely's Ride A. F. Tschiffely 1933 British English
16536 My Life as an Explorer Sven Hedin 1925 Swedish Swedish
16585 K2 The Savage Mountain Charles Houston, Robert Bates 1954 American English
16615 Profiles Of The Future Arthur C. Clarke 1962 British English
16635 The Royal Road to Romance Richard Halliburton 1925 American English
16671 Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada Clarence King 1872 American English
16724 The Principal Navigations Richard Hakluyt 1589 British English
16731 Incidents of Travel in Yucatan James Stephens 1843 American English
16754 Life in the Far West George Frederick Ruxton 1849 British English
16766 My Life As an Explorer (Amundsen) Roald Amundsen 1927 Norwegian Norwegian
16785 Mutiny on the Bounty William Bligh 1932 British English
16714 Orphans Of The Sky Robert A. Heinlein 1941 American English
16646 The Time Traders Andre Norton 1958 American English
17162 The Course of Empire Bernard A. DeVoto 1952 American English
17162 English Passengers Matthew Kneale 2000 British English
17162 Across the Wide Missouri Bernard A. DeVoto 1947 American English
17162 Everest Thomas Hornbein 1965 American English
17162 In Trouble Again Redmond O'Hanlon 1988 British English
17162 Stranger in the Forest Eric Hansen 1988 American English
17162 Running the Amazon Joe Kane 1989 American English
16837 Castaways Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca 1542 Spanish Spanish
16854 The Adventures of Captain Bonneville Washington Irving 1837 American English
17162 The Fearful Void Geoffrey Moorhouse 1974 British English
16891 Through the Brazilian Wilderness Theodore Roosevelt 1914 American English
17162 Jaguars Ripped My Flesh Tim Cahill 1987 American English
16943 Journal of a Trapper Osborne Russell 1921 American English
17162 Terra Incognita Sara Wheeler 1996 British English
17162 Conquistadors of the Useless Lionel Terray 1961 French French
17162 The Mountains of My Life Walter Bonatti 1998 Italian Italian
17047 Journal of the Voyage to the Pacific Alexander Mackenzie 1801 Canadian English
17162 Alaska Wilderness Robert Marshall 1956 American English
17098 I Married Adventure Osa Johnson 1940 American English
17112 The Descent of Pierre Saint-Martin Norbert Casteret 1952 French French
17162 The Crystal Horizon Reinhold Messner 1989 Italian German
17130 Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River John Kirk Townsend 1839 American English
17162 Exploration and Empire William H. Goetzmann 1966 American English
17162 Genoa Paul C. Metcalf 1965 American English
17162 Titan John Varley 1979 American English
17162 The Integral Trees Larry Niven 1984 American English
17162 Boneshaker Cherie Priest 2009 American English
17162 A Woman of the Iron People Eleanor Arnason 1991 American English
17162 Dreaming In Smoke Tricia Sullivan 1999 British English
17162 Nova Swing M. John Harrison 2006 British English
17162 Slow Water Annamarie Jagose 2003 New Zealander English
16867 From The Earth To The Moon Jules Verne 1865 French French
16893 The Gods Of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs 1913 American English
17162 Dragon's Egg Robert L. Forward 1980 American English
17162 Mapping The Deep Robert Kunzig 2000 American English
17162 Soldier Of Sidon Gene Wolfe 2006 American English
17162 The Birth Of The People's Republic Of Antarctica John Calvin Batchelor 1983 American English
17162 Adventures Of A Young Naturalist Sir David Attenborough 2017 British English
17162 The Chronicles Of Pern Anne McCaffrey 1993 Irish English
17162 Commander Perkins H. G. Francis 1978 German German
17162 Midworld Alan Dean Foster 1975 American English
17162 The Last Day Of Creation Wolfgang Jeschke 1981 German German
17162 Shards Of Earth Adrian Tchaikovsky 2021 British English
17162 The Ragged Astronauts Bob Shaw 1986 British English