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
14347 Ship Fever and Other Stories Andrea Barrett 1996 American English
14362 Water Music T. C. Boyle 1982 American English
14496 Blue Blood Being Ni Kuang 1985 Chinese Chinese
14497 The Lure Of The Gangdise Mountains Ma Yuan 1985 Chinese Unknown
14598 Passage To Juneau Jonathan Raban 1999 British English
14679 Thing Explainer Randall Munroe 2015 American English
14764 Curious George H. A. Rey 1941 American English
14787 Two Planets Kurd Laßwitz 1897 German German
14815 The Big Sky A. B. Guthrie 1947 American English
14848 The Complete Adventures Of Curious George H. A. Rey 1969 American English
14857 Alone Richard Byrd 1938 American English
14856 Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1863 British English
14896 Great River Paul Horgan 1954 American English
14925 White Shadows In The South Seas Frederick O'Brien 1919 American English
14935 The City And The Stars Arthur C. Clarke 1956 British English
14983 Cooper's Creek Alan Moorehead 1963 Australian English
14983 Carrying the Fire Michael Collins 1974 American English
14983 The Rifles William T. Vollmann 1994 American English
14983 The Baroque Cycle Neal Stephenson 2003 American English
14983 Take Back Plenty Colin Greenland 1990 British English
14983 The Luminous Dead Caitlin Starling 2019 American English
14983 Short Nights Of The Shadow Catcher Timothy Egan 2012 American English
14983 Orbitsville Bob Shaw 1975 British English
14983 Foundation And Earth Isaac Asimov 1986 American English
14983 The Long Earth Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter 2012 British English
14983 The Collector Of Worlds Iliya Troyanov 2006 German German
14983 Press Here Herve Tullet 2010 French French
14983 The Wager David Grann 2023 American English
15579 The Alien Realm Bo Yang 1996 Chinese Unknown
15626 Messer Marco Polo Donn Byrne 1921 American English
15631 Beasts, Men And Gods Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski 1922 Polish Polish
15644 The Covered Wagon Emerson Hough 1922 American English
15718 The Exploration of the Colorado River John Wesley Powell 1875 American English
15726 Infortunios De Alonso Ramirez / The Misfortunes Of Alonso Ramirez José F. Buscaglia-Salgado, Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora 1690 Mexican Spanish
15741 South Ernest Shackleton 1919 British English
15752 Travels in West Africa Mary Kingsley 1897 British English
15829 First Footsteps in East Africa Richard Burton 1856 British English
15849 Through the Dark Continent Henry M. Stanley 1878 British English
15863 In the Land of White Death Valerian Albanov 1917 Russian Russian
15872 Endurance F. A. Worsley 1931 British English
15881 Scrambles Amongst the Alps Edward Whymper 1871 British English
16483 Scott's Last Expedition Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922 British English
16492 Journey Without Maps Graham Greene 1936 British English
15897 Atlas Gerardus Mercator 1595 Belgian Latin
15897 The Hunting of the Snark Lewis Carroll 1876 British English
15897 Diving Into The Wreck Adrienne Rich 1973 American English
15897 Enterprise Stardust K. H. Scheer 1961 German German
15897 Little Fur Family Margaret Wise Brown 1946 American English
15897 The Wilder Shores Of Love Lesley Blanch 1954 British English
15897 Brazilian Adventure Peter Fleming 1933 British English
15897 The Sea And The Jungle H. M. Tomlinson 1912 British English
15897 The Fur Trade In Canada Harold A. Innis 1930 Canadian English
15897 The Confessions Of A Beachcomber E J Banfield 1908 Australian English
15897 Australia Twice Traversed Ernest Giles 1889 Australian English
15897 Two Expeditions Into The Interior Of Southern Australia, 1828 31 Charles Sturt 1833 Australian English
15897 10,000 Light Years From Home James Tiptree Jr. 1973 American English
15897 Roanoke Hundred Inglis Fletcher 1948 American English
15897 Northwest Passage Kenneth Roberts 1937 American English
15897 Lively Lady Kenneth Roberts 1931 American English
15897 The Cruise Of The Snark Jack London 1911 American English
15897 A Rose For Winter Laurie Lee 1955 British English
15897 La Salle And The Discovery Of The Great West Francis Parkman 1869 American English
15897 Tschiffely's Ride A. F. Tschiffely 1933 British English
16514 My Life as an Explorer Sven Hedin 1925 Swedish Swedish
16559 K2 The Savage Mountain Charles Houston, Robert Bates 1954 American English
16584 Profiles Of The Future Arthur C. Clarke 1962 British English
16599 The Royal Road to Romance Richard Halliburton 1925 American English
16636 Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada Clarence King 1872 American English
16684 The Principal Navigations Richard Hakluyt 1589 British English
16695 Incidents of Travel in Yucatan James Stephens 1843 American English
16717 Life in the Far West George Frederick Ruxton 1849 British English
16724 My Life As an Explorer (Amundsen) Roald Amundsen 1927 Norwegian Norwegian
16743 Mutiny on the Bounty William Bligh 1932 British English
16674 Orphans Of The Sky Robert A. Heinlein 1941 American English
16612 The Time Traders Andre Norton 1958 American English
17117 The Course of Empire Bernard A. DeVoto 1952 American English
17117 English Passengers Matthew Kneale 2000 British English
17117 Across the Wide Missouri Bernard A. DeVoto 1947 American English
17117 Everest Thomas Hornbein 1965 American English
17117 In Trouble Again Redmond O'Hanlon 1988 British English
17117 Stranger in the Forest Eric Hansen 1988 American English
17117 Running the Amazon Joe Kane 1989 American English
16793 Castaways Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca 1542 Spanish Spanish
16813 The Adventures of Captain Bonneville Washington Irving 1837 American English
17117 The Fearful Void Geoffrey Moorhouse 1974 British English
16848 Through the Brazilian Wilderness Theodore Roosevelt 1914 American English
17117 Jaguars Ripped My Flesh Tim Cahill 1987 American English
16901 Journal of a Trapper Osborne Russell 1921 American English
17117 Terra Incognita Sara Wheeler 1996 British English
17117 Conquistadors of the Useless Lionel Terray 1961 French French
17117 The Mountains of My Life Walter Bonatti 1998 Italian Italian
17006 Journal of the Voyage to the Pacific Alexander Mackenzie 1801 Canadian English
17117 Alaska Wilderness Robert Marshall 1956 American English
17053 I Married Adventure Osa Johnson 1940 American English
17066 The Descent of Pierre Saint-Martin Norbert Casteret 1952 French French
17117 The Crystal Horizon Reinhold Messner 1989 Italian German
17078 Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River John Kirk Townsend 1839 American English
17117 Exploration and Empire William H. Goetzmann 1966 American English
17117 Genoa Paul C. Metcalf 1965 American English
17117 Titan John Varley 1979 American English
17117 The Integral Trees Larry Niven 1984 American English
17117 Boneshaker Cherie Priest 2009 American English
17117 A Woman of the Iron People Eleanor Arnason 1991 American English
17117 Dreaming In Smoke Tricia Sullivan 1999 British English
17117 Nova Swing M. John Harrison 2006 British English
17117 Slow Water Annamarie Jagose 2003 New Zealander English
17117 The Songs Of Distant Earth Arthur C. Clarke 1986 British English
16824 From The Earth To The Moon Jules Verne 1865 French French
16850 The Gods Of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs 1913 American English
17117 Dragon's Egg Robert L. Forward 1980 American English
17117 Mapping The Deep Robert Kunzig 2000 American English
17117 Soldier Of Sidon Gene Wolfe 2006 American English
17117 The Birth Of The People's Republic Of Antarctica John Calvin Batchelor 1983 American English
17117 Adventures Of A Young Naturalist Sir David Attenborough 2017 British English
17117 The Chronicles Of Pern Anne McCaffrey 1993 Irish English
17117 Commander Perkins H. G. Francis 1978 German German
17117 Midworld Alan Dean Foster 1975 American English
17117 The Last Day Of Creation Wolfgang Jeschke 1981 German German
17117 Shards Of Earth Adrian Tchaikovsky 2021 British English
17117 The Ragged Astronauts Bob Shaw 1986 British English