7 Books Like Wild: Hiking Memoirs and True Stories Worth Reading Next

Finish a book like Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, and the next question is fairly obvious. What should you read now?

There are plenty of hiking books to choose from. Finding one that offers the particular thing you liked about Wild takes a little more sorting. Perhaps you want another woman finding her footing in the Sierra. Perhaps you want the ridiculous things that happen when ordinary people decide to walk an unreasonable distance. Or perhaps you would rather follow somebody who has been doing this for decades and still hasn’t figured everything out.

My wife Jill and I thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2015. That experience is part of why this corner of the bookshelf interests me. Wild was the initial spark that inspired our journey. Having published our own trail journal about our thru-hike, I now know that a long walk gives a writer plenty of material, but the mileage alone doesn’t make the story.

For this list, we picked the books most relevant to readers looking for their next Wild story — a true tale filled with adventure, drama, and heart. You’ll find five main recommendations followed by two additional true stories. Some are memoirs. Others are biographies or reported nonfiction, and we’ve identified those differences below.

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The Five Best Books Like Wild

These picks cover different reasons for loving a hiking book. Our order reflects the reading experience each offers, rather than simply reproducing Amazon's sales order.

Kevin Fedarko and photographer Pete McBride set out to traverse the Grand Canyon from end to end. The undertaking stretches across roughly 750 miles and more than a year. There isn't a convenient continuous trail waiting to guide them through it.

That last detail seems like the sort of thing you would want to think about quite a bit before leaving home.

The appeal here goes beyond the difficulty of the route. Fedarko places the journey alongside his relationship with his father, the canyon's Indigenous communities, and the pressures of commercial development. There is room for more than the two men carrying the backpacks.

That makes this our overall pick for readers coming from Wild: a demanding walk with personal consequences, set in a place that deserves attention in its own right.

Choose it for an expansive adventure. If you mainly want the close, solitary perspective of Strayed's memoir, start with another pick below.

Joan, Cappy, and Jane head into the Sierra for a roughly 200-mile journey on the John Muir Trail. Over twenty-seven days, they encounter mountain weather, difficult crossings, their own doubts, and other hikers who become part of the trip.

For someone who came away from Wild wanting more granite, more mountain passes, and more women making their way through it all, this is the most direct fit on our shortlist.

The shared experience is the important distinction. Traveling with friends means bringing their decisions and difficulties along with your own. Somebody else's rough morning can become everybody's rough morning. The people beside you can also be the reason you keep going.

That gives Force of Nature a useful place on this list. Its adventure belongs to women who have already lived a fair amount of life, and who still have good reasons to take on something difficult.

Choose it for the Sierra setting and the companionship. For a broader selection of stories from the same mountain range, see our Pacific Crest Trail books guide.

In 1955, sixty-seven-year-old Emma Gatewood became the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail alone. She wore simple shoes, carried very little, and attracted a level of attention that helped bring the trail to a much wider audience.

An entire modern outdoor industry exists to convince us that we're one more purchase away from being ready for a walk. Gatewood makes an interesting person to consider while browsing it.

Ben Montgomery builds her biography from journals, letters, interviews, and historical reporting. The result places the famous hike within a much larger life, including years of hardship before she became known as Grandma Gatewood.

That is the connection to Wild worth looking for here. The trail has a beginning on a map, but the person arriving at that beginning already has a history.

Choose this book if you're interested in who gets to have an adventure, and what it can take to finally go. Just remember that Montgomery is telling Gatewood's story. The narrative perspective differs from Strayed telling her own.

Bill Bryson returns to the United States after years in Britain and decides to get reacquainted with the country by walking the Appalachian Trail. His friend Stephen Katz comes along, adding another person's enthusiasm and questionable preparation to the project.

It's a promising arrangement if you're a reader. Perhaps less so if you're responsible for getting the two of them to the next campsite.

Bryson mixes the walking with natural history, observations about the people he encounters, and concern for the trail itself. The humor is the main reason to choose this one after Wild. A difficult trip can contain moments of profound reflection and moments when your companion is being an absolute pain. Both belong in a hiking story.

Keep your expectations straight about the journey: Bryson doesn't complete the entire AT in this book. Readers looking for a continuous account of every mile should look elsewhere.

For a funny travel memoir that takes a wider interest in its surroundings, though, it belongs on the shortlist.

Scott Jurek goes to the Appalachian Trail in 2015 with a very specific objective: break its speed record. His journey lasts forty-six days and requires him to cover nearly fifty miles a day for much of it.

That's an exhausting sentence to type. Living it is another matter entirely.

Jurek arrives with an accomplished ultrarunning career behind him. The attraction for readers of Wild is seeing what happens when even an experienced person commits to a challenge that strips away familiar comforts. Preparation doesn't eliminate the possibility of finding yourself in a very difficult place.

Jenny, friends, and other supporters are part of that effort. Their presence also makes this a useful contrast to the idea of a completely solitary wilderness undertaking.

Choose North if determination, fatigue, and the consequences of a huge personal goal are what keep you turning pages. For a more leisurely account of camp life and wandering, another book will suit you better.

Two More True Stories Worth Reading

How to Choose Your Next Hiking Book

There isn't one ingredient that makes every reader love Wild. Choose your next book according to the part you want more of.

Start with the people. Choose Force of Nature for women sharing a mountain adventure, Grandma Gatewood's Walk for a life that challenges expectations, or A Walk in the Woods for troublesome companionship and humor.

Then consider the landscape. The John Muir Trail keeps you in the Sierra. A Walk in the Park takes you deep into the Grand Canyon. The Appalachian Trail books offer a different environment and a different hiking culture.

Know what kind of journey you're buying. An end-to-end hike, a series of trips, a speed attempt, and a biography can all make worthwhile books. They tell different stories. American Rambler also uses transportation other than walking, while A Walk in the Woods doesn't document a completed thru-hike.

Keep memoir and trip planning in their proper places. A writer can describe the emotional difficulty of a hike beautifully while giving you very little current logistical information. Use a memoir for perspective and a current planning resource for decisions about your own trip.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which book should I read first if I loved Wild?

Our overall pick is A Walk in the Park for its combination of a demanding journey, personal relationships, and attention to the landscape. Choose Force of Nature instead if the part you most want to revisit is women finding their way through the Sierra.

Are all of these books hiking memoirs?

No. Grandma Gatewood’s Walk is a biography, and The Last Season is reported nonfiction. The others tell their authors’ own journeys, although their routes, goals, and approaches differ considerably. That distinction matters when you’re choosing what to read.

What is a good funny book like Wild?

Start with Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. Its comic approach makes it the clearest choice here for readers who want the awkward, frustrating, and ridiculous parts of going for a very long walk.

Which of these books are about the Pacific Crest Trail?

None of these seven is specifically a PCT memoir. The shortlist follows the strongest relevant options we found in the broader Amazon Hiking & Camping category rather than forcing a book from every trail onto it. Force of Nature takes place on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra, which is a part of the PCT for some of its length. For books specifically about the PCT, see our Pacific Crest Trail reading guide.

Does a higher Amazon review mean a better book?

Amazon reviews do reflect reader sentiment, but they should be taken with a grain of salt. The book you most enjoy might not be a top-rated book on Amazon. Use Amazon reviews as a guide to finding the next book you’ll love, but be sure to check the book details yourself to get a more holistic picture.

Find Your Next Trail Story

If you only want one recommendation, start with A Walk in the Park. If you're already sold on a particular trail, our longer guides separate memoirs from guidebooks and photo collections:

• The 20 Best Pacific Crest Trail Books
• The 20 Best Continental Divide Trail Books
• The 20 Best Appalachian Trail Books

Pick the story that interests you. You don't have to commit to the hike just because you bought the book.