Out of the Noösphere: Adventure, Sports, Travel, and the Environment: The Best of Outside Magazine

by Outside Magazine

Inside, the best of the first fifteen years of Outside
Cartwheeling down a Himalayan river. Climbing America's unfriendliest mountain. Dousing fires in the oil fields of Kuwait. Chasing African killer bees. For twenty years, Outside magazine has devoted itself to original and engaging reports on travel, adventure, sports, and the environment. This collection of the best of the stories from the first fifteen years features many of the country's finest writers, in a single
EDWARD ABBEY
RICK BASS
JOHN BRANT
CHIP BROWN
BILL BRYSON
TIN CAHILL
E. JEAN CARROLL
PHIL GARLINGTON
JIM HARRISON
DONALD KATZ
WILLIAM KITTREDGE
JON KRAKAUER
BARRY LOPEZ
THOMAS MCGUANE
BILL MCKIBBEN
MICHAEL MCRAE
PETER MATTHIESSEN
PETER NELSON
GEOFFREY NORMAN
DAVID QUAMMEN
BOB REISS
DAVID ROBERTS
ROB SCHULTHEIS
BOB SHACOCHIS
LAURENCE SHAMES
GRANT SINS
ANNICK SMITH
RICK TELANDER
BILL VAUGHN
CRAIG VETTER
RANDY WAYNE WHITE
ED ZUCKERMAN
Whether you're an armchair adventurer or a true-life trekker, you'll be at once entranced and exhilarated as you go Out of the Noösphere.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Outside is an American magazine focused on the outdoors. The first issue debuted in September 1977 with its mission statement declaring that the publication was "dedicated to covering the people, sports and activities, politics, art, literature, and (especially) hardware of the outdoors..."

Reviews

[Seizure Romero · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this collection contains some fine writing, I'm giving it five stars primarily because of two essays: "He is Crazy and He is Fearless" by Bill Bryson, and "The King of the Ferret Leggers" by Donald Katz. The latter is an interview with Reg Mellor, a retired miner living in Yorkshire, England, who at the age of 69

"...observed with wonder the growing popularity of ferret legging throughout the seventies. He had been hunting with ferrets in the verdant moors and dales outside of Barnsley for much of a century. Because a cold and wet ferret exterminates with a little less enthusiasm than a dry one, Reg used to keep his ferrets in his pants for hours when he hunted in the rain-and it always rained where he hunted.

[Says Reg]"The world record was 60 seconds. Sixty seconds! I can stick a ferret up me ass longer than that.""

The article was originally published in the October 1987 issue of Outside Magazine. You can read it online here. It has also been reprinted in The King of the Ferret Leggers and Other True Stories, with vivid cover art by Ralph Steadman.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent magazine writing by some of the best in the biz.

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very moving to read. The stories are no longer recent news, but many of the themes transcend the decades since they were written.

[Mads · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Best of Outside Magazine published in 1998. Best parts for me are "He is Crazy, And He is Fearless" by Bill Bryson about Redmond O'Hanlon, my favorite birder and anventurer; "The Heart of the Game," a meditation of hunting by Thomas McGuane, and; "The Same River Twice" by the incomparable David Quammen.

[W · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be old, but the quality of the pieces is shockingly high: not just interesting but frequently poetic. Bonus point: it contains a piece featuring the man who inspired the character of Hayduke in "The Monkey Wrench Gang".

[Kitty Sailer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lively. Vivacious. Bizarrely patterned. Loved it, loved the 1990s.