The winter's here, the fire is stoked, the nights are long--that can mean only one thing: it's reading season. And not to paint it an inch thick, but what better way is there to match the weather outside than books about the coldest places of all?
1. The Final Frontiersman
James Campbell follows the trials and tribulations of his cousin Heimo Korth, who departed Wisconsin for middle-of-nowhere Alaska in the 1970s where the main character, his wife, and their two kids live 500 miles from their nearest neighbors. If you ever wanted to know how to live like a fur trader or go sledding in temperatures cold enough to instantly freeze water, this is your tale.
2. Iceland
For "Iceland," "Into Thin Air" author Jon Krakauer traded his keyboard for a camera, shooting snowy scenes and leaving the writing duties to his friend David Roberts. Whether you desire difficult mountain treks or lazy hikes through fields of wildflowers, this beautiful country has something for you.
3. This Cold Heaven
Gretel Ehrlich spent nearly a decade in the isolated country of Greenland, a place that is 95 percent ice. There, she found a lonely native population that alternately grapples with freezing stretches of pitch-black winter and four months when the sun never sets. The book weaves the stories Ehrlich finds with tales from Greenland's past, painting a portrait of a detached land and its self-sufficient people.
4. Race to the End
Let's face it: Chances of getting to the South Pole are slim. (Zero for us; perhaps a bit better for you.) Fortunately, we have historian Ross D.E. MacPhee, who chronicled the attempts of Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott. The pair embarked on separate expeditions to reach the South Pole, racing against time, weather and, most importantly, each other.
5. Cold
Scientist Bill Streever set out to visit and write about places on our planet whose temperatures regularly stretch the lower limits of the mercury. Along the way he introduces us to wooly mammoth carcasses, freezing swimming holes, and blizzards--lots of blizzards.
