Out of the Noosphere [Paperback]

Outside Magazine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1992

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 volume:

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Outside 's wide-open definition of its subject leaves great opportunity for diversity of material and expression. Sometimes this anthology succeeds in exploiting that opportunity, and sometimes it fails. Women are generally absent from these articles, and only two of the 40 pieces are even authored by women. The volume's subjects--people, home, nature and travel--are defined so broadly that David Roberts's heartwrenching story about losing friends in rock-climbing accidents is followed by Bob Shacochis's self-deprecating account of climbing Mount Ararat with the lungs of a smoker. Some of these highly personal tales manage to be both sensitive and funny, such as the story of Peter Nelson, who, revisiting the Boy Scout camp of his youth, wonders whether MTV has "sounded Nature's death knell" then learns soon after that his scoutmaster has died of a heart attack at 47. Others rely heavily on ironic understatement, like Bill Vaughn, who "sails" on the railroad tracks of Montana and whose reaction to an oncoming freight train is "Bummer." Although some of these are one-joke articles that go on too long, most will broaden an armchair traveler's horizons.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Edward Abbey, staunch defender of the Southwest's desert wilderness and a contributor to Outside for several years, wrote The Monkey Wrench Gang, Desert Solitaire, Fire On The Mountain, Abbey's Road, and The Fool's Progress, among other books and novels. Hayduke Lives!, a sequel to The Monkey Wrench Gang, was published posthumously in 1990. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (October 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671754661
• ISBN-13: 978-0671754662
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,203,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating mix of adventure, introspection & enlightenment., November 16, 1999

By 

Kathy Hearn (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out of the Noosphere: Adventure, Sports, Travel, and the Environment: The Best of Outside Magazine (Paperback)

I am a long time admirer of Tim Cahill's work and picked up "Out of the Noosphere" on that basis. I was delighted to find so many other authors equally as adventurous and thoughtful. Anyone who loves travelling for the pure joy of meeting different people, seeing new vistas, and having his/her world view challenged will love this book. The writing is superb, each story/article is a good length for commuter readers. I particularly like the way each author brings you personally into the action...you have to think about what you would do in a similar situation. And the situations are mind expanding -- from killer bee research, to losing friends in mountain climbing accidents. I couldn't recommend it more highly!

5.0 out of 5 stars vacation read, March 29, 2010

By 

T. R. Farley "Too poor to buy cheap" (NY, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Out of the Noosphere: Adventure, Sports, Travel, and the Environment: The Best of Outside Magazine (Paperback)

Amazing story about a dog named Gator. Buy the book for this story alone

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Get into the noosphere of reality., June 12, 1999

By 

Mr.G.R.Fallon (Woody Point near Brisbane, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out of the Noosphere: Adventure, Sports, Travel, and the Environment: The Best of Outside Magazine (Paperback)

"Withdraw to your cell," the Desert Fathers used to say, "and your cell will teach you everything" - at least all you need to know for the fullness of life. So said Thomas Merton in his "Notes for a Philosophy of Solitude."

"Get out and about," say the editors of Outside magazine - away from the mind- and soul-destroying homogenization of urban living.

In these 40 stories - 2 by women - we have diversity in unity, enhancing the value of the anthology. The integrating principle is not so much a style of writing - a certain outdoors "Outside" style - as an attitude of gifted adventurers who report not only from interesting places and events "out there" but especially from the deeper depths of their own reflective beings.

"Get out of the noosphere," said author David Quammen. His comment provided the title for the collection. But he misinterpreted what Jesuit evolutionist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin had in mind when he invented the "Noosphere" as a word and a concept in 1922.

For Teilhard was undoubtedly an outdoors "Outside" person and rejoiced in the creative convergence of human beings in all their diversity. "Union differentiates" was his constant theme, so well exemplified in these reports from writers likewise familiar with "the wild country of the soul" (p.12).

With its foundations anchored to the genetic core of each participating member,Teilhard's noosphere enables us to communicate around the world and beyond at the speed of light - mind-to-mind, heart-to-heart and even soul-to-soul - providing a lifeline of care, concern and mutual respect to all who live not by bread alone, but dare to explore the farthest reaches of reality.