ISO the best dirty books

[Dave Rosenthal]

For this year's summer reading list in The Baltimore Sun, I'm compiling a list of the Best Dirty Books.
Not that kind of dirty. I mean books meant to be read outdoors because they carry a whiff of salt spray or the grit of sand. Here are a few: Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey and The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger.
Other suggestions? Let me know and I'll include them on the list, which runs June 21.

[trav]

GREAT idea for a list!
I would have to add
Beyond the Horizon by Colin Angus (Menasha Ridge Press)
and
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (Harper Collins)
and for a fiction pick
The Terror by Dan Simmons (Little, Brown & Company)

[charlotte gordon]

Innocents Abroad (Twain goes to the Middle East and gives an amazing description of the Negev desert).
On Chesil Beacb by Ian McEwan (self-explanatory grit)
The Woman Who Named God by charlotte gordon (sorry, that's me, but it's perfect because it's full of desert and stars)

[Dave Rosenthal]

Good suggestions. I'm a big fan of everything Bryson. My favorite is In a Sunburned Country, a hilarious account of his travels in Australia.

[trav]

When can we look for your final list in the paper?