A Gift of Wings, Stranger To the Ground, and Jonathon Livingston Seagull are good. One and Illusions were a little too far out there for me.

QUOTE=FlyJSH;1110629]I am amazed that after four pages in this thread no one has included the aviation works of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
[/QUOTE]

No doubt. And I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Fate Is The Hunter. Still the best aviation book I've read to date.

Alone Over the Tasman Sea by Sir Francis Chichester

My Secret War by Richard Drury

Serenade To the Big Bird by Bert Stiles

Fate and Gann
 

He wrote many great books, "Fate is The Hunter" is considered his best by many. "The Bad Angel" is a good read too.


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Literary career Gann's describes his own writing methods as torturous, noting that he would often literally chain himself to his desk until he finished a certain amount of text. He suffered through long periods of writer's block, and frequently worried that he would run out of ideas to write about. Despite his wildly successful career, he continued to harbor strong feelings of self-doubt and often expressed surprise at the critical praise he received.

Gann's major works include the novel The High and the Mighty and his aviation focused, near-autobiography Fate Is the Hunter. Notes and short stories scribbled down during long layovers on his pioneering trips across the North Atlantic became the source for his first serious fiction novel, Island in the Sky (1944), which was inspired by an actual Arctic rescue mission. It became an immediate best-seller as did Blaze of Noon (1946), a story about early air mail operations. In 1978 he published his comprehensive autobiography, A Hostage to Fortune.

Although many of his 21 best-selling novels show Gann’s devotion to aviation, others, including Twilight for the Gods, and Fiddler's Green reflect his love of the sea. His experiences as a fisherman, skipper and sailor, all contributed storylines and depth to his nautical fiction. He later wrote an autobiography of his sailing life called Song of the Sirens.

Gann wrote, or adapted from his books, the stories and screenplays for several movies and television shows. For some of these productions he also served as a consultant and technical adviser during filming. Although it received positive reviews, Gann was displeased with the film version of Fate Is the Hunter, and removed his name from the credits. (He later lamented that this decision cost him a "fortune" in royalties, as the film played repeatedly on television for years afterward.) He wrote the story for the television miniseries Masada, based on The Antagonists, and the story for the 1980 Walt Disney movie, The Last Flight of Noah's Ark.

[edit] HonorsGann was a member or honorary member of Society of Flight Test Engineers, Order of Daedalions, Black Birds, OX-5 Aviation Pioneers, Secret Order of Quiet Birdmen, Colgate President's Club, Washington Athletic Club, Grey Eagles Club, 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Retired Eastern Pilots Association, and American Fighter Pilots Association.


Other honors included , Washington Governor Gary Locke posthumously awarded the Medal of Merit (the state’s highest honor) to Gann on July 9, 2003.
In Friday Harbor, a cafe named "Ernie's Cafe" was opened in honor of his accomplishments.

[edit] Books and NovelsSky Roads, Thomas Y. Crowell Company 1940 Non Fiction
All American Aircraft 1941 Non Fiction
Getting Them Into The Blue 1942 Non Fiction
Island in the Sky, Viking, 1944
Blaze of Noon, Holt, 1946
Benjamin Lawless, Sloane, 1948
Fiddler's Green, Sloane, 1950
The High and the Mighty, Sloane, 1952
Soldier of Fortune, Sloane, 1954
Trouble with Lazy Ethel, Sloane, 1957
Twilight for the Gods, Sloane, 1958
Fate Is the Hunter, Simon & Schuster, 1961
Of Good and Evil, Simon & Schuster, 1963
In the Company of Eagles, Simon & Schuster, 1966
The Song of the Sirens, Simon & Schuster, 1968
The Antagonists, Simon & Schuster, 1971
Band of Brothers, Simon & Schuster, 1973
Ernest K Gann's Flying Circus, Macmillan, 1974
A Hostage to Fortune (autobiography), Knopf, 1978
Brain 2000, Doubleday, 1980
The Aviator, GK Hall, 1981
The Magistrate: A Novel, Arbor House, 1982
Gentlemen of Adventure, Arbor House, 1983
The Triumph: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, 1986
The Bad Angel, Arbor House, 1987
The Black Watch: The Men Who Fly America's Secret Spy Planes, Random House, 1989
Gann contributed numerous articles to the aviation magazine Flying. In one series he described his exotic travels with wife Dodie in their Cessna 310, the Noon Balloon, so named because of its typical late departure time.wiki

Just finished The Wave by Susan Casey. Great book!

Just finished "Snowbird: The Rise and Fall of a Medellin Drug Pilot" by William Norris. Great book!

"One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey "

Richard Louis "Dick" Proenneke (born May 4, 1916 – April 20, 2003) was an American naturalist, who lived alone in the high mountains of Alaska at a place called Twin Lakes. Living in a log cabin he constructed by hand, Proenneke made valuable recordings of both meteorological and natural data.
There is also a great DVD available showing how he picked his location and built his cabin. He lived there thirty years by himself, then donated the cabin to Alaska.
single-handed. A true adventurer!

"Soaring Beyond the Clouds - Einar Enevoldson reaches for 100,000 Feet" by Bertha Ryan

Background/Lead-up to Project Perlan.


"The Rum Diary" by Hunter S. Thompson

from forward to "Island in the Sky" by Ernest K. Gann:

Before take-off, a professional pilot is keen, anxious, but lest someone read his true feelings he is elaborately casual. The reason for this is that he is about to enter a new though familiar world. The process of entrance begins a short time before he leaves the ground and is completed the instant he is in the air. From that moment on, not only his body but his spirit and personality exist in a separate world known only to himself and his comrades.

As the years go by, he returns to this invisible world rather than to earth for peace and solace. There also he finds a profound enchantment, although he can seldom describe it. He can discuss it with others of his kind, and because they too know and feel its power they understand. But his attempts to communicate his feelings to his wife or other earthly confidants invariable end in failure.

Flying is hypnotic and all pilots are willing victims to the spell. Their world is like a magic island in which the factors of life and death assume their proper values. Thinking becomes clear because there are no earthly foibles or embellishments to confuse it. Professional pilots are, of necessity, uncomplicated, simple men. Their thinking must remain straightforward, or they die — violently.

The men in this book are fictitious characters but their counterparts can be found in cockpits all over the world. Now they are flying a war. Tomorrow they will be flying a peace, for, regardless of the world's condition, flying is their life.

— Ernest K. Gann, forward to Island in the Sky, 1944.

Fifty Shades of Grey.

:D

Endurance by Alfred Lansing.
The Boat who wouldn't float by Farley Mowatt.
Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian.
Fate is the Hunter by Ernie Gann.
The song of the sirens also by Gann.
John Adams by David McCollough.

Great books! Makes me want to reread them all!

My novel, Hamfist Over The Trail, is a FREE Kindle download 1-2 Aug 2012. It's an aviation action/adventure about a FAC in Vietnam. Hamfist Over The Trail: The Air Combat Adventures of Hamilton "Hamfist" Hancock (The Adventures of Hamilton "Hamfist" Hancock): G. E. Nolly: Amazon.com: Kindle Store

George Nolly