I just finished the book I was reading (Running For My Life by Lopez Lomong) and I'm looking for something new to start.  I prefer to read things that are exciting with elements of nature, adventure, or the like.  Although I have a degree in Literature, I'm completely bored by fiction.  Got any suggestions?

You may have already read it, but this is on my list to read:

Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail)

Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2012: At age 26, following the death of her mother, divorce, and a run of reckless behavior, Cheryl Strayed found herself alone near the foot of the Pacific Crest Trail--inexperienced, over-equipped, and desperate to reclaim her life. Wild tracks Strayed's personal journey on the PCT through California and Oregon, as she comes to terms with devastating loss and her unpredictable reactions to it. While readers looking for adventure or a naturalist's perspective may be distracted by the emotional odyssey at the core of the story, Wild vividly describes the grueling life of the long-distance hiker, the ubiquitous perils of the PCT, and its peculiar community of wanderers. Others may find her unsympathetic--just one victim of her own questionable choices. But Strayed doesn't want sympathy, and her confident prose stands on its own, deftly pulling both threads into a story that inhabits a unique riparian zone between wilderness tale and personal-redemption memoir. --Jon Foro

Thank you Mandy...

sugnim, if any of these are of interest, I can list more.  What does a "degree in Literature"

mean?  Where from?  Any specialty area?

"The Big Burn" Timothy Egan -- really big forest fire (your general area)

"Fire and Brimstone: The North Butte Mining Disaster of 1917" Michael Punke

"Still Alice" Lucy Genova --fiction
"Meditations from the Breakdown Lane: Running Across America" James E. Shapiro
"The Death Valley 300" Richard Benyo
"Feet in the Clouds: A Tale of Fell-Running and Obsession" Richard Askwith

"The Dovekeepers" Alice Hoffman

"As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me" Josef M. Bauer
"The Long Walk" Slavomir Rawicz

 and my special plug for this year:

"East to the Grotto on the River Gave" Kathleen Morelock

Or.... I (we) might get something about our 600ish miles of wandering across Spain done later this year.

Reading THE LONGEST RACE  by Ed Ayres bout his JFK50 and ultra running.

Done with A Few Degrees from Hell - 2003 Badwater Ultra, Running on Empty Marshall Ulrich Run Across America and will be starting 14 Minutes by Alberto Salazar soon.

John thanks for the list and just did a download on your sweeties book, nice reviews from other readers

"Ms. Morelock has written a gripping novel that I couldn't put down"

John M.--Great list--thanks!  Also, (to me at least) a degree in Literature means that a naive kid went to college thinking that a bachelor's degree was a necessary thing in life.  She then took the advice of the guidance counselor when choosing a major, and tens of thousands of dollars in debt later, her education bestowed her with the knowledge that it was all a big waste. 

Ah yes, the education versus job training thing.  You have an education (liberal arts field) and unfortunately, in this country, it is not a marketable degree.  In North Dakota we were surrounded by (besides Indians) very bright young people with degrees in religion, philosophy, theology... thinking stuff--nothing marketable, but they gave many evenings of wonderful conversations.  My immediate supervisor has a BA in English, an MA in writing, and a PhD in comparative literature.  Don't ever downplay your education--thinking is way underrated in this country.

Non-fiction, adventure...

I tend to read history...

Endurance, about the Shackleton expedition. I like the version I have at home the best.  I'll have to get the author when I get home.

Undaunted Courage by Ambrose

The Terrible Hours by Maas.  His retelling of the sinking of the Squalus (right around WWII, I think) and the rescue of the survivors.  I happened to be reading this when the Kursk was lost.

I just finished the John Adams bio by McCullough. Interesting read.  I like McCullogh's writing style.

For adventure of a different sort... The American Plague by Crosby about the yellow fever epidemic in the 1790s and the people who linked the disease to mosquitos.  Amazing what the researchers did to get their answers and how close they got to the causative agent (a virus) given the available technology.  There are other books about this, perhaps better, but I haven't read them.

ETA:  Endurance by Lansing.  I have a few other books about the expedition that have Endurance in the title but the Lansing book is the classic tale, I believe.

I second "Wild". It was a gritty and somewhat horrifying read but it really was good.

I just finished "To The Edge" about running Badwater. Lisa Tamati's "Running Hot" is good too. Chrissy Wellington's "A Life Without Limits" is a good read so far if you like triathlon. I also started "Finding Ultra" by Rich Roll last night. Matt Long's "The Long Run". I'll check out my collection and post more when I get a minute.