9 An adventure is what you make it

This month’s bookshelf yearns for the open tundra

The spirit of adventure clings to this month’s bookshelf, like morning mist over a British river. First into the water is Matt Gaw, who paddles his homemade canoe through the UK’S waterways to get an intimate view of a wild island. The Pull of the River (Elliott & Thompson, £15) draws in the people, wildlife and literature that colour those channels and turns them into fresh inspiration to do a little meandering yourself.

Will Buckingham engages with a very different culture at the end of his boat trip: the villages of Indonesia’s Tanimbar Islands. Stealing with the Eyes (Haus Publishing, £15) sees the former anthropologist recount his lifepivoting encounters with a superstitious, storytelling people on the verge of big change.

Finding genuinely off-the-beaten-track places is tricky in this day and age. Beyond the Map (Aurum Press, £10; paperback) takes Alastair Bonnett even further off the charts, discovering lost places, ambitious ideas and geographic anomalies – some of which are definitely visitable if you fancy adding something a little unusual to your itinerary.

And talking of unusual: Norths (Conundrum Press, $20/£15) is a collection of 180 postcards, each drawn and written by Canadian artist Alison Mccreesh to mark every day of her journey – with young family in tow – above the 60th parallel. Taking in Russia, Canada, Iceland and Greenland among other places, it’s a delightfully detailed insight into travelling and living at the top of the world.