Books about Patagonia from Amazon.com

Like the carefully engineered dies which created his company's first products--steel pitons and carabiners which climbing enthusiasts would recognize as primitive forerunners of today's sleeker gear--Yvon Chouinard is if nothing else an original. How many other shy French-Canadian boys become surf-and-climbing bums, then blacksmiths forging their own play tools, and eventually founders of world-renowned sports equipment and apparel companies like Patagonia? How many other heads of multi-million dollar enterprises open their memoirs by stating bluntly, "The Lee Iacoccas, Donald Trumps, and Jack Welches of the business world are heroes to no one except other businessmen with similar values. I wanted to be a fur trapper when I grew up." The proverbial mold from which Chouinard was cast got broken.

In Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, readers get a fascinating look inside the history and philosophy of both Patagonia and its irascible, opinionated founder. From its beginning, the book shares a sense of Chouinard's strong-willed personality and his love of the outdoors. He recounts a mostly happy childhood spent in a still-unspoiled southern California, climbing, diving, fishing, and surfing. The narrative soon moves into Chouinard's early entrepreneurial efforts, which were less focused on market-share domination than on earning a basic living to finance his own sporting habits. As his company's first catalog noted, delivery could be slow in the summer months, when Chouinard typically left the "office"--a dilapidated shack converted into an ironworks--for climbing adventures across the American West.

Eventually, though, the story settles into a pattern familiar to business audiences: Patagonia grows rapidly, takes on more employees and product lines to sustain hungry demand from customers, but overreaches with over-ambitious expansion plans and suffers a hiccup in its adolescence. This make-or-break juncture of a business's development often contains the most interesting material, and here Chouinard and his beloved company are no exception. He describes a series of wrenching decisions through which he and Patagonia management team navigated in 1991, as sales growth stalled while capital and operational expenses sprinted ahead. From this crisis emerged Patagonia's first-ever layoffs, affecting a hefty 20% of the workforce, and a serious re-examination of the business's core principles and methods.

The historical part of Chouinard's book largely ends at this point, and gives way to an exposition of philosophies which emerged at Patagonia during its dark moments in the early 1990s. The rest of the book serves as a kind of primer to business, the Patagonia way: one chapter each on product design philosophy, production philosophy, distribution philosophy, image philosophy, financial philosophy, human resource philosophy, and so on. Fans of Patagonia can revel in the company's working details, as can those who support or want to build businesses with self-consciously cultivated soulfulness. Readers who enjoyed Gary Erickson's story about Clif Bar, for example, should definitely find this a welcome addition to their bookshelves. --Peter Han.
Price: $8.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Lopez, one of the most revered surfers of his generation, presents a collection of 41 profiles of those who have been influential in the sport--surfing any time, any where, and in any way..
Price: $18.47 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In Patagonia is Bruce Chatwin's exquisite account of his journey through "the uttermost part of the earth," that stretch of land at the southern tip of South America, where bandits were once made welcome and Charles Darwin formed part of his "survival of the fittest" theory. Chatwin's evocative descriptions, notes on the odd history of the region, and enchanting anecdotes make In Patagonia an exhilarating look at a place that still retains the exotic mystery of a far-off, unseen land. An instant classic upon publication in 1977, In Patagonia remains a masterwork of literature..
Price: $8.46 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $14.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

From the arid deserts of the Atacama to the deep-blue glaciers of Patagonia, Chile is an adventurer’s paradise that shows strong tourism growth year after year. There is plenty to do, including wine tasting in Wine Country, flyfishing in the Lakes District, and trekking Patagonia–all of which are covered in special magazine-like feature articles throughout the book.
·Great planning advice for every type of traveler, from backpackers to city-dwellers
·Adventure Vacations chapter, highlighting the best outdoor activities and tour operators
·Scores of new maps for Lakes District and Patagonia chapters
·Expanded coverage of Patagonia
·Close-up boxes on indigenous culture, history, and current events

.
Price: $13.44 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This book has over 450 recipes from 10 countries for everything from tamales, ceviches, and empanadas that are popular across the continent to specialties that define individual cuisines..
Price: $14.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $11.88 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The sheer granite walls of Yosemite Valley have drawn a lot of visitors over the years. In the late 1950s and through the 60s, they galvanized a dedicated group of rock climbers, who saw their glacier-polished faces as the purest challenge. When those climbers first made their way up Half Dome and El Capitan, they ushered in a new era--over the course of the 60s, they developed techniques, tools and philosophies that would change the sport forever. In the 60s spirit of social exploration, a small group of committed climbers eventually dropped out of the mainstream of work and society to take up residence at Camp 4, perfecting their skills and developing a unique scene. This austere, boulder-strewn campground became the epicenter of the climbing world. In between spectacular feats carried out on the walls, it served both as a launching pad for further adventures and a refuge from them. Here, plans were made, teams were formed and life was lived. The significance of Camp 4 was recently recognized in its placement on the National Register of Historic Places. Photographer and filmmaker Glen Denny was among its denizens, and captured his fellow climbers' personalities and parties, aspirations and preparations, loves and dreams in absolutely stunning, and sometimes death-defying, black-and-white. This majestic visual record of Yosemite in the 60s includes a foreword by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, an introduction by Rick Ridgeway, whom Rolling Stone has called "the real Indiana Jones," and a wealth of previously unpublished photographs..
Price: $39.61 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Patagonia is the ultimate dream destination. Whether you want to cruise the Magellan Straits, see penguins or killer whales, or sit by the fire in a lodge that overlooks the peaks of Parque National Torres del Paine, you will be able to choose your ultimate adventure with Fodor’s Patagonia. Featuring complete coverage of Chilean and Argentine Patagonia, fron the Lakes Districts to Tierra del Fuego, Fodor’s Patagonia helps you navigate a journey to the ends of the earth.

• Special Cruise & Guided tour chapter helps you decide how much adventure or how much laid back luxury you want
• Expanded coverage of National Parks helps you decide which ones you want to explore and how you want to explore them
• From lodges on remote lakes to hotels in the world’s southernmost town, comprehensive lodging reviews allow you to select from discerning choices in all price ranges
• Regional planners help you get around the far reaches of the world’s end.
Price: $14.93 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A coffee-table book that should be read as much as it is simply admired, Patagonia: Notes from the Field is a collection of photographs and essays that stir the senses. Commissioned for Patagonia, the outdoor clothing and gear company, and with an introduction from its legendary founder, Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia delivers in both image and word. The pages turn slowly--if at all--as each momentary vision and each crafted essay casts a spell that seems to have traveled from some half-forgotten end of the earth: a kayak pulled across the ice floes off Baffin Island, a snowy river in Idaho, a choppy sea and a solitary mast, a crack of lightening, a snowboarder streaking down an unthinkable slope.

"I've always chosen my climbing partners carefully," recalls Chouinard in the introduction. "I learned that someone's value to an expedition could largely be determined by their storytelling skills." Following this lead, editor Nora Gallagher has skillfully chosen a team of writers, with headliners such as Gretel Ehrlich, Rick Bass, and Thomas McGuane, to tell the stories from the sea and snow, crannies and couloirs of the world. As well as being keen and thoughtful glimpses into far-flung adventures, these brief tales often possess an environmental ethos that runs strong. In all, Patagonia testifies to the integrity and magic in this world. --Byron Ricks.
Price: $12.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]