Ghost Town Living

When Brent Underwood moved to Cerro Gordo, a ghost town high above Death Valley that had once been California's largest silver mine, he was snowed in for weeks almost at once. He had staked his life savings on the place, whose tunnels once yielded more than $500 million in ore and where newspapers reported a murder a week; Butch Cassidy and Mark Twain were rumored to have stayed there. Fires, floods and earthquakes followed, along with an unexpected fame as millions of followers took an interest. To revive the town he learned self-sufficiency and problem-solving skills from generous mentors, and the book urges readers to question overly practical lives and seek adventure.

Ryan Holiday, listing it among the very best books he read in 2024, said he had handed out roughly 30 copies to friends at his bookstore that year.