Armchair Adventurer

[sinjinjoe]

does anyone else enjoy reading true adventure books?

books like Alive, Into the Wild, Into Thin Air and Adrift are very interesting to me.

Can anyone recommend something similar?

[billl]

i haven't read the ones you mentioned, and i'm not at all a connoisseur of that genre. however, i immediately remembered reading The Serpent and the Rainbow, by Wade Davis, years ago in high school. Maybe I'd have a different opinion of it now, but at the time, it was a great read. A true story about zombies and voodoo. It might be worth a look, if you don't get a bunch of other recommendations more obviously to your liking.

[Wilde woman]

I really enjoyed Winterdance by Gary Paulsen, which feature his memoirs about racing in the Iditarod, Alaska's most famous dog-sledding race. The first half of the book is very funny because it talks Paulsen's cluelessness about dog-sledding and the antics of his dogs. The second half actually documents the race itself, in which he must battle the blizzards, thin ice, mooses, and the insanity of the two-week race. I was surprised at how simultaneously funny and touching his story is.

[bounty]

sinjinjoe, there have been at least a couple of books (and a documentary also) out in recent years about the shackleton expedition. i read one, endurance, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Frankie Anne]

I've read a few books on Antarctic exploration, including a couple on Shackleton and Admusen. I really recommend one called "Mawson's Will" about Douglas Mawson's expedition to chart Antarctica's coastline. Very memorable. I'm not sure why I enjoy these types of explorer books as I have a hard time with temperatures lower than 50F. :)

You may also enjoy "The Long Walk" by Slavomir Rawicz. I've recommended it to a couple of people who were glad they read it.

[bluevictim]

If you liked both Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, you might also enjoy Eiger Dreams, also by Jon Krakauer. It is a collection of short pieces about mountaineering adventures. I really enjoyed it because it gave a better sense of mountaineering culture than the more famous/sensational accounts that have made their way into mainstream awareness. It's a culture that's not only about scaling 8000 meter peaks, but also about navigating canyons and even "climbing" 3 meter boulders.

Speaking of scaling 8000 meter peaks, one of the most classic mountaineering accounts is Maurice Herzog's Annapurna. Herzog recounts the expedition he led that achieved the first ascent of a peak over 8000 meters high. All the obligatory adventures are there -- false starts, impossible terrain, avalanches, frostbite, etc. This book has been the inspiration of countless young mountaineers; today the objectivity of the account is questionable, but that is completely beside the point.

Yet another widely read mountaineering book is Touching the Void, by Joe Simpson. Simpson describes his ascent with Simon Yates of an Andean peak via a new route. On the descent, Simpson broke his leg, and fell into a crevasse as Yates was helping him down. Against insane odds, he made his way back to base camp just before Yates left assuming he was dead. I actually think the movie might be better for people unfamiliar with mountaineering. It makes a big difference to be able to visualize things like cornices, moraines, and crevasses.

Finally, for a different kind of adventure, you might want to try the writings of Antoine de Saint Exupery about early flight. He is remembered most as the author of The Little Prince, but he wrote quite a bit on the adventures of flying. His writing is very introspective and very readable. Wind, Sand, and Stars, for example is full of reflection on freedom, danger, and adventure, and I found it quite deep and inspiring.

Happy trails! :)

[Whifflingpin]

Joshua Slocum's "Sailing alone around the world" is a must.

[sinjinjoe]

wow i never expected so many responses! thanks everyone. i think i have my summer reading all planned out.. "sailing alone around the world" sounds interesting, i really enjoy sailing myself so that seems like a good bet.