I need a new book, and I’d like to read a nonfiction “adventure” book. By “adventure,” I mean something like an individual against the natural world or something along those lines.
I think my favorite such books have been “Long Way 'Round” (not really the book, but the documentary and story), and a book titled The Long Walk, which is about a group of POWs being held in Siberia during early WWII who escape and walk all the way to British-occupied India.
I just read With the Old Breed, which was written by an enlisted Marine during WWII and which details his experiences in the Corps and on Peleliu and Okinawa. Great book, but I’m over the war stories for now. I need a break from it.
K2: Life and Death on the Worlds Most Dangerous Mountain, written by Ed Viesturs. Just finished it, pretty awesome.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place. This is the story of Aaron Ralston, the kid who went hiking in Utah and got his arm pinned by a boulder. Stood there for like 7 or 8 days before finally cutting his own arm off and hiking out himself. Haven’t read it yet but I love the story.
Not sure if these qualify but I really enjoyed “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” the biography of Aaron Rolston who cut his own arm off following a climbing accident. “Papillon” is an all time classic and will keep you busy for a while
“Moods of future Joys” (Part 1) and “Thunder and Sunshine” (Part 2) are books written by Alastair Humphreys and recount his 4 year, 46,000 mile bike around the world.
Some of the stories are fiction, some non-fiction. Some biographical, some not. They all make you want to go out and do something.
All Elevations Unknown.
*March 1945, a smart but rowdy British officer named Tom Harrisson parachuted into the Borneo Highlands and set about organizing an army of headhunters to battle the Japanese invaders. He knew the difficult country a little, having been there on a scientific expedition before the war, but now, “shepherded to the island by the world’s most lucrative sponsor, the Dogs of War,” he had to learn its secrets, and quickly. * In 1958, Harrisson wrote a memoir, World Within, chronicling his time on the island. Looking for new places to explore, Wyoming rock-scrambler Sam Lightner and his German climbing partner happened on Harrisson’s book, studied it closely, and, with four other “dirt-bag” climbers, went off to Borneo to find the peak of their dreams in the cloud forests, in country that maps “tinted gray and labeled ‘All Elevations Unknown’.” Battling unusual elements–including having to “cough up the larvae of echinococcosus” and dodge giant snakes, to say nothing of the area’s still-active headhunting bands–they found it, scaled the spire called Batu Lawi, and lived to tell the tale.
** http://www.amazon.com/All-Elevations-Adventure-Heart-Borneo/dp/0767907752/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1275602752&sr=1-1-fkmr1
The book parallels both Harrison’s WWII adventure and the modern climbing expedition.
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose: story of Lewis and Clark’s trek across our unknown continent. IMO the greatest adventure ever.
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Not really adventure, but funny as hell. A two/three sittings quick read book.
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong. Great story. I actually liked this one better: Shackleton’s Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer by Margot Morrell, but it’s more of a business leadership lessons book than an adventure story.
“Deep-wreck divers are used to operating with almost no headroom and in zero visibility, navigating by touch alone; it is a compliment to be told “When you die, no one will ever find your body.” Despite the dangers, wreck divers are typically weekend warriors, men who leave families and jobs behind to test themselves at two hundred feet down. Kurson’s exciting account centers on two divers, John Chatterton and Robert Kohler, who in 1991 found an unidentified U-boat embedded in the ocean floor off the coast of New Jersey. The task of identifying it leads them to Germany, Washington, D.C., and the darkest corners of the submarine itself. Some of the most haunting moments occur on land, as when the divers research the lives of the doomed German sailors whose bones they swim among. Once underwater, Kurson’s adrenalized prose sweeps you along in a tale of average-guy adventure”
“The Cloud Garden” - In 2000, Tom Hart Dyke, a young botanist, set off to Central America with one thing on his mind: orchids. He knew that in order to find the rare and beautiful species he so fervently admired, he would have to visit some of the most inhospitable places on earth. Unbeknown to Tom, another young explorer, Paul Winder, was backpacking through the area at the same time. Though he sometimes worked freelance in the City of London, Paul was a fearless and intrepid traveller, happier scaling volcanoes than lounging on beaches. In every bar and cafe‚ along his route, rumours abounded of the Darien Gap - and the more he heard, the greater became his desire to make the journey. Pure chance brought Paul and Tom together in northern Mexico; they formed an instant bond and their fate was sealed.
Ignoring a final, succinct warning from the Lonely Planet guide - ‘Don’t even think about it!’ - Tom and Paul set off into the Darien: Tom in search of orchids, Paul in search of adventure. They would find plenty of each. For six days they made good progress. Then, just hours away from Colombia, the dream ended and the horror began. Paul and Tom were ambushed by FARC guerrillas who were to hold them hostage for the next nine months. From that day on, their survival was a matter of extraordinary endurance, incredible ingenuity and not a little good luck …
If you read Krakauer’s Into Thin Air then you also have to read Anatoli Boukreev’s “The Climb”. Two different books about the same events, two very different versions of events.
Going back to a book I read probably 30 years ago is “The Raft” about 3 WWII navy flyers who survived 34 days on a little raft with next to nothing.
The Last Season - about a ranger in Sierra Kings Canyon
Ghost Soldiers - POWs in the pacific
The Great Influenza - 1918 flu pandemic
Band of Brothers
Into the Wild
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