What are you reading?

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Hungry Jack
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Hungry Jack »

Lots of White Spider readers here. Hard to be a fan of mountain adventure and not read this story. I cannot wait to introduce my climbing library to Little Hungry, though it will be awhile (he's 3).

I just completed River of Doubt by Candice Millard. It is the story of Teddy Roosevelt's last great adventure after his political career ended (he lost a bid for a 3rd term in 1912 running as an Indy). With his son Kermit, he accompanied a Brazilian explorer/surveyor and his crew in exploring an unknown tributary of the Amazon that ran about 1,000 miles. The trip darned near killed TR, and physically he was never the same after a truly hellacious experience. I wont spoil the rest. Certainly worth a read.
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Jim Davies
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Jim Davies »

I just finished The Emerald Mile, based on a recommendation earlier in this thread. I have to agree, this is a great book, especially if you're interested in the history of the Grand Canyon, or Glen Canyon Dam. Well-written, interesting, and a very cool story.
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I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now. -- Forrest Gump
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justiner
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by justiner »

The White Spider is a pretty good, "how to" on writing a climbing narrative. That book, and I think Jon Krakauer's story of The Devil's Thumb should be required reading for anyone wanting to do a writeup of an adventure that's a little bit more than a TR ;)

One of the "Weaknesses" of Epic Stories... is that the Krakauer story of his ascent of the Devil's Thumb is first, and is basically the best written piece in the book - by a huge margin.

A big difference is that his story is first and foremost very well crafted. Having a beginning, middle and an end was enough to raise it a little higher than the other stories, which sometimes fail to graduate from just a first person stream of consciousness. There's tension in the other stories - yeah, but if you can't get tension from starting off in a dangerous place, than you're doing something completely wrong!

Another element that sticks out is that the writing about actually climbing the Thumb is just a tiny little bit of text in the entire story - and I don't have to be an expert of climbing or climbing terms to enjoy it. There's this huge buildup of just getting to the Thumb, where Krakauer explains why it's so important for him to climb, and then you've got the payoff: what WAS the actual take home message for him, after he's done with everything. To go back to Viesters, he got into climbing because of the book, Annapurna, but his explanation was basically, "I really liked that book, Annapurna" and well, I'm left just thinking, "Yeah, Ed, I like books, too."


Anyways, good stuff. That's like: the third book I've read that story in.

Off to read... Annapurna.
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druid2112
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by druid2112 »

Alone on the Ice by David Roberts, about Mawson's Antarctic expeditions. Makes me pretty happy to have goretex and thinsulate and the northface and patagonia and proper goggles and....
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12ersRule
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by 12ersRule »

Yay for Muppet avatars! ^

Haven't read anything mountain related lately. Read both new Follett books from the Century trilogy: "Fall of Giants" and "Winter of the World". Both are pretty decent fictional histories and give some insights into the first half of the 20th century.

Started on "Doctor Sleep" by Stephen King, so far so good.

Read an awful political book, I always seem to regret those, whether or not they agree with my worldview or not.

I guess I should read "From Good to Great" which I received at work and everyone was supposed to read. Of course, it really doesn't apply to our company because our company is just "meh" at best.

Keep the mountaineering recommendations coming! I haven't read a good adventure book in a while. All time favorite is "Endurance" by Lansing about Shackleton's amazing self rescue.
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Wish I lived in CO
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Wish I lived in CO »

Touch the top of the World, Erik Weihenmayer
Just started it, good so far
I look up to the mountains - does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! Psalm 121:1-2
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by druid2112 »

12ersRule wrote:Yay for Muppet avatars! <br> All time favorite is "Endurance" by Lansing about Shackleton's amazing self rescue.
Yay for the Shackleton book, that is also my favorite.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by jsdratm »

Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean by Adrian Tinniswood

This book is pretty interesting since you normally only think of the pirates in the Caribbean, not the pirates in the Mediterranean
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Hungry Jack
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Hungry Jack »

One could craft a pretty interesting debate about which survival story is most impressive: Shackleton, the Corps of Discovery, or Powell's first descent of the Grand Canyon (well chronicled in Down the Great Unknown).
Last edited by Hungry Jack on Tue Dec 17, 2013 8:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Oman »

The Son by Philipp Meyer = Lonesome Dove + All the Pretty Horses + English Creek. Four generations of a Texas ranch family linked by violence. A page-turner that makes you think.

Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides. Kit Carson and the Indian wars of the American Southwest.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomenae by Anthony Marra. A surgeon and her sister try to save an orphan during the Chechnya Civil War. Fantastic writing by a 28-year-old author.

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. National Book Award-winning account of the Dust Bowl in CO, OK, and TX. We live soft lives today.

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. One of the few times the movie has been better than the book (especially the second part). Is there any straight teenage or 20-something boy who can resist Jennifer Lawrence?
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Oman
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Oman »

Hungry Jack wrote:One could craft a pretty interesting debate about which survival story is most impressive: Shackleton, the Corps of Discovery, or Powell's first descent of the Grand Canyon (well chronicled in Into the Great Unknown).
Also, check out Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King. Twelve shipwrecked U.S. sailors are taken as slaves by Bedouins in the Sahara Desert. Supposedly the original account of this story is what turned Abraham Lincoln against slavery on moral grounds.
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Hungry Jack
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Hungry Jack »

Thanks for the tip.

I should also throw in the incredible story of Cabeza de Vaca, though he would have died without help from the natives.
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