Showing posts with label travelogues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travelogues. Show all posts

Into the Wild Review

Into the Wild
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy Into the Wild? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Into the Wild. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Into the Wild ReviewThere is little suspense (in the traditional sense of the word) in Krakauer's Into the Wild, as anyone who reads the synopsis or picks up the book instantly learns that it is the story of a young man, Chris McCandless, who ventures into the Alaskan Wilderness and who never gets out. Chris' body is found in an abandoned bus used by moose hunters as a makeshift lodge, and Krakauer skillfully attempts to retrace his steps in an effort both to understand what went wrong, and to figure out what made McCandless give away his money, his car, and head off into Denali National Forest in the first place.
His book was one of the most haunting, unforgettable reads in recent years for me. I was mezmerized by passages in the author's other best-selling masterpiece Into Thin Air, such as the passage involving stranded and doomed guide Rob Hall, near the Everest summit, talking to his pregnant wife via satellite phone to discuss names for their unborn child. However, I was unprepared for the depths of emotion felt in reading Into the Wild - it literally kept me up at nights, not just reading but thinking about the book in the dark.
Some reviewers criticized the book because they thought McCandless demonstrated a naive and unhealthy lack of respect for the Alaskan wilderness. This is no hike on the Appalachian Trail - Chris was literally dropped off by a trucker into the middle of nowhere, with no provision stores, guides, or means of assistance nearby at his disposal. He had a big bag of rice and a book about native plants, designed to tell him which plants and berries he could eat. "How could he have been so stupid?", they ask.
Well, I certainly didn't feel compelled to give away my belongings, pack some rice and a Tolstoy novel and walk into the woods after reading the book, but the author does a remarkable job of exploring McCandless the person, including passages derived from interviews with the many poeple whose lives he touched in his odyssey as he drove and then hitch-hiked cross country from his well-to-do suburban home. Some of the more touching parts of the book involved tearful reminisces by some of these old aquaintances when they learned he had perished.
Krakauer also throws in for good measure an illuminating passage about a similar death-defying climb that he foolishly attempted at about the same age as McCandless, with little training and preparation, providing insight into what makes a person attempt a dangerous climb or hike. He even tells several fascinating tales, all of them true, of other recreational hikers who were stranded in the wilderness.
By the end of the book, I thought I understood McCandless' character, and I thought Krakauer was probably right in putting his finger on exactly what caused his death. I was moved by his plight regardless of his possible foolishness in venturing into Denali, and the final scenes involving Chris' family were emotionally devastating. You need not be an outdoorsman to appreciate it, and in fact unlike Into Thin Air the book is completely accessible to those who know nothing about the subject. I think this book is destined to become a classic.Into the Wild Overview

Want to learn more information about Into the Wild?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

River Journey Review

River Journey
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy River Journey? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on River Journey. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

River Journey ReviewClarence Jonk's classic book is the story of a poor but idealistic young man and his adventures of living on the Mississippi River on a home-made houseboat during the Great Depression. Originally published in 1964, it has been re-released in 2003.
There is something about living by a big river that makes one wonder what the river leads to. It turns out that the destination is not so much a place as a state of mind. The power and magic of the river are transformative and when your journey is over you are better for it. I think that the same can be said for Clarence Jonk's River Journey - if you read it you will be better for it.River Journey Overview

Want to learn more information about River Journey?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

The Maine Woods (Penguin Nature Library) Review

The Maine Woods (Penguin Nature Library)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy The Maine Woods (Penguin Nature Library)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Maine Woods (Penguin Nature Library). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Maine Woods (Penguin Nature Library) Review"The Maine Woods" relates three separate trips Henry Thoreau made to the Mount Katahdin and Allagash Wilderness Waterway region of Maine At 29 years old in 1846, at 36 years old in 1853, and at 40 years old in 1857. In each of the stories he travels with a friend by rail, steamboat, and coach to the starting point, hires a guide, and embarks on his adventure. Even for a reader familiar with the region, it is essential to keep a map handy to follow the author in his travels. In the first trip he hires a local outfitter as a guide, and poles up the West Branch of the Penobscot River, across lakes and up streams, as close to Mt. Katahdin as he can get, then climbs to the summit of what the Indians called Ktaadn, or "highest land," and now called Mt. Katahdin. His route up the mountain approximated what we now know as the Abol trail, though with no trail to follow, his experience was very different from today's Abol daypacker. He summited on a cloudy day, and missed out on the breathtaking views, though he did get infected with the spiritual bug, and he waxes philosophical as he makes his way back down. Thoreau's enduring memory of the region is "the continuousness of the forest." Thanks to the generous 209,501 acre gift of one of Maine's Governors, Percival Baxter, that memory of Thoreau's is also likely to be yours.
By contrast, the second story is less adventurous, being a canoe-camping trip on Chesuncook and surrounding lakes. Thoreau ends the story reflecting on man's vulnerability in the wilderness, and prays that man will not become "civilized off the face of the earth." I take this trip to be fundamentally a reconnaissance for the third and most ambitious of his trips, titled "The Allagash and East Branch." He went to Maine this time intending to make the standard Allagash Wilderness Waterway trip that many of us plan and few ever make. He lets himself get talked out of it and into a considerably more difficult trip. He starts as with the Chesuncook trip, but carries on northward into Chamberlain, Eagle, Telos, and Webster Lakes, and through Webster Stream to Second Lake and Great Lake Matagamon. From there it's flat water down the East Branch of the Penobscot. The Webster Stream segment was basically a ten mile portage. Fortunately he had hired a most remarkable Indian Guide, Joe Polis. Polis took his homemade birch bark canoe down through the Webster Stream rapids alone, and Thoreau and his companion (whom he unaccountably never names), fought their way through the thick underbrush and the jumble of trees along the riverbank. In summary, he takes the West Branch upstream as far as it goes, traverses the high elevation lakes over to the headwaters of the East Branch, and completely circles the Katahdin massif in the process.
Thoreau does not consistently delight the reader with is craft; his creative spirit is intermittent. But when inspired, he rises to the task:
Referring to the logs which get hung up along the shore, waiting for a freshet to carry them down to the sawmill, he writes, "Methinks that must be where all my property lies, cast up on the rocks along some distant and unexplored stream, and waiting for an unheard of freshet to fetch it down."
And about the noises he hears at night, "When camping in such a wilderness as this, you are prepared to hear sounds from some of its inhabitants which give voice to its wildness."
And his boatmen: "...so cool, so collected, so fertile in resources are they."
And anyone who has trod through the dark, damp woods between those lakes will recognize this: "It was impossible for us to discern the Indian's trail in the elastic moss, which like a thick carpet, covered every rock and fallen tree, as well as the earth.
And while experiencing one of the Allagash's classic thunderstorms: "I thought it must be a place where the thunder loved, where the lightning practiced to keep its hand in, and it would do no harm to shatter a few pines.
The Maine Woods (Penguin Nature Library) Overview

Want to learn more information about The Maine Woods (Penguin Nature Library)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

Walking with Spring Review

Walking with Spring
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy Walking with Spring? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Walking with Spring. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Walking with Spring ReviewEarl Shaffer was a laconic, introverted naturalist, and through his journey developed a deeper appreciation for the wilderness and deeper distrust for the modern world. This chronicle of the first thru-hike of the AT is highly factual, and quite literal. Shaffer did an excellent job of describing the varied terrain and geographic route of the trail. He was intensely serious, and at times the book seems a bit dry and too much of a literal account of the journey. Overall, however, the book is certainly one of a kind and a necessary read for anyone interested in the AT.Walking with Spring Overview

Want to learn more information about Walking with Spring?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

The Coast of Summer: sailing New England Waters from Shelter Island to Cape Cod Review

The Coast of Summer: sailing New England Waters from Shelter Island to Cape Cod
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy The Coast of Summer: sailing New England Waters from Shelter Island to Cape Cod? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Coast of Summer: sailing New England Waters from Shelter Island to Cape Cod. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Coast of Summer: sailing New England Waters from Shelter Island to Cape Cod ReviewAnthony Bailey has somehow bottled up the smell and feel of July and August on the waters between Cape Cod and the tip of Long Island, an archipelago not only of little islands, but welcoming harbors, sandy beaches and private coves - not to mention fascinating histories. The Coast of Summer is like the first sip of a cool drink after a day's sail, the anchor set and the boat made secure for the night. Every cruising sailor stores these moments away forever.
Read it in the winter when snow on city streets has turned black as the early night, or, even better, read it in the cabin of your own boat on a rainy day with your feet up on the settee, your back against a cushion and everything dry and comfortable below, your vessel yielding gently back and forth to the weather.
Read it, for that matter, anywhere you want to - but read it.The Coast of Summer: sailing New England Waters from Shelter Island to Cape Cod Overview

Want to learn more information about The Coast of Summer: sailing New England Waters from Shelter Island to Cape Cod?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

North to the Night: A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic Review

North to the Night: A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy North to the Night: A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on North to the Night: A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

North to the Night: A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic ReviewIn 1994-95 the author, his wife Diana, and their cat named Halifax, sailed to the Arctic in their 36-foot cutter, the Roger Henry, for an arctic experience. They spent a year in Baffin Bay, off the coast of Greenland, completely frozen in during the winter. His excellent writing is full of facts, from the mechanical details of getting making their boat seaworthy, to the history, geography, wildlife and interactions with the Intuit people.
Beyond that, though, there was something more. The challenges he faces are stark and realistic and he makes mistakes along the way nearly costing him his life, grappling with internal challenges as well as external ones. Along the way he learns great lessons in life.
As I read this book, I was right there with him, feeling his awe at the natural beauty, his thrill of the adventure as well as his loneliness and his fear. I was also constantly impressed by his ingenuity in solving the many constant technical unforeseen problems.
I couldn't put the book down, staying up almost all night to just keep reading and reading. I know I'll never take a trip like this. But I thank him for writing the book and giving me the privilege of experiencing just a little bit of this wild and frozen landscape.
Highly recommended.North to the Night: A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic Overview

Want to learn more information about North to the Night: A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...