thigbee wrote:

Dow Williams wrote:

MoapaPk wrote:

Dow Williams wrote:My all time favorite, still little known I believe, The Long Walk....true account by Slavomir Rawicz as told to Ronald Downing...regarding an escape from Siberian prison to the Indian Ocean through the Himalayas, original print

Do you really think it is true? The episode when they survive 2 weeks without water, while walking across a parched Gobi desert, had me thinking that at least part of the book is "enhanced."

Oh hell, don't you remember how Downing found Rawicz to begin with?.....the abominal snow monster account...come on man.....every great story of adventure told from memory is enhanced...the bottom line is the man had the balls to escape.....and walk one hell of a distance in doing so...thus the title...and the book was constructed by talking to the man himself...first hand account....precious reading in my book, no pun intended....same with We Die Alone. You would be pretty f&*^# delusional too if you survived and escaped a WW II Russia Siberian camp.

Yes! This book is one of the most epic reads I've ever done. Highly, highly recommended.

I found the book very entertaining, but I think the consensus is that Rawicz never was in a Gulag, nor walked to India. However Rawicz may have borrowed the story from someone who was imprisoned in a Gulag and went on a similar Trek:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavomir_Rawicz

Dow Williams wrote:My all time favorite, still little known I believe, The Long Walk....true account by Slavomir Rawicz as told to Ronald Downing...regarding an escape from Siberian prison to the Indian Ocean through the Himalayas, original print

White Death, the doomed 1913 voyage of the Karluk

In the Land of White Death, epic story of survival in the Siberian Artic, 1912-1914 voyage of the Russian vessel Saint Anna.

We Die Alone, the true story of Norwegian spy, Jan Baalsrud, original print

Don't believe any of these are mainstream, but boy are they good reads of men against the odds

My father got me "The Long Walk" and "We Die Alone" for Christmas a couple years ago.

Both harrowing stories of survival. It's really a testament to man and what he is able to survive. It's somewhat comforting to know that no matter how epic of a situation you find yourself in, these guys probably survived a lot worse.

I absolutely recommend these both.

On a seperate note I would also recommend "Of Men and Mountains" by William O. Douglas. Especially for those who live in the Pacific N.W. It's one of my favorites.

Perhaps not quite what you are looking for since these did not start out as adventure stories. They became adventures to the unlucky and unwitting participants due to unfolding events. I read both many years ago and still recall them vividly. Definitely in the category of "exciting read".

"A Night To Remember" by Walter Lord
http://www.amazon.com/Night-Remember-Wa ... 805077642/



"Ordeal by Hunger" by George Stewart
http://www.amazon.com/Ordeal-Hunger-Geo ... 0395611598

The Long Walk is a great read though, after reading it and thinking about it, I'm inclined to believe it's largely fabricated. To write such an amazing tale, but to never speak of it afterward, avoid all interviews and never be able to have any substantiating witnesses, although he was in a pack of guys--it just doesn't pass the smell test. Gladly that didn't diminish my enjoyment of it in the least and I like to believe it could be true.

We Die Alone is also a great read. I mean the guy escapes from an armed Nazi patrol by outrunning them with only a 100 yd. head start, through the snow with only one boot on. Incredible stuff! My action dies off pretty quickly after that but it's still good stuff.

In the Heart of the Sea is good. About a true tale of a whale ramming and sinking a ship, upon which Moby Dick is based.

A couple of just really good adventure yarns are The Count of Monte Cristo and Treasure Island. They're kind of the popcorn movies of their day but so well written they're a pleasure to read.

Great Heart, The History of a Labrador Adventure by James Davidson and John Rugge.

A great read.

edit: If you check the reviews, there are many 5 star raves and one pan, who complains of the book's novelistic style, filling in details the authors could not have known. Actually these authors are very experienced wilderness paddlers primarily known for their book "The Complete Wilderness Paddler," and are certainly intimately aquainted with the details of such an adventure and what life would have been like in 1903 Labrador.

Ted Simon's 4-year solo around the world motorcycle trip in the mid '70's.
Ted went back and did it again, starting in 2001 - when he was 70 years old!



Emilio Scotto's double around the world motorcycle trip where he visited 279 countries
is a world record for longest motorcycle ride and he started the trip with $300 in his pocket!



Michael Palin's travel books and TV series are fantastic.

Another great read that is kind of an adventure novel is Wind, Sand and Stars, by St. Exupery. It's about pilots who did these mail and deliver runs prior to WWII. There's some touchy feely philosophical ramblings that you have wade thru for brief portions, but there are far more passages that are gripping and brilliant. A beautiful book.

fatdad wrote:Another great read that is kind of an adventure novel is Wind, Sand and Stars, by St. Exupery. It's about pilots who did these mail and deliver runs prior to WWII. There's some touchy feely philosophical ramblings that you have wade thru for brief portions, but there are far more passages that are gripping and brilliant. A beautiful book.

Yep, that's a good one.

fatdad wrote:Another great read that is kind of an adventure novel is Wind, Sand and Stars, by St. Exupery. It's about pilots who did these mail and deliver runs prior to WWII. There's some touchy feely philosophical ramblings that you have wade thru for brief portions, but there are far more passages that are gripping and brilliant. A beautiful book.

Just got this one for christmas. Sounds like i'll have to start on it soon!

fatdad wrote:The Long Walk is a great read though, after reading it and thinking about it, I'm inclined to believe it's largely fabricated. To write such an amazing tale, but to never speak of it afterward, avoid all interviews and never be able to have any substantiating witnesses, although he was in a pack of guys--it just doesn't pass the smell test. Gladly that didn't diminish my enjoyment of it in the least and I like to believe it could be true.

The BBc did a special (discussed in the link above) on the veracity of The Long Walk. One more charitable idea is that it was really the experience of another refugee.

A couple of just really good adventure yarns are The Count of Monte Cristo and Treasure Island. They're kind of the popcorn movies of their day but so well written they're a pleasure to read.

I loved both books, knowing that the were totally fabricated! Also add RLS' Kidnapped, which has some debatable historical context.
Edit: grammar.

Outside Magazine compiled this list in 2003:

http://outside.away.com/outside/feature ... non_1.html

DeVoto's "Journals of Lewis and Clark"......

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

by far the best western I've ever read.

Where the Sea Breaks its Back: an account of Georg Steller, the German naturalist who was the first to see Alaska, and Bering's disastrous expedition. Great, extremely well-written tale of nature and science history which turns into an Arctic survival epic.

Since some folks have mentioned Dumas, his Adventures in the Caucasus is a fun read. It's out of print, at least in English, but libraries may have it. He could spin quite a non- (or semi-) fiction yarn as well as a novel.

Stranger in the Forest by Eric Hansen is a wonderfully well-written tale of walking across Borneo, largely solo.

Papillon by Henri Charrière and The Endurance Expediton that was not written by Henri Charriere.

A couple of good survival stories. Though I think the Endurance Expedition is a little more accurate. Papillion is a combination of a few peoples stories. Both are good reads. Two of my favorites.