Books About Real-Life Survival Situations
by Jenners • 11/15/2008 • Adventure, Non-Fiction • 4 Comments
Enjoy gripping ing accounts of survival–but without any of the dangers! I really enjoy books along these lines…I find myself gripped with the terror, fear, joys, relief, pain, and sadness experienced by the people who survived (or, in some cases, didn’t survive) these extreme situations. In these three books, you’ll travel to the top of Mt. Everest, experience a wild storm at sea, and crash in an airplane in the Andes Mountains. Hold onto your armchair!
- Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
- Alive by Piers Paul Read
- The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against The Sea by Sebastian Junger
A little bit more information on each book…
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
This is a riveting first-person account of the author’s trip to the summit of Mt. Everest. Originally conceived as a journalistic account of how professional guides were taking relatively inexperienced clients to Everest’s summit, the book took a radically different turn when the expedition Krakauer was on became caught in a storm that ended tragically for numerous members of his and other expeditions. The books is gripping and really gives you a feel for what it feels like to make a climb like Everest. And the stories of those who survived and those who didn’t will haunt you forever. Whether you like mountaineering or not, this is a riveting book written by one the most accomplished “journalist writers” around today.
Alive by Piers Paul Read
This book tells the story of a Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashes in the Andes Mountains. They are faced with a critical situation that results in them taking drastic steps to survive — eating the bodies of their dead teammates. This is an agonizing account of what they went through and what people will do to survive. Although it might sound gruesome, you follow the survivors through their initial repulsion, denial and finally to acceptance that this is what is needed to survive. I read this book years ago but never forgot about it. It was also made into a movie starring Ethan Hawke. I liked the movie too but the book (as is almost always the case) was superior.
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against The Sea by Sebastian Junger
This book documents the fates of several people who had the misfortune to be at sea during the “perfect storm” — a storm that became unexpectedly big and powerful due to the alignment of several weather systems. The primary story is the fate of the Andrea Gail, a fishing vessel that gets lost in the storm. Other stories of those who encountered the storm — including a thrilling Coast Guard rescue — are also chronicled. Junger does a good job of telling a true story in a novelistic way, and his description of what probably happened to the crew of the Andrea Gail is haunting. Like Alive described above, this book was made into a movie (this one starring George Clooney — swoon)!
I've got "Into Thin Air" on my shelf and almost added it to my read-a-thon list, but decided on another survival story that I just received in the mail, "Touching the Void." Hopefully I'll get to the Krakauer book soon too.
“Because it is there”. Mallory’s quip was his terse answer as to his rational for climbing Everest. Maria Coffey in Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow gives a more comprehensive answer but the primary focus is the detritus that the spouse, friend, parent,child and sibling experience when a climber selfishly departs,for climbing is a selfish and dangerous endeavor.
Joe Tasker and Peter Boardman vanished on Everest in 1982; Maria Coffey was Tasker’s partner who reveals ” the exhilirating highs and inevitable lows, the stress of long separations, the constant threat of breavement” even with a successful expedition. The loved ones of servicemen and women know these strsses.
Top climbers, their widows and families interviewed include Jim Wickwire (read Addicted to Danger),
Conrad Anker (married to Alex Lowe’s widow),Joe Simpson (read Touching the Void),Anatoi Boukreev (hero/goat of Into Thin Air fame), Chris Bonington and many others.
The subtitle aptly summarizs this work “The Dark Side of Extreme Adventure”.
Ooh, and the diaries from the Shackleton Expedition. It’s 1913 or something. The ship is trapped in, and crushed by, Antarctic pack ice. So they drag the lifeboats a couple hundred of miles over shifting ice by foot until they get to a place where they can launch an excruciating sea journey to some frozen rock…. and so on, and so on. From a situation where there was no reason to expect anyone had the smallest chance of survival, they emerge after two excruciating years with supreme nonchalance and not a single loss of life. Most amazing story ever.
Krakauer’s “Into the Wild” has a digressive chapter towards the end that, although it has nothing to do with the rest of the book, is a completely riveting first-person account of a foolhardy mountain climbing adventure. Grip-the-book-tightly stuff.