One person, one challenge?
September 22, 2010 2:18 PM Subscribe
Recommendations for nonfiction adventure books with one person facing a single overwhelming challenge?
I’m looking for recommendations for nonfiction adventure books about a single protagonist facing a single overwhelming physical and/or mental challenge, from start to finish.
Already on my list: Adrift by Steven Callahan, Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston, The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.
Not multi-event, lifetime-of-adventure ones like Arabian Sands, or group challenges like Into Thin Air or A Perfect Storm.
Ideally the challenge is self-imposed – it doesn’t have to stem from a screwup or bad luck – and the protagonist faces it alone. A very small group could work, which would encompass Touching the Void and lots of other mountaineering and exploration books. Could be first-person or third-person narration.
I’m looking for recommendations for nonfiction adventure books about a single protagonist facing a single overwhelming physical and/or mental challenge, from start to finish.
Already on my list: Adrift by Steven Callahan, Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston, The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.
Not multi-event, lifetime-of-adventure ones like Arabian Sands, or group challenges like Into Thin Air or A Perfect Storm.
Ideally the challenge is self-imposed – it doesn’t have to stem from a screwup or bad luck – and the protagonist faces it alone. A very small group could work, which would encompass Touching the Void and lots of other mountaineering and exploration books. Could be first-person or third-person narration.
Not nonfiction, but based on a true story: Island of the Blue Dolphins. Always worth a second read. (Or a first, if you missed it as a young adult.)
Also anything by Rory MacLean. Falling for Icarus is wonderful.
posted by cyndigo at 2:24 PM on September 22, 2010
Also anything by Rory MacLean. Falling for Icarus is wonderful.
posted by cyndigo at 2:24 PM on September 22, 2010
You can find books/memoirs about Reinhold Messner that have chapters about him climbing Everest alone without oxygen. That shit's insane.
posted by slide at 2:25 PM on September 22, 2010
posted by slide at 2:25 PM on September 22, 2010
Sailing Alone around the World by Joshua Slocum, available on Google Books
posted by easy, lucky, free at 2:30 PM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by easy, lucky, free at 2:30 PM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Check out Touching the Void. It's a true story that starts out with two people, but it's mainly about the survival of one person who is put into an incredibly harrowing circumstance. There's also a movie about it that is very well done. You can read Ebert's review here, which should give you a good idea what's going on.
posted by SpacemanStix at 2:34 PM on September 22, 2010
posted by SpacemanStix at 2:34 PM on September 22, 2010
which would encompass Touching the Void and lots of other mountaineering and exploration books. Could be first-person or third-person narration.
Now I feel like an idiot.
posted by SpacemanStix at 2:35 PM on September 22, 2010
Now I feel like an idiot.
posted by SpacemanStix at 2:35 PM on September 22, 2010
Road Fever by Timothy Cahill. It's chronicles a two person drive from Tierra del Fuego, Chile to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. There is another person, but the book is very much from Tim Cahill's point of view.
posted by Duffington at 2:46 PM on September 22, 2010
posted by Duffington at 2:46 PM on September 22, 2010
My dad has always loved the genre of "sailors who go out to do something and then something goes wrong and they go crazy". In this vein The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst I'd suggest along with the Slocum book. Tanya Aebi sailed solo around the world and did not go crazy and wrote a book Maiden Voyage. Frances Chichester has also written a few books about his solo travels. It's tough to find but The Long Lonely Leap by Joseph Kittinger relates his jump from a balloon 102,800 feet above the earth. Not strictly solo, but I've heard there's a fair amount of reflection in it.
There is also A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins and Swimming to Antartica by Lynne Cox both of which were less interesting than I hoped they'd be. I'll try to think on more from this category, they're some of my favorites too.
posted by jessamyn at 2:56 PM on September 22, 2010
There is also A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins and Swimming to Antartica by Lynne Cox both of which were less interesting than I hoped they'd be. I'll try to think on more from this category, they're some of my favorites too.
posted by jessamyn at 2:56 PM on September 22, 2010
Tschiffely's Ride - In 1925 He rode from Buenos Aires to Washington DC with his two horses Mancho and Gato; a journey which was deemed impossible. (wiki)
posted by adamvasco at 3:00 PM on September 22, 2010
posted by adamvasco at 3:00 PM on September 22, 2010
The Quiet Soldier. I imagine it's slightly edited for better reading, but essentially what you're looking for.
posted by Biru at 3:19 PM on September 22, 2010
posted by Biru at 3:19 PM on September 22, 2010
Dervla Murphy, cycling from Dunkirk to Delhi alone in 1963: "Full Tilt"
Jan Morris coming out as transexual and fighting to get surgery in the 60s: "Conundrum"
Eric Newby with a friend and "native bearers" trying to climb Mir Samir in Nuristan, utterly amateurishly and under-prepared, in 1956: " A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush"
posted by runincircles at 3:21 PM on September 22, 2010
Jan Morris coming out as transexual and fighting to get surgery in the 60s: "Conundrum"
Eric Newby with a friend and "native bearers" trying to climb Mir Samir in Nuristan, utterly amateurishly and under-prepared, in 1956: " A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush"
posted by runincircles at 3:21 PM on September 22, 2010
Seaworthy: Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting
crazy old guy (60+) gets it in his head to do a kon-tiki, so he designs his own raft and sets out for 4 months to cross the pacific alone with a cat and parrot. has so much fun (or is so annoyed by his wife) that he decides to do it again a few years later. it's a pretty great read.
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:21 PM on September 22, 2010
crazy old guy (60+) gets it in his head to do a kon-tiki, so he designs his own raft and sets out for 4 months to cross the pacific alone with a cat and parrot. has so much fun (or is so annoyed by his wife) that he decides to do it again a few years later. it's a pretty great read.
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:21 PM on September 22, 2010
Can not nth Dervla Murphy's Full Tilt enough.
There's also Christina Dodwell's Travels with Fortune about a woman travelling (mostly) solo in Africa for three years on horseback through the bush.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:27 PM on September 22, 2010
There's also Christina Dodwell's Travels with Fortune about a woman travelling (mostly) solo in Africa for three years on horseback through the bush.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:27 PM on September 22, 2010
In many ways "Devil in the White City" is about two very different men overcoming obstacles to achieve their visions. It seems too liberal an interpretation at first, but when you read the book it'll become increasingly apparent.
posted by zoomorphic at 4:39 PM on September 22, 2010
posted by zoomorphic at 4:39 PM on September 22, 2010
An Island to Oneself by Tom Neale is about one man living on an island by himself by choice. You can also find it online easily enough.
posted by bunyip at 5:10 PM on September 22, 2010
posted by bunyip at 5:10 PM on September 22, 2010
Three suggestions. These don't exactly meet your criteria of one person facing a challenge, from start to finish, but all 3 have one protagonist for a large portion of the story.
The Jungle by Yossi Ghinsberg. Recently reissued and back in print. The author and two friends are guided through the Amazon rainforest by someone who has overstated his experience. Author is separated from the rest of the party. With no skills and little food or equipment, he survives and finds his way out of the jungle. The Breach: Kilimanjaro and the Conquest of Self by Rob Taylor. Author is injured climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with a friend (a technical climb - not the side of the mountain that people hike) and his friend abandons him. He rescues himself. Out of print but used copies are findable.
And last, A Test of Will by Warren Macdonald. I found this after I read Between a rock and a hard place and the stories have some similarities. Author is hiking in Australia with a guy he just met. Huge boulder falls on him, in a streambed, and traps his leg. His new friend hikes out for help, being forced to leave him alone. Both of them are alone with their individual challenge. It's one of my favorite books.
posted by daikon at 6:56 PM on September 22, 2010
The Jungle by Yossi Ghinsberg. Recently reissued and back in print. The author and two friends are guided through the Amazon rainforest by someone who has overstated his experience. Author is separated from the rest of the party. With no skills and little food or equipment, he survives and finds his way out of the jungle. The Breach: Kilimanjaro and the Conquest of Self by Rob Taylor. Author is injured climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with a friend (a technical climb - not the side of the mountain that people hike) and his friend abandons him. He rescues himself. Out of print but used copies are findable.
And last, A Test of Will by Warren Macdonald. I found this after I read Between a rock and a hard place and the stories have some similarities. Author is hiking in Australia with a guy he just met. Huge boulder falls on him, in a streambed, and traps his leg. His new friend hikes out for help, being forced to leave him alone. Both of them are alone with their individual challenge. It's one of my favorite books.
posted by daikon at 6:56 PM on September 22, 2010
Despite its lurid title, Two Wheels Through Terror by Glenn Heggstad is a riveting, harrowing tale. Glenn was riding his motorcycle though South America when he was kidnapped and held prisoner by the National Liberation Army. He ultimately escaped, walking naked into (and back out of) the jungle.
posted by workerant at 7:28 PM on September 22, 2010
posted by workerant at 7:28 PM on September 22, 2010
Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod by Gary Paulsen is pretty much exactly what you're looking for- a fairly ordinary guy from the lower 48 decides to compete in the famed Alaskan dogsled race.
posted by emd3737 at 8:59 PM on September 22, 2010
posted by emd3737 at 8:59 PM on September 22, 2010
Take a Seat. I saw this as a film at the Banff Mountain film festival last year. It's a wonderful story about a guy who rides from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina on a tandem bicycle, enlisting help along the way. It was absolutely great.
posted by Carmody'sPrize at 10:49 PM on September 22, 2010
posted by Carmody'sPrize at 10:49 PM on September 22, 2010
Siberian Dawn by Jeffrey Tayler. He hitchhiked across Siberia in the early 90s, visiting towns that had never hosted Americans before. It's out of print but reasonably available from used book sources and libraries.
posted by mnemonic at 11:24 PM on September 22, 2010
posted by mnemonic at 11:24 PM on September 22, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by wayland at 2:19 PM on September 22, 2010