Comments on: One person, one challenge?

Question: One person, one challenge?

gottabefunky — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:18:03 -0800

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.

By: wayland

wayland — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:19:22 -0800

Kon-tiki is about a small group that builds a raft out of balsa wood and sails it across the pacific.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:22:50 -0800

"To the White Sea" by James Dickey.

By: cyndigo

cyndigo — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:24:47 -0800

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.

By: slide

slide — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:25:57 -0800

You can find books/memoirs about Reinhold Messner that have chapters about him climbing Everest alone without oxygen. That shit's insane.

By: easy, lucky, free

easy, lucky, free — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:30:23 -0800

Sailing Alone around the World by Joshua Slocum, available on Google Books

By: SpacemanStix

SpacemanStix — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:34:48 -0800

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.

By: SpacemanStix

SpacemanStix — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:35:32 -0800

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.

By: Duffington

Duffington — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:46:09 -0800

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.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:56:40 -0800

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.

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:00:31 -0800

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)

By: e-man

e-man — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:02:48 -0800

"Dove" by Robin Lee Graham.

By: Biru

Biru — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:19:07 -0800

The Quiet Soldier. I imagine it's slightly edited for better reading, but essentially what you're looking for.

By: runincircles

runincircles — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:21:50 -0800

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"

By: OHenryPacey

OHenryPacey — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:21:32 -0800

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.

By: OHenryPacey

OHenryPacey — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:22:10 -0800

sorry thought i linked it

By: TWinbrook8

TWinbrook8 — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:27:30 -0800

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.

By: zoomorphic

zoomorphic — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:39:23 -0800

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.

By: bunyip

bunyip — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:10:39 -0800

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.

By: daikon

daikon — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:56:13 -0800

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.

By: workerant

workerant — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:28:20 -0800

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.

By: ovvl

ovvl — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:40:29 -0800

Another mountaineering tale: The White Spider.

By: emd3737

emd3737 — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:59:46 -0800

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.

By: Carmody'sPrize

Carmody'sPrize — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 22:49:35 -0800

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.

By: mnemonic

mnemonic — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 23:24:25 -0800

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.