This will be short post, but I wanted to share a couple of things. I have been reading; I always am. However, I don't always have things I want to share. Sometimes the books end up being mediocre. There are other reasons, too, that I don't blog about everything that I read. With that said, I want you to know that I debated sharing this last book here, but it made me think: a lot and hard. So I decided to blog about it.
After reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer earlier this month, I was kind of excited about survival stories. This book is about climbing Mount Everest in 1996. This was a particularly difficult season and several climbers lost their lives in the attempt to the top after a storm pinned them down unexpectedly. The book was written by a survivor of the ordeal and I was very intrigued by the story. I have never been able to appreciate the immensity of the mountain nor the danger associated with climbing it before reading this account. And, I am sure I still have no real idea of its majesty and power.
Several years ago I was introduced to the book Endurance: Shakleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. I would count that among my favorites. This true story of adventure and exploration outlines the amazing journey of Ernest Shackleton and his crew of men after they became stranded in Antarctica in 1914. They spent over a year getting back from the ice continent. The story is awe-inspiring and awesome.
I decided I wanted to try another book of this kind. So I read Alive by Piers Paul Read. This book is about a Uraguayan rugby team whose plan crashed in the Andes mountains on their way to a game in Chile. I have to completely admit to not knowing what the book entailed before I began it or I would not have read it. However, though I cannot recommend it to anyone without first warning you that it is very graphic, in the end I am glad that I read it. It is not for everyone. These boys were able to survive 10 weeks, a full 70 days, 11,000 feet altitude in the Argentinian Andes by eating their fellow passengers who had died in the plane crash. In the end, sixteen boys/men survived the ordeal and became national heroes. Two of them had to hike over a 13,500 foot high mountain to find civilization and to let the outside world know that they were alive. I am not going to comment on their decisions; I still don't know how I feel about it, but talk about food for thought! I have been discussing it with my daughter (23 years old) and husband for days. I won't share it with my younger family nor would I recommend sharing it with anybody younger than adult age. The material is definitely for a mature audience.
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