NoHall
hmmmm......can't remember
We have it- I have just been too chicken to read it.
Read it. It really is a good book. My friend didn't assign it to his AP class for nothing.
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SJ your movie
- Thread starter Beachbummette
- Start date
Read it. It really is a good book. My friend didn't assign it to his AP class for nothing.
Smiling JOe
SoWal Expert
I'll loan you Into the Wild. I use to have a few copies of Into Thin Air, including a coffee table version, complete with photos of the deathly excursion. I believe the documentary film version of Into Thin Air can also be seen at IMAX theatres. I seem to have loaned out all of my Into Thin Air copies, and they weren't returned. First, read Into the Wild. It is a book which you will always remember.
ThatPersianGirl
Beach Comber
I am pretty sure we have Into the Wild... I will check this evening and let you know.
Thanks!
NoHall
hmmmm......can't remember
SJ, have you read about the Shackleton expedition?
Smiling JOe
SoWal Expert
No, is a Krakauer book?
NoHall
hmmmm......can't remember
No, but it's a frickin' AMAZING story about an early Antarctic expedition (1914) that went south (pun most certainly intended.) Long story short, they never even made it to Antarctica. The ship was crushed in the pack ice and sank, and the crew was stranded on an island while a couple others sailed 800 miles through the roughest seas in the world in a lifeboat to reach South Georgia Island. Once they arrived there, they had to hike across a mountain range to reach a whaling camp. The ordeal lasted 20 months, and not a single man died.
Keep in mind the time period and conditions: Antarctica, pre Gore-Tex, pre North Face sleeping bags, pre all of that cool stuff you get at REI. They had cotton and wool blankets and clothing. Sheepskin, oilskin and leather. They were constantly wet, and cold beyond what I can imagine. Gear was bulky and heavy. No GPS, no radio contact. Crazy...you'll find yourself curled up in a blanket as you read/watch it.
([ame="http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Legendary-Antarctic-Expedition/dp/0375404031/ref=pd_bbs_2/105-8348692-4812401?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189476063&sr=8-2"]This[/ame] is the version I read.)
Oddly enough, a movie came out right after I first heard the story and read the book. Pretty well done, I thought.
It's one of the most amazing stories of endurance (which was also the name of Shackleton's ship) and survival I've ever heard, and yet it was obscured by the start of WWI. Because of the timing of their return to England, not many people know the story.
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NoHall
hmmmm......can't remember
NH: I saw something on TV about this within the last few months...now it's gonna drive me crazy wondering what it was I saw and what show it was on. Man, I hate when that happens.
PBS? I think that's where the documentary was first shown. I just realized I gave the wrong link the Kenneth Branagh one is here. I didn't know about the Liam Neeson one.
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DD
SoWal Expert
Maybe. Mr. dd makes me watch that stuff occasionally...
I hate when I half way pay attention, and then would like to speak intelligently about the very topic I wasn't paying attention to. Dammit.
NoHall
hmmmm......can't remember
Maybe. Mr. dd makes me watch that stuff occasionally...
I hate when I half way pay attention, and then would like to speak intelligently about the very topic I wasn't paying attention to. Dammit.
Don't beat yourself up. It is a LONG, LONG story, and if I hadn't just read the book I doubt that I would have just turned on PBS and watched it. The story is more like a miniseries--you have the initial voyage south, the breaking up of the ship, the ice camps, the escape to Elephant Island, the other escape to South Georgia Island, the crossing to the whaling camp, and the rescue of the crew.
I first heard the story from a friend of mine. He owns a furniture store, and I worked for him for a while when I first cranked up my business. It took him two solid days to tell me the whole story. (Yet it only took me a day or so to read the book. I have friends who are even more long-winded than I am.)