Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing (5.0)
Wow, it would be hard to find a book that packs more adventure into ~350 pages and is a true story! I’ve heard of many tough experiences, but to endure so many repeatedly was quite remarkable. Lansing has used Shackleton’s and other’s diaries and written the tale as if he was there every step of the way. A bit of a spoiler, but I was hard pressed to find the most amazing survival bit – crossing the treacherous Drake Passage in a 22 foot boat, hiking in the snow over multiple 5k ft passes on Saint George’s island (with no sleep, dehydrated and virtually no food), or the >500 days of cold with constantly wet clothes and sleeping bags. I’m not sure any modern day person, given our wealth of comforts, could survive. While I can understand our forbearers crossing the Atlantic to find the New World, I am harder pressed to understand why one would choose to undergo this type of ‘adventure’, just to have done it, but I can marvel at the story.
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