Shipwreck At The Bottom Of The World took me a bit to engage with, but once engaged, I was on board for the journey. It really was one hell of scenario. Shackleton was nuts, imo. It surely was another time because while I enjoy adventure, I can't wrap my head around wanting to cross the most inhospitable place on the globe. I mean, it's one thing to go into, say, the Amazon, or the interior of Africa, but it's another thing entirely to go into an ice cube. Yep. Shackleton was nuts.
It amazed me how many times these guys should have been dead but weren't. The fact that his crew survived mostly intact seems unreal. Between the weather, the seals, the fact that they were all smoking the whole time, and the boredom, I remain stunned they didn't flay each other alive at some point. Really, I wonder what went on that didn't get officially recorded. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for their journey with the option of flying to a warm meal and bed every night if I wanted to, that is.
One of the things I particularly liked because it keyed in on a childhood fascination for me was Armstrong's detailed descriptions of how they survived, what they ate, what the supply gathering experience involved, and basically, what the nuts and bolts details of survival looked like. I've always been fascinated with survival. I remember reading some books as a kid about a kid stuck in the wilderness surviving, and I was entranced. That fascination has never really dissipated as I've aged, so reading the details of Shackleton's experiences was pretty awesome. I kept finding myself critiquing some of the choices made, supplies chosen/used, and nit-picking other stuff (the nerve of me, right?); it was fun. Bottom-line: this was a fun read, and the potential multimedia tie-ins seem myriad.
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