There´s no doubt in my case that it was books which made me choose this odd life and I really need to be surrounded by books to feel really content with life. For this reason I have written two articles about books I recommend:
1. 10 best books about adventure and travel to read over Christmas
2. 5 most complete travel books ever
Lately I have been given a lot of opportunities to review other people´s books and I have said no, because the books were just not interesting enough. I don´t want to waste my time reading nonsense. However, this last month I have received two really good books, so I have decided to do just that, starting as of August 2011 to review interesting and challenging books. (So, please, if you have a book you want reviewed, please send it to me.)
The Modern Explorers
Edited By Robin Hanbury-Tenison&Robert Twigger
(Thames&Hudson)
It is not really fair to review a book where I am part myself, but the introduction made by Robin Hanbury-Tenison and Robert Twigger as regards to what is exploration and what is an explorer, is probably the best description I have ever read. it is well worth buying the book just for this reason!
I have been honored as one of the 39 explorers to be part of this excellent book and even be called “some of the finest modern living explorers”!
Thames&Hudson writes this about the book:
What is left to explore on our planet in the twenty-first century?
Through vivid, mostly first-hand, accounts we gain unique insight into challenging and epic journeys to some of the remotest parts of the planet in extremes of temperature, frequently alone and on the edge of danger.
Dramatic photographs often taken at the very moment of discovery or peril, add to the sense of adventure. From the frozen poles to the hottest deserts, from mountaintops to the depths of oceans and underground caves, all terrains are covered.
What is it actually like to be dragged through the rainforest canopy in an inflatable raft suspended from a balloon; to walk across fiercely inhospitable desert with your water supply running out; to inch up a sheer rock wall to conquer a summit never climbed before; to pedal a boat solo across the Pacific; to venture on the trail of fossil dinosaurs; or to stand on the edge of an erupting volcano?
Some of the featured explorers are already celebrated internationally, others are just starting to make their mark; hailing from all parts of the globe, they share a common passion, courage and resilience.
The Modern Explorers will inspire anyone who wants to feel the thrill of exploration and share the euphoria of these intense voyages. It also shows how exploration continues to deepen our understanding of our world and its wild places, as well as how we might preserve them for future generations.
Robin Hanbury-Tenison was a founder and is now President of Survival International and has led many expeditions, including crossing South America by river from north to south and journeying to the interior of Borneo. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Seventy Great Journeys in History and The Great Explorers, both published by Thames & Hudson. An exhibition of his photographs was recently held at the National Theatre, London.
Robert Twigger is a writer and explorer who has written several books. His first, Angry White Pyjamas, received the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and the Somerset Maugham Award; Voyageur covered a three-year journey across northern Canada in a handmade birchbark canoe; and his most recent is Red Nile: A Biography of the World’s Greatest River. In 2010 he was the first person to cross the Egyptian Great Sand Sea on foot.
