Antarctica Books

I learned an immense amount about penguins and other birds native to the antarctic. Having Lockley and Adams each alternate a chapter made the book quite enjoyable. A consummate naturalist, in the old sense of the term, Adam's does display his anthropomorphic side, which is evident in all his work (witness Watership Down, Traveller, Plague Dogs, etc.) and which he has never kept secret from the public. I appreciated him sharing the adventure with us.

This is a book for and by bird-watchers. The sightings of rare or unique Antarctic birds, their descriptions, actions and nesting practices make up the body of the book. On a cruise with eighty people the first author makes it seem a voyage of five, with a few crew members for convenience or local color.

The inset descriptions of wildlife by Ronald Lockley, a (then) seventy-seven year old well-respected ornithologist are very scientific, but he has also made them interesting to the uninitiated. His love for all species makes his science human.

Adams' writings are human, too, but in a less endearing way. Whatever is right, noble and just happened in this world because of the Englishman. The disgusting practices that threaten extinction of a species are being carried out by the Japanese, the Argentines, or other non-Brits. The practices he describes are truly disgusting; the fact that he attaches these actions to a nation and describes them as typical of that nationality puts me off. In fact, I was so offended by his biases that my enjoyment of the book was dimmed.

I found this book interesting, in that it sought to vindicate Scott's use of manhauling to get to the South Pole (as if the technological improvements in clothing and skis made in the 75 years since Scott's expedition wouldn't make a difference!). But what really makes the book entertaining is that, true to form, Mear and Swan bumbled their way through THEIR expedition, just like Scott did. In fact, if the US Air Force hadn't had a base at the South Pole, and hadn't been willing to fly Mear and Swan back to the coast, the authors would've DIED trying to make it back, just like Scott did, thereby proving just exactly what Mear and Snow wanted to disprove: that manhauling is an IDIOTIC venture at best!

This book report is about the book"In the footsteps of Scott" written by Roger Mear. He was born in 1950 and gained a fine art's degree at Norwich. This Antarctic Expedetion was suggested by Robert Swan while he was still at University. He then met Roger Mear, an was soon joined by Gareth Wood. They set out to walk to the South Pole, manhauling their sledges, with the intent of tracing Captain Scott's route. The most impressive part of the story to me was when they heard that their ship, The Southern Quest, was crushed and sunk in pack-ice off Cape Evans, cutting off all their radio-links. Their hopes of getting back alive were tremendously threatening. Throughout this electrifying journey, they faced strange, interesting, and even humorous events. They dined away the well-dresed Emperor Penguins at Cape Cozier. These strange and majestic birds were in groups huddling against the ice-cliff. From this book I learnt how people survive in harsh conditions, in a cold isolated place. I would highly recommend this book to all my friends, because it's interesting and adventurous, and one learns much about this expedetion to one of the most dangerous and unspoilt landscapes in the world. Antarcica.

This single sided map contains a lot of history and information without being too verly cluttered with facts or notations. It shows the main research facilities on the continent and is useful for school programs and just for information. A folded map, it is too bad that they did not also use the reverse to provide other information or show maps of the more highlighted areas of the ice, the Vinson Massiff, McMurdo and Dry Valleys, or the Antarctic Peninsula.

This is the second of two volumes of the "Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras". It was first published in magazine form between March 20th, 1864 and December 5th of 1865, and in Book form on May 4th, 1866. Together with "At The North Pole" it forms the second adventure story by Jules Verne.

This book does not stand on its own, you need to read "At The North Pole" first. This book picks up right after the cliff-hanging ending of the first book. Where the first book was fairly repetitive, this book has a much better variety of difficulties for the characters to overcome. Obviously the cold is still a significant obstacle as is food, but to these are added predatory bears, and the mutinous crew is replaced by a rivalry between Captain Hattaras and the American Captain Altamont.

For me, this book had a much better pace than the first book. The characters are not just sitting around waiting for things to happen as much as they were in the prior volume. Despite some glaring factual errors which date the book, and a somewhat anti-climactic ending, I found this to be more entertaining than "At The North Pole", and I give it the higher rating of the two volumes.

This book gives information on the history of Antarctica, providing information on place names across the continent. From those geographic points named by Ross, Palmer, Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton and other Antarctic explorers from the past to the present.

While difficult to locate, this book has a great deal of information given in the historical context of when, why and how they were named.

I don't know how to contact you otherwise, but I requested this work, papers 1-3, and received papers 4-7. I'll keep 4-7, but please send papers 1-3 ONLY (and not another copy of 4-7

"The Lost Men" is a book about the 1914 expedition to the Antarctic. I had thought it would be more of a historical fiction but found it was a report of the men's diaries. While these were the facts of the story, it made for dry reading.

I did learn things that I didn't know such as why the men were left in the Antarctic for so long and how they survived. But I got very tired of hearing repeatedly the names of each member of the party and the dryness that comes from reporting dates. By the end of the audio book, I could recite each member's name by heart.

The report also told of the stupidity of Sir Ernest Shackleton and how he wanted so badly to be the first to do the crossing that he went ahead with a very ill-equipped group of men, dogs who were not properly trained and not enough supplies or fuel. If this book was intended to make you feel sorry or in awe of the men, it did just the opposite. It showed that men can be so consumed with accomplishing something that no one else has that they will allow bad judgment to rule them rather than think things through to their proper conclusion. While I was glad to know that all but three of the men survived, it made me wonder why anyone would go, knowing they just might give up their life to do so.

Graeme Malcolm, the reader, was superb! His voice lent a real-life quality to each person because he gave each nationality their correct accent. British or Australian, each was very clear as to which ethnic group each man belonged.

The two year journal of a teacher & meterioroligist who answered an ad to go to Antarctica. The tale of his experiences and observations. At that time the British presence in the Antarctica region was called the Falklands Islands Dependencies Survey. This changed once the Antarctic treaty was sicned in 1961 (while Pearce was in Antarctica). Passingly interesting and funny in places, dry and tedious in others. Would never have finished the book if I hadn't been there and interested in the area. Intersperses his experiences and tales with a review of the history of scientific expeditions in the past.
Obviously from a different era. They dumped their sewage directly into the water, threw garbage out the door to be delt with by the wind, and killed seals to feed the sled dogs. None of these happen anymore.
The worth of this book is that he experienced the end of an era.

I'm a Peter Matthiesen fan. I loved "the Snow Leopard", "At Play in the Fields of the Lord", "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse", "The Tree Where Man Was Born", and "The Cloud Forest". So I was excited when I saw he had written a book about Antarctica.

Ugh, factual inaccuracies, sloppy writing, just a dreary effort from a long time master. Nearly inexcusable for a writer of his stature.

Peter Matthiessen is most honestly characterized as a "writer's writer" in that his works most favorably impress literary critics more than they garner mass reader appeal. This effort is a mediocre travel memoir of two different voyages to Antarctica and for each trip the author fills the pages with interesting historical, geographical and natural facts. Unfortunatly this book has no "heart and soul". "End of the Earth" merely 'reports' two stories on Antarctica as if Peter Matthiessen could take it or leave it. The usual book jacket accolades recite "...he blends a vision of harsh beauty, a traveler's love of adventure, and a profound appreciation for the splendors and extraordinary wildlife of a forbidding yet fragile world of ice". If only that were true this could have been a great book.

This rambling memoir details two trips that the author made to Antarctica with Victor Emmanuel Nature Tours, which specializes in birding trips. Peter Matthiessen beautifully describes several scenes from the Antarctic, which made me long to visit this stark landscape filled with life.

However, the book has no real direction. It reads like a journal, albeit a well-written one with a greater-than-average literacy quotient. The author makes little attempt to introduce any of his fellow-travelers or to show a personal journey of the mind to mirror the Antarctic voyages. Eventually, it just stops, rather than ends. He digresses from accounts of his voyage to describe the adventures of early polar explorers, or to comment on issues such as global warming and whaling. Although these asides are interesting and well-reasoned, there are better sources for each topic.

Birders and armchair travelers may enjoy the descriptions of his wildlife encounters, however.

The man wears his pretensions on his sleeve. OK, I could deal with that. His recurrent environmental proclamations are annoying, primarily because he glories in an expedition that invades the space he wants to keep pristine. Major contradiction.

But his prose is often stunning, his descriptions riveting, and the sense of place striking. I came away from the book with an appreciation of Antarctica and its wildlife. Not a bad achievement for an author.

I've always enjoyed Peter's books, especially the Snow Leopard. I've travelled to many spots all over the world (unfortunately, not to Antarctica yet - although my husband is a pilot on "the Ice"). His prose is a little drier and more austere, but then again, from what I hear from my husband and various travelers to Antarctica (including Shackleton and Scott), that is what Antarctica is like. I do enjoy Peter's environmentalist views, and I don't think there is any irony in the fact he wishes people wouldn't travel to the Ice - at least, not in large, damaging numbers. I think we need people like him to describe these things for us and WHY it is so important to protect these fragile environments. I have heard about many stories of many people - wealthy and otherwise - coming to the South Pole Station and other spots around the continent, stealing the geographic South Pole markers, leaving their trash behind, disrespecting the National Science Foundation rules and the Antarctic Treaty stipulations. There are all kinds of people in the world, and no one can stop them from making jerks of themselves - but we can read this book, be educated, and have a little healthier respect for such places, and in turn educate other people.

This is an interesting travel book, and a good addition to anyone's collection who is interested in travel to far-flung places and especially to anyone who is interested in the south polar regions.

As for Anne Olsen's comments - while I normally do not comment on other people's reviews (and I've done so twice! Yikes!) , I have to say, she is the one completely, totally, absolutely and embarrassingly in the wrong. Mattthiessen describes the first sentence that he "fetched up in Punta Arenas, Chile...." and she claims he made a gross error and states Punta Arenas is in Argentina. I'm sure he's made some mistakes in his book - I have over 1,000 books in my library and it's safe to say every one of them probably has a mistake or two. We are not perfect, we human beings. HOWEVER......... Peter Matthiessen didn't say anything wrong. Punta Arenas is, in fact, in Chile - not Argentina. There are actually a few Punta Arenas (Guatemala, Venezuela, Peru), but it is NOT in Argentina. Can't argue with the map!

The story of Reinhold Messner's walk across Antartica might have been more interesting had it been written by a professional author. Messner's first hand accounts, while interesting, do not make for especially good reading. However, there is a huge number of color photographs included that in and of themselves almost make the book worthwhile. Messner is perhaps the most accomplished extreme sportsman in the world. But he would do better letting someone else tell his fantastic stories.

This book is very uneven, unfortunately. On one side, photography is splendid, historical and geological discussion are very thorough, the spirit of adventure is live and well. However, I am TIRED to find Messner complaining about his partner on every single page. And the translation is so bad, that one can almost study German grammar from the English presented.

The philosophical expositions in the book kept my feelings mixed as well. On one side (and perhaps this is due to a poor translation) it is full of heavy and sometimes overly sweet German Romanticism; one the other hand, Messner's treatment of the white void in front of him as a meditative medium is very honestly portrayed and splendidly presented.

Messner never gave me a feeling of what it was like crossing Antartica. He went into too much detail on all the problems he had just getting there, but was not very discriptive of life on the ice. I was never drawn into the book and thus did not have much emphathy with the characters. Felt like Messner did more complaining about things than trying to describe the adventure he was on. He complained about his life before the trip, he complained about all the problems he ran into trying to get to Antartica, he complained about his partner during and after his trip, and he complained about there being people at the South Pole. To his credit it probably was hard to write this length of book when the story line was: I got up each morning for 92 days and walked.