MobileRead Book Club
March 2014 Nominations
Help us select the book that the MobileRead Book Club will read for March, 2014.
The nominations will run through midnight EST February 28 or until 10 books have made the list. The poll will then be posted and will remain open for five days.
Book selection category for March is:
Travel/Adventure
In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third).
How Does This Work?
The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the last week of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome.
How Does a Book Get Selected?
Each book that is nominated will be listed in a poll at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection.
How Many Nominations Can I Make?
Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person.
How Do I Nominate a Book?
Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest.
How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated?
Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP.
When is the Poll?
The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the initial poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed.
The floor is open to nominations.
Please comment if you discover a nomination is not available as an ebook in your area.
Official choices with three nominations each:
(1) The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Amazon US /
Project Gutenberg
Spoiler:
The Worst Journey in the World, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1922) As War and Peace is to novels, so is The Worst Journey in the World to the literature of polar travel: the one to beat. The author volunteered as a young man to go to the Antarctic with Robert Falcon Scott in 1910; that, and writing this book, are the only things of substance he ever did in life. They were enough. The expedition set up camp on the edge of the continent while Scott waited to go for the Pole in the spring. But first, Cherry-Garrard and two other men set out on a midwinter trek to collect emperor penguin eggs. It was a heartbreaker: three men hauling 700 pounds (318 kilograms) of gear through unrelieved darkness, with temperatures reaching 50, 60, and 70 degrees below zero (-46, -51, and -57 degrees Celsius); clothes frozen so hard it took two men to bend them. But Cherry-Garrard's greater achievement was to imbue everything he endured with humanity and even humor. And—as when he describes his later search for Scott and the doomed South Pole team—with tragedy as well. His book earns its preeminent place on this list by captivating us on every level: It is vivid; it is moving; it is unforgettable.
— National Geographic Books, 2002.
(2) On the Trail of Genghis Khan: An Epic Journey Through the Land of the Nomads by Tim Cope
Amazon US /
Kobo
Spoiler:
From National Geographic:
In 2004, explorer Tim Cope set out to travel 6,000 miles by horse from Mongolia to Hungary across the great Eurasian Steppe. It was a quest to retrace the route taken by Mongolian conquerors, who under Genghis Khan created the largest empire in history, and an odyssey into the spirit of the nomadic way of life. As described in his new book, On the Trail of Genghis Khan, Cope, accompanied by his canine companion, Tigon, and the occasional camel, spent more than three years in the saddle. From the ice-capped Altai Mountains to the burning heat of the Kazakh desert, Cope experienced both rugged trails and nomad hospitality—the linchpin of survival on the steppe. He traveled across a kaleidoscope of countries and came to a deep understanding of the steppe’s rich and diverse nomadic peoples—their rich heritage and the precarious place that the traditional culture finds itself in the modern era. Journey with the 2006 Australian Adventurer of the Year on his fascinating epic across time and space.
(3) Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: Kindle /
ePub
(4) Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
No links provided.
(5) The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
Amazon Ca /
Amazon US /
Barnes & Nobel /
Kobo
(6) South: The Endurance Expedition to Antarctica by Ernest Shackleton
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: Kindle
(7) Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Amazon US /
Kobo
Spoiler:
A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.
Strayed faces down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
(8) Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub
Spoiler:
From Amazon:
Classic of sea adventure conveys all the excitement of being the first man to sail around the world, alone, in small boat. Pirates, perils, witty observations, stories. 67 illustrations.
About the Author:
Joshua Slocum was a Canadian-American seaman and adventurer, a noted writer, and the first man to sail single-handedly around the world. In 1900 he told the story of this in Sailing Alone Around the World. He disappeared in November 1909 while aboard his boat, the Spray.
"This book has literary merit, thoughtful and beautifully written and packed with incident." - The Nautical Magazine
"As a writer Slocum is given to plain understatement, dry wit, wry humor and Yankee observations about nature that led some to call him a sea-locked Thoreau. ... he offers descriptive glances at the sea, in storm or calm, that can rival those of Joseph Conrad." - Smithsonian
"A literary gem, adroitly and engagingly written." - National Fisherman
"A literate and absorbing yarn published in 1900 and still in print... His story is a convincing tale of the intelligence, skill and fortitude that drove a master navigator." - The New York Times
"One of the most readable books in the whole library of adventure." - Sports Illustrated
"Yet, he seems to almost casually find his way around the world, meeting interesting people, avoiding mishaps and just generally having a great time." - Amazon Reviewer (Robert R. Briggs)
"Fantastic adventure! ... He writes about the practical and technical challenges of long distance sailing in the 19th century and about his encounters with the peoples and tribes on his route. The writing style is short and factual, but that almost makes the impression even stronger given that more often than not Joshua Slocum had to face death and only escaped with the narrowest of margins." - Amazon Reviewer (Robert Pajor)
"Sailing Alone Around the World is a great read, and the adventure it describes is an amazing testament to courage, perseverance, and the human spirit of exploration." - Amazon Reviewer (Carlene Garrick)
The nominations are now closed.