Survive the Savage Sea – Dougal Robinson (sailing disaster) is truely insperational. What that guy endured and came up with to save his family was impressive.

Also second Dan Brown, after reading that I was inspired to never waste another hour of my life with such a unredeemable collection of banality.

A Million Tiny Peices is a shocking and inspiring read but I was incredibly angry to find out that although it's touted as a true story it's apparently a total work of fiction put forward as a true story because nobody wanted to publish it otherwise.

Just been on the Shen Ku website,highly recommended.
Ian
P.S. I'm not saying why.

I have just read left for dead about the 1979 fastnet disaster, I cannot recommend it enough even if you have no interest in sailing, a truly inspirational book!

I might have to do a search for books, now mostly out of print from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Thesiger
Ran Fiennes sites him as his explorer-hero figure.

French Revolutions – Tim Moore.

Wonderland avenue by Danny Sugarman best start to any book I've read "I sat there in the car remembering what the doctor had said: I had multiple addictions and a bacterial disease of the heart and if I kept on living the way I had been, then I had a week to live. The way I figured it that gave me 6 days of good drug taking before I had to check into rehab.." Good story of dragging yourself back from the brink.

Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson; can be a truly mind-blowing book, especially if you do the exercises – see how long it takes to find the penny…..

Said it recently on the On Thin Ice thread: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know is a great read. Inspirational of course because of the human endurance, but also the bloody mindededness and "why can't I?" mental attitude behind his success.

The Ascent of Rum Doodle is inspirational in a quiet sort of way.

Into the Wild by John Krakauer

Thanks one & all.
That's my summer's reading sorted out then!

On the back of some of these I might even enter the 100 mile Kielder mountain bike race on 05 Sept (coughs & splutters into his mug o' tea)!

ps – quite forgot: Under the wire by Bill Ash, the character Steve Mc Queen played in the Great Escape.

Life and Limb – Jamie Andrew
Between a rock and a Hard Place – Aaron Ralston

South – Ernest Shackleton

In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin, indeed anything by Bruce Chatwin.

the bible

the book of mormon