National Geographic's 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All-Time!

If you're like me, you enjoy adventure stories -- survival stories -- stories where an individual's life is on-the-line or hanging in the balance. True-life adventure stories make for incredible reading. They're frequently page-turners, nearly impossible to put down and that, I suppose, is how the name "cliff hangers" came about.

I first became addicted to adventure stories after hearing Jim Rome interview mountain climber, survivor, and author, Joe Simpson on his sports talk radio show, The Jim Rome Show. Listening to Simpson describe the extreme hardships he endured, the unbelievable measures he was forced to take to battle for his life, and what it was honestly like to be so close to death and facing your own mortality, was enthralling. The climbing-rope controversy surrounding the decision made by Simpson's climbing partner, Simon Yates, only increased my curiousity of "Touching the Void" and I rushed out the very same day and bought Simpson's wonderful book. It took me all of one day to finish the book, and I have re-read it three times since.

Simpson's journey led me on a survival story reading binge which continues to this day! I recently finished reading Anne Applebaum's 2004 Pulitzer Prize winning "Gulag: A History" which is a different kind of survival story, but none-the-less captivating. Ultimately, "Touching the Void" led me to all of Simpson's other books, as well as to Jon Krakauer's harrowing personal experiences on Mount Everest in 1996 which are detailed in his book "Into Thin Air." From there, I quickly found Krakauer's "Outside Magazine" articles and his vivid account of the life and struggles of Christopher McCandless in the tremendous biography "Into the Wild."

All of those books are fantastic, and TLH certainly recommends them to anyone interested in the adventure/survival genre. Which brings us to this week's list. Here's National Geographic's 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All-Time which is a fantastic reading list, and was compiled back in 2004.

Thomas Friedman's "Hot, Flat, and Crowded"

Thomas Friedman's new book, "Hot, Flat and Crowded" has received a pretty big response from a wide variety of reading groups, but no group has focused on the book more than people interested in exploring the major issues affecting our world and our environment at this point in the twenty-first century: global warming, over-population, disease, famine, the socio-global economy.

TLH has not read the book yet, but it's definitely on the "TO DO LIST." It has been widely discussed on different blogs and in different scientific and literary forums, including RichardDawkins.net.

One blogger and active critic of Friedman's book (and of Friedman himself) is Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi, who has a rather scathing critique of Friedman on his blog site. Take a look here:The Smirking Chimp.

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

The Internet is filled with book lists and, if you're anything like me, you've seen a bunch of them -- some are good, some are not so good -- and then there are the ones which are truly valuable. The "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" is definitely a keeper.

The 1001 book List charts the progression of the novel through history, and that is its main concern. Accordingly, you won't find Shakespeare's plays listed, since the focus is on the novel. You will, however, find a long list of very good contemporary fiction; and a compilation of tales which moves the method of story-telling and narrative technique forward (Aesop's Fables), backward (Martin Amis' "Times Arrow"), and -- in some cases -- attempts to do away with it all together (see Samuel Beckett).

Here's the link from "Listology" for your perusal:

1001 Books to Read Before You Die.