Book Review - South - The Endurance Expedition by Sir Ernest Shackleton

I'm not up with my history on polar exploration but the name Shackleton is held in high regard. When I spotted this book for $5 at the Save The Children Fund Giant Book Fair I had no hesitation in grabbing it.

And what a riveting read it turned out to be. At times it was difficult to put the book down. Normally I just read on the bus but I found myself reading at home also. Took about three weeks to finish. The justified text made it a bit difficult to concentrate at time and the US spelling for a book written by someone from Britain added to the difficulty. I had words spelt "incorrectly".

Long story made short - Shackleton assembled a crew prior to the outbreak of World War I for a polar expedition to Antarctica, his third. They sailed south and attempted to land at the Weddell Sea and make a crossing via the pole to the Ross Sea where another ship, the Aurora, was waiting (supposedly) after its crew had created a series of depots with food to allow him to make a relatively easy crossing. Well, his ship became stuck fast in the ice and he didn't make land. Then the ship was crushed by ice and the 26 explorers had to wait it out in abominable conditions. After a few months camped on the floe they headed to the open sea by dragging three boats with them until they reached relatively open water. A dangerous sea crossing was made and they were the first humans to land on Elephant Island. Six of the members headed to South Georgia to organise a rescue from the whaling station there. Just when you thought that things couldn't get worse they did. Continuously.

Sir Ernest didn't have all of the fun though. The Aurora broke its moorings and drifted in a chunk of floe for some ten months before they could break free. They then made it to New Zealand.

Spare a thought for the depot crew on Antarctica who were planning on living on the Aurora - they were left to mother nature and withstood hunger, temperatures of -35C, blizzards that raged for days, lack of dogs for sledging and many other calamities. Three of the ten men survived this ordeal. Absolutely amazing.

South - The Endurance Expedition by Sir Ernest Shackleton

Throughout my reading I jotted down notes of interesting quotes and writing. Here is where I share them.

- Killer whales posed a danger to men on the ice as they wouldn't differentiate between man and seal when hunting and could smash through quite thick ice.
- Ice bubbles 40ft across by four or five ft high were noticed.
- Strieted.
- Mirages were seen regularly, sometimes in duplicate or triplicate.
- Strange phenomenon of the sun setting and rising twice, another mirage.
- Arthwartship.
- Parhelia, double suns noted.
- Frost-smoke.
- "A man must shape himself to a new mark directly the old one goes to ground." - following the loss of his ship.
- sinecure.
- Farinaceous - Made from, or rich in, starch or flour.
- The fact that the men did not know what was coming gave them a sort of mental speculation, and the slightest variation was of great value.
- Imbricated.
- "No housewife ever had more to do than we in making a little go a long way" - Lees
- The men would forage for the smallest scraps of "food", not something modern people in the land of plenty would contemplate.
- Avidity.
- "It will do us all good to be hungry like this, for we will appreciate so much more the good things when we get home" - one of the men.
- Shackleton's men ate the dogs when food was very low. "Just like beef, but, of course, very tough." Strangely, it was written that the last two teams of dogs were shot on April 2nd but mentioned they were still feeding them on April 18th.
- "Loneliness is the penalty of leadership, but the man who has to make decisions is assisted greatly if he feels that there is no uncertainty in the minds of those who follow him, and that his orders will be carried out confidently and in expectation of success."
- "The trappings of civilisation are soon cast aside in the face of stern realities, and given the barest opportunity of winning food and shelter man can live and even find his laughter ringing true."
- The old adage about a short cut being the longest way round is ofter as true in the Antarctic as it is in the peaceful countryside.
- "The scene from our camp as the daylight brightened was magnificent beyond description, though I must admit that we viewed it with anxiety."
- Distances are much more difficult to judge because of the clear air in Antarctica and differences in elevation were almost impossible to determine which lead to sledging teams tipping over on many occasions.
- "The fairy princess who would not rest on her seven downy mattresses because a pea lay underneath the pile might not have understood the pleasure we all derived from the irregularities of the stones, which could not possibly break beneath us or drift away; the very searching lumps were sweet reminders of our safety."
- First person to set foot on Elephant Island, Blackborrow, the youngest expedition member, actually stayed lying in the surf after being dumped overboard for the honour. He was badly frostbitten on both feet and couldn't possibly walk and Shackleton forgot this in his endeavour to give him the honour. Whoops.
- "Man's sense of honour is always most easily stirred by the petty misfortunes of his neighbours."
- Morainic.
- Nunataks.
- A roaring glacier on South Georgia Island which, sounding much like gunfire as icebergs were being calved, kept them awake.
- Once Shackleton, Worsley and Crean had reached civilisation and bathed, changed clothes and had a hair cut both head and facial, other members of his crew failed to recognise Worsley upon their return.
- "It is evident, therefore, that a complete knowledge of the weather conditions in any part of the world, which it is understood carries with it the ability to make correct forecasts, can never be obtained unless the weather conditions in every other part are known."
- Sir Ernest was greatly concerned that the humpback whale was threatened with extinction and called for universal legislation to protect whales from early commercial extinction.

For those of you who love non-fiction - read it. It's a harrowing tale of human survival against all odds.

Save The Children Giant Book Sale

The annual Save The Children Giant Book Sale is on this weekend in Perth. It's being held at Winthrop Hall at UWA and finishes on Wednesday. Get in, grab lots of bargains, help out this worthy charity and get reading! I have.

Photo Album on Facebook.

Save the Children Giant Book Sale 2010

Save the Children are holding their famous Giant Book Sale at Winthrop Hall at UWA. It started on Friday and runs until Wednesday. Apparently it was pretty busy on Friday and a bit quieter yesterday morning when we went. The local ABC radio station was in attendance broadcasting live.

We spent one hour searching for books. The missus grabbed two cross-stitch magazines, The Boy got a few books including reference material and I picked up several sports autobiographies, war books and history books. I didn't think that the books on offer were as exciting as last year, although I did spot a few copies of one of the books that I purchased last year, and that the price of the higher quality books was much more than last year. I seem to recall not paying more than $8 for a publication last year and this year bought one for $15 and another for $12. Still, they will certainly tide me over until next year. Less time on Facebook and more with my head in a book. Not a bad pickup for just over $100 methinks.

Get down there, grab a bargain, learn yourself up and help out a worthy charity.

Winthrop Hall at UWA

This way please to the Save the Children Giant Book Sale

Thouands of books for sale

720 ABC's Sinead Mangan with guest Chris Murphy on guitar

My books - pic 1 

My books - pic 2

The Boy's books - pic 1 (doubled up the Ancient Rome Atlas and World History)

The Boy's books - pic 2

Pile of books for a pile of reading over the next year

Book Review - Kokoda by Paul Ham

Just finished another book written by Paul Ham. It's called Kokoda and covers the history of the battle between Australian (and American) forces and those of the Japanese. This book is incredibly well researched and examined sources such as diary entries, military documents and numerous interviews.

Kokoda is a term for which the Australian soldiers are held in high esteem. But not many of us know what happened there. This book tells the story of the struggle between few well-trained and many conscripted Australian soldiers who suffered from poor leadership, were ill-equipped and supplied and who fought against the Imperial Japanese army in some of the most inhospitable land (Australian territory at the time) imaginable.

The content is graphic and sometimes chilling. The subject matter is not for the faint-hearted. Neither side was well supported and suffered immeasurably from disease and lack of food. Cannibalism took place. War crimes are put forth. It's hard to believe that two armies could fight in such conditions.

This book is a must read if you want to know the story of Kokoda. It's also necessary to read if you wish to improve your vocabulary. Some of the words used that I need to look up are:

Crapulence, inviolable, gallimautry, amanuensis, discombobulated, ambuscading, bowdlerised, pathos, exigencies, obfuscation, spenetic, obesiant, kessel, mendacious, propifious, etiolated, caparisoned, rumbustious, felorile, fetiol, transmogrifying, ineluctable, insouciance, anthropophagy, eponymous, glossitis, apotheosis, exculpatory, abnegation, encomiums, sisyphean, abstemious, corporeal, inculcated, oleaginous and perfunctorily.

I'm glad to say that I completed the book just before the upcoming Save The Children Book Fair at UWA this weekend. Don't miss it if you wish to pick up a bargain, or twenty, on secondhand books with proceeds going to an excellent charity. You might even see me there.

Kokoda by Paul Ham

Didn't Enjoy Sunday Morning Swim Today

Today I didn't enjoy my usual Sunday morning swim. Reason for that is The Boy and I went to do fruit and vegie shopping prior to calling in to UWA for the annual Save The Children Book Sale. It's a fundraiser for the aforementioned charity and there are thousands of books on offer for only a few dollars each, generally.

We spent about an hour and a half there and I bought five books for myself. Last year I purchased four books and only have one left to read. The Boy got some 20-odd books including a few references book that I chose. There was something by Charles Dickens, Robert L Stevenson and several Captain Underpants books in amongst them. He'll finish his books before I complete mine.

The book sale is at Winthrop Hall and concludes on Tuesday. I believe that Tuesday is bargain box day so fill a box with books and pay bugger all. You won't have the choice that last Friday or Saturday offered however. It's all for a good cause and your brain will thank you for the stimulation.

Had a swim in the afternoon but it wasn't the same. And The Boy wasn't feeling too well either. Perhaps to do some laps in the morning.

Book Sale

Over at UWA (University of Western Australia) there is a book sale in Winthrop Hall for the Save The Children charity. People, libraries and others, if there can be others, have donated books of all kinds to be sold at bargain prices with all money raised going to the charity with special focus on Bangladesh. So many people. So many books. Didn't take enough cash but they took credit card.

There was a travel section but no book on Singapore that I would have found useful. They did have travel guides for Mexico, South America and Greece though. I bought a couple of books on South Korea, General Norman Schwarzkopf's autobiography, Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore and a book about the economic rise and fall of countries from 1400. The Boy picked up Tom Sawyer, a 300 page puzzle book that he spent the ensuing four hours reading and finished and a few others including The Jungle Book. Miky bought a Van Gogh book, something about the Renaissance painters and home craft. It was an afternoon well spent.