Posted: 12/2/2008 8:40:39 PM EDT
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Hands down the best book I've ever read. I mean this with all due respect, but it makes Lone Survivor look like Boy Scout Camper memoir. I've read it twice and picked it up again tonight. Did a search to see if anyone mentioned it in here, didn't see it so I thought I would share. Once you read it, you will never complain about being cold or hungry ever again.
http://www.amazon.com/Long-Walk-True-Story-Freedom/dp/1558216847 True Story Cavalry officer Slavomir Rawicz was captured by the Red Army in 1939 during the German-Soviet partition of Poland and was sent to the Siberian Gulag along with other captive Poles, Finns, Ukranians, Czechs, Greeks, and even a few English, French, and American unfortunates who had been caught up in the fighting. A year later, he and six comrades from various countries escaped from a labor camp in Yakutsk and made their way, on foot, thousands of miles south to British India, where Rawicz reenlisted in the Polish army and fought against the Germans. The Long Walk recounts that adventure, which is surely one of the most curious treks in history. ––This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review "One of the epic treks of the human race. Shackleton, Franklin, Amundsen. . .history is filled with people who have crossed immense distances and survived despite horrific odds. None of them, however, has achieved the extraordinary feat Rawicz has recorded. He and his companions crossed an entire continent––the Siberian arctic, the Gobi desert and then the Himalayas––with nothing but an ax, a knife, and a week's worth of food. . . His account is so filled with despair and suffering it is almost unreadable. But it must be read––and re-read." |
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I have read the book and I did enjoy it.
I am however skeptical that it is true. I mean come on! He claimed to have went 12 days without water in a desert and said he saw Yeti! I also remember reading the people who corresponded with him determined it was not true as well. |
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Quoted:
I have read the book and I did enjoy it. I am however skeptical that it is true. I mean come on! He claimed to have went 12 days without water in a desert and said he saw Yeti! I also remember reading the people who corresponded with him determined it was not true as well. I honestly don't know how the guy could have kept track of the number of says he was out there in the desert without food or water without keeping a journal. But I’m not going to discount the Yes, some of the stuff may be exaggerated, but I trust that he wrote the book being as honest as possible and did not intentionally embellish any part of it. Let's also remember that it had to be translated from his native Polish. As for the Yeti... it's the one part of the book that made me feel a bit uneasy. But he says that he simply can't explain what he saw. I don't think he swears up and down he saw the yeti, the guy was borderline delusional after walking across a continent and loosing several friends. I don't believe in Yeti but I also don’t believe in ghosts... but 20 years ago I saw something I simply can't explain, others would conclude it was a ghost. Stories are stories... and just like the controversy surrounding Lone Survivor and the real number of enemies killed, the details should not fog the real story in any way shape or form. The fact is both are incredible stories of men facing unimaginable odds and living to tell the tale. When I think back to a couple highly stressful situations in my life... I promise you some of the details would change (unintentionally) from moments after the event to a couple of years later. Our brains simply fill in holes. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
I have read the book and I did enjoy it. I am however skeptical that it is true. I mean come on! He claimed to have went 12 days without water in a desert and said he saw Yeti! I also remember reading the people who corresponded with him determined it was not true as well. I honestly don't know how the guy could have kept track of the number of says he was out there in the desert without food or water without keeping a journal. But I’m not going to discount the Yes, some of the stuff may be exaggerated, but I trust that he wrote the book being as honest as possible and did not intentionally embellish any part of it. Let's also remember that it had to be translated from his native Polish. As for the Yeti... it's the one part of the book that made me feel a bit uneasy. But he says that he simply can't explain what he saw. I don't think he swears up and down he saw the yeti, the guy was borderline delusional after walking across a continent and loosing several friends. I don't believe in Yeti but I also don’t believe in ghosts... but 20 years ago I saw something I simply can't explain, others would conclude it was a ghost. Stories are stories... and just like the controversy surrounding Lone Survivor and the real number of enemies killed, the details should not fog the real story in any way shape or form. The fact is both are incredible stories of men facing unimaginable odds and living to tell the tale. When I think back to a couple highly stressful situations in my life... I promise you some of the details would change (unintentionally) from moments after the event to a couple of years later. Our brains simply fill in holes. Make no mistake, regardless if stuff was factual or embelished, it is a very good book. |
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A truly outstanding 'survival' trek. Not only the distance involved but crossing the Gobi desert AND the Himalayas with only 'found' pieces of equipment is virtually unreal.
I've never heard any 'authority' of that time quibble about the 'story'-other than it's almost beyond belief. [The Brits thought they were some kinda spies IIRC when they walked in.] Took them months to recover and they almost died in hospital. Ghost |