Fascinating Reading

I'm a reader. I think I might have been born with a book in my hand. At the tender age of 8, I decided I would try and read every single book in my school library, and while I did not accomplish that ambitious goal, I did manage to make a good dent in the collection. In college, I loved reading so much that I chose English as my major, imagining that I could pass on my love of literature to high school students. So inspired by my teaching, they would read widely and well, and wander off in to their glorious futures with the fond memory of their English teacher. Yeah, right. Two weeks in the classroom before even entering the formal education program, and I was convinced that teaching high school wasn't for me. I went in to marketing instead.

That doesn't mean that I lost my love of reading though. Lately I have taken to nonfiction adventure, living vicariously through writers who have swum in the Antarctic, run past limits I can only dream of, and climbed big mountains. I am inspired and awed by the feats that individuals choose to undertake. Their stories keep me moving and dreaming.

My latest read was an impulse pick from the local library. Last Breath: Cautionary Tales from the Limits of Human Endurance, by Peter Stark, a writer for Outside magazine, is a fascinating look at the science behind common ways one can die while pursuing extreme sports. Combining stories of people meeting fates including hypothermia, heat exhaustion, dehydration and even scurvy with explanations of the way the body operates in these circumstances, Stark weaves a deft and fascinating portrait of untimely death. I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy such a bleak book, but I found myself unable to put it down.

I feel like I've just been through a crash course on survival and first aid, though I am sure that faced with any of those situations, what seems so stark in my mind right now would become a blur. But I do know that if I'm heading out on an adventure, I need to make darn sure I bring a good source of vitamin C. I need to watch out for the C. Fleckeri jellyfish when I'm in Australia, and I better be sure I take my antimalaria pills when I'm in malaria country. But I also learned that I will actually stay cooler if I keep my body covered in the sun (which explains the long-sleeved UV protection running shirts), and if I am running out of water, it really isn't going to help me that much to horde my water.

Highly recommended for adventure and science junkies who want to learn more about the physiological responses to these deadly situations -