Real Life Adventure Books Adventurers Love to Read

When it comes to your next adventurous read, who better than adventurers to recommend their favorite books? Here are two adventure books well worth the read, and what a couple of adventurers had to say about them.

The Worst Journey In The World (1922) by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. Does the thought of three men hauling 300 kilos through the Polar wilderness in -70ºC sound like a good time to you? We didn’t think so. Yet the narrator, a young member of Captain Scott's expedition team, managed to describe the event with the dry wit that only the British could be known for.

Ben Saunders, polar explorer, had this to say: "It's an epic tale of suffering and derring-do," says Saunders. "The New York Review Of Books said it was, 'To travel, what War And Peace is to the novel – a masterpiece.' I'd go along with that!"

The Kon-Tiki Expedition (1950) by Thor Heyerdahl. In 1947 Thor Heyerdahl and his companions sailed 4,300 miles from Peru towards Polynesia in an attempt to prove that the Pacific was settled from the West. And for authenticity’s sake, they did it on a primitive raft like the kind the aboriginals would have used.

Tom Avery, author of To The End Of The Earth, had this to say about it: "I read it as a boy, and recently re-read it. Six men crossing the Earth's largest ocean on a balsa raft? Surely the most inspiring adventure story ever told."

Looking for an adventure? Visit our online library at www.voxency.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more. Accessible anytime, anywhere, from your favorite devices.

Quotes To Spark Your Next Adventure

Adventure awaits at every corner, but sometimes we need just a bit of extra motivation to get the adventure started. What better place to look for that motivation than in books? Here are three great quotes to get your next wondrous adventure off the ground.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by.”

-Robert Frost

From The Road Not Taken, first published in 1916 in Robert Frost’s collection of poems: Mountain Interval. Frost’s words are ones to live by, and speak to far more than a simple walk through the woods serving as an apt analogy for life and the choices one makes within.

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“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

-H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Often erroneously attributed to Mark Twain, this inspiring sentiment actually comes from Brown’s 1991 book: P.S. I Love You: When Mom Wrote, She Always Saved the Best for Last. Actually, if we’re being totally accurate, the quote should be attributed to Brown’s mother…

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“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”

-Robert Louis Stevenson

From one of Stevenson’s first published works: Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879). The value of travel for travel’s sake should never be overlooked.

Feeling inspired? Looking for more adventurous reads? Visit www.voxency.com for a wide variety of books and more.

Action Movies That Started as Books

Who doesn’t love a good action movie? Fast-paced and made to get your heart pumping, there’s much to be said for a good thrill on the big screen. But every movie starts with an idea, and many of those ideas came from the literary world. Here are three action movies that actually started out as books.

Die Hard. Yes, that’s right, Bruce Willis’s action packed portrayal of detective John McClane is actually based on the adventures of detective Joe Leland, the principal character in Roderick Throp’s Nothing Lasts Forever. Although an adaptation of Throp’s novel, Die Hard did include some significant changes to the original story, notably the age of the protagonist (Willis played a much younger character) and the ending of the story, which was considerably happier in the movie.

Full Metal Jacket. Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece was actually adapted from Gulf War veteran Gustav Hasford’s novel The Short-Timers. Written in 1979, The Short-Timers is different in tone and structure than Full Metal Jacket, but is served no less as the inspiration for Kubrick’s 1987 film.

Rambo: First Blood. Based on First Blood, David Morrel’s first novel, the screenplay went through a decade or revisions before finally making it to the screen. Notably different between the book and the movie is the ending. Whereas John Rambo commits suicide at the end of the book the film altered the story to have Rambo turning himself into authorities, perhaps some foresight by producers who envisioned a lofty future for the franchise.

Looking for more action-packed reads? Check out the wide selection of books available online at www.voxency.com.