Last Breath: The Limits of Adventure |  | Author: Peter Stark
Brand: IRC
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $2.09
as of 3/11/2010 18:35 CST details
You Save: $13.91 (87%)
New (27) Used (42) Collectible (1) from $2.09
Seller: _beaglebooks_
Rating:  10 reviews
Media: Paperback
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0345441516
Dewey Decimal Number: 616
EAN: 9780345441515
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780345441515 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Sudden, extreme deaths have always fascinated us-- and now more than ever as athletes and travelers rise to the challenges of high-risk sports and journeys on the edge. In this spellbinding book, veteran travel and outdoor sports writer Peter Stark reenacts the dramas of what happens inside our bodies, our minds, and our souls when we push ourselves to the absolute limits of human endurance: Combining the adrenaline high of extreme sports with the startling facts of physiological reality, Stark narrates a series of outdoor adventure stories in which thrill can cross the line to mortal peril. Each death or brush with death is at once a suspense story, a cautionary tale, and a medical thriller. Stark describes in unforgettable detail exactly what goes through the mind of a cross-country skier as his body temperature plummets-- apathy at ninety-one degrees, stupor at ninety. He puts us inside the body of a doomed kayaker tumbling helplessly underwater for two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes. He conjures up the physiology of a snowboarder frantically trying not to panic as he consumes the tiny pocket of air trapped around his face under thousands of pounds of snow: These are among the dire situations that Stark transforms into harrowing accounts of how our bodies react to trauma, how reflexes and instinct compel us to fight back, and how, why, and when we let go of our will to live: In an increasingly tamed and homogenized world, risk is not only a means of escape but a path to spirituality. As Peter Stark writes, "You must try to understand death intimately and prepare yourself for death in order to live a full and satisfying life." In this fascinating, informative book, Stark reveals exactly what we're getting ourselves into when we choose to live-- and die-- at the extremes of endurance.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
 An unblinking look at what it is really like to die February 13, 2005
T. D. Welsh (Basingstoke, Hampshire UK)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
This might look like a morbid subject, but it isn't really. Every single one of us is going to die, and although we become very good at not thinking about it - developing a kind of mental blind spot that hides the awareness - it might be a good idea to give it some thought. Besides, we could pick up some tips that put off the evil hour. Such as not deciding to ski the rest of the way when our car breaks down in subzero conditions a few miles from the friend's house where we are going. Such as taking the right anti-malarial drugs before going to a part of the world where that disease is endemic. Or not free-soloing a rock face of difficulty 5.9 with no one else in sight or hearing distance.
As Peter Stark explains, risking your life helps you to experience life more fully. But sometimes risks turn out badly, and then it may be too late to be sorry. "Last Breath" tells you exactly what it is like to drown in a "hole" while kayaking a turbulent river, to die of dehydration in the Sahara, or to be buried by an avalanche. So you don't need to try these experiences yourself - which is a good thing, if you want to go on living.
This book is packed with fascinating information about our bodies, how they work, and their relationship with the surrounding environment. Without the support of technology - clothes, houses, heating, and so on - human beings can live only in a narrow band close to the Equator, below 3.5 miles above sea level, and where there is plenty of fresh water. Stark drives home to the reader just how easy it is to misjudge things when stepping outside the ideal environment. Sometimes just one wrong movement - or even one necessary thing left undone...
At the end of "Last Breath", I found there was a wonderful unanticipated bonus. *I* was still alive!
Can't put it down! October 17, 2002
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
I just bought this book yesterday, and have been unable to put it down since then. It's an edge of your seat book and I highly recommend it to anyone who is involved in sports of any kind. It really makes you think. Highly recommended!!!
 Have read it twice. July 30, 2005
Julia B. Reid (Cambridge, Ontario Canada)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
While one reviewer did not like this book at all, I can't agree with him that the characters were not engaging. Even though it is hard to create characters who are only in one situation, and who mostly die at the end of the story, I think the authour succeeded in showing interesting characters. Given the main purpose of the book was to show the physiological ways of death, I was glad the authour didn't focus on creating deep character studies. That would distract from the reason I personally bought the book - to learn about the human body, and how it can die. I am now reading this book again, and don't regret buying it at all.
I hope I only read about these desparate stories January 16, 2005
BillT (Seattle)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This was a good read. I followed the unfolding of one desparate story after another with interest. The medical side line was also interesting information. I appreciated the author's preface explaining how he got his information and what was fictionalize. It certainly helped that he has participated in most of the sports contained in these experiences gone wrong. This book was a unique find for me, as I had never read much adventure before.
subclinical scurvy - what, ME ? September 5, 2006
Hibernating Hummingbird (Tempe, AZ USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I will always remember this book as the one which led me to reconsider my discounting of Pauling's Vitamin-C-megadose-theory due to the chapter 5, which contains selected tidbits of True History ( of scurvy ) interwoven with plausible fiction.
Four stars because the "plausible fiction" often sounds so contrived - for five stars the author might rewrite the book after searching for more tidbits of True History to base each scenario upon.
Still, to read the wikipedia article confirming that humans ARE genetically defective - opposable thumb check, but we can no longer make Vitamin-C while e.g. goats still can, and an adult goat will synthesize "about 13,000 mg" per day, more when sick. Strangely, no one had ever explained it to me that way before !
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
|
|
|
|
