Wild by Clint Willis

I really need to start reading descriptions better. This book is nothing like I thought. Wild: Stories of Survival from the World's Most Dangerous Places should be a book about surviving in dangerous places right? I expected the author to have conducted interviews with people who had survived in harsh climates and places. I was sadly mistaken. This book is nothing but an anthology of stories and excerpts from other people, and a good majority of them have nothing to do with survival or dangerous places.

There are fourteen excerpts of stories from fourteen different authors. The author, or rather compiler of these stories writes an introduction, but that's about it. These stories range from authors Jack London to Joe Kane to Edward Abbey and take place in the Amazon, Mountains, and Rivers of the world. While some do have to do with survival, the first story put me off because it was merely a description about preparing for a trip down the Amazon, but then ends before the trip really even begins. Another involves a hike on the Appalachian Trail which is neither particularly dangerous, nor an effort in survival. Some of the stories were charming to read and some of them were rather boring. There were a couple I caught myself just skimming through.

Another point of contention for me for this book was that it was found in a non-fiction section of books, but several of the excerpts are fiction. It just seems ill classified. Most of the stories I did find myself enjoying were of the non-fiction variety.

While I'm sure the author spent a lot of time putting together these excerpts and finding the perfect one's for this novel, I just can't but help but be less than satisfied. I probably will not be reading any more from this author. Next time I'll pay a little more attention to the description of a book before reading and consider it a lesson learned.

Wild
Copyright 1999
348 pages plus a few black and white photos