I’m a survivalist.

Well, to be more exact, I’m an armchair survivalist—but that’s pretty much the same thing right? By far, my favorite books to read when it’s just me and an open weekend are those that place humans in the worst of conditions so they can use their brains, their brawn, and their enduring patience and determination to figure a way out of their mess. I’ve noted elsewhere some of my favorite survival books—anything about the Endurance and Earnest Shackleton, for example—so I won’t belabor the point here.

Perhaps one of the more famous true-life survival stories from recent decades is that of Aron Ralston, as recounted best in his book, Between a Rock and Hard Place. Trapped alone in the cavernous trails of Utah’s Canyonlands Ralston survives 6 days with his hand wedged and decaying in the rocks, surviving on urine and desperation.

Now I’ve got to admit from the get-go here that I just listened to Ralston’s own voiced-over audio book, and I don’t think it’s the same thing as the print version of the book by the same title. I own the print version, which is 352 pages long, filled with pictures and stories that (upon a skimming perusal) I don’t think were in the audio version. The audio book was just 5 hours long, though the Libby app never mentioned anything about it being abridged. I feel a bit cheated…though to be perfectly honest, I still want to read the whole book. So maybe that’s the ploy?

I had heard about Ralston’s experience while I was in college, and even from the newspaper clippings I’d read, I knew his was a story I had to hear more about. It appears that he published this book just a year after the incident—all while hitting the major talk shows and late-nights to get his story out to a broader audience—so he either had a knack for capitalizing on a tragedy or had a great agent pushing him along.

I loved the personal info he shared in this book, while keep the main story the main story. In fact, in the audio version, he’s fallen into the crevice within the first 10-15 minutes. There was very little lollygagging, and the audio book wasn’t weighted down with extra stories, interesting but unnecessary to the main plot. I liked how he kept things moving, even then time for him seemed to drag on and on.

This book reminds me a great deal of Touching the Void, and after I read the print version, I think I could make a better judgement as to whose was the better-written book. In both, the authors find themselves injured and soon dead, unless then can find a way out of their predicaments. Even when we readers can anticipate what’s coming in this book (I mean, the front cover shows the author without a right hand, for crying out loud!), we still are unsure of when or how he’s going to do the terrible deep of cutting off his own arm to save his life. The anticipations runs pretty high. And with his third-person view of the rescue efforts happening on the other end, I felt a bit of the tension I felt while reading Alive.

I don’t think this book is as tense as Alive (arguably my favorite survival book of all time), but I say that in no way to diminish from this book. It’s exciting, it moves at clip that only such a story can allow, and I truly enjoyed it. It ranks right up there with favorite survival stories, and like I said, I’m sure I’ll read the print version sooner or later.

©2021 E.T.