Chasing Shackleton (Book Review)

Title: Chasing Shackleton: Re-creating the World's Greatest Journey of Survival
Author: Tim Jarvis
Publisher: William Morrow
Source: Library

Goodreads Summary:
In this extraordinary adventure memoir and tie-in to the PBS documentary, Tim Jarvis, one of the world's leading explorers, describes his modern-day journey to retrace, for the first time ever—and in period clothing and gear—the legendary 1914 expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton.

In early 1914, British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his team sailed for Antarctica, attempting to be the first to reach the South Pole. Instead of glory, Shackleton and his crew found themselves in an epic struggle for survival: a three-year odyssey on the ice and oceans of the Antarctic that endures as one of the world’s most famous tales of adventure, endurance, and leadership ever recorded.

In the winter of 2013, celebrated explorer Tim Jarvis, a veteran of multiple polar expeditions, set out to recreate Sir Ernest Shackleton’s treacherous voyage over sea and mountain, outfitted solely with authentic equipment—clothing, boots, food, and tools—from Shackleton’s time, a feat that has never been successfully accomplished.

Shackleton's Epic is the remarkable record of Jarvis and his team’s epic journey. Beautifully designed and illustrated with dozens of photographs from the original voyage and its modern reenactment, it is a visual feast for readers and historians alike, and an essential new chapter in the story that has inspired adventurers across every continent for a century.

Thoughts:
I hadn't heard a thing about this book when I picked it up. The title and cover drew me in because I love Antarctica ever since my study abroad there in 2008. I used to know quite a lot about Shackleton although I had forgotten most of it, fortunately this book does a great job of telling his adventure story as well so I wasn't behind.

Actually I found that the parts about Shackleton and the quotes by him and his crew to be the most interesting part of the book, making me think that I would have actually enjoyed a biography of Shackleton more. This book has beautiful pictures and a great story of adventure although I get the feeling that the documentary would be a lot better than the book as it is lacking a little in the writing department.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, but only if you are into this sort of thing. If you are new to the subject of Antarctic adventure, I have certainly read better and would start with something else.

Rating: 3/5