When I was in the fifth grade, I decided I wanted to be an archaeologist. I read everything I could get my hands on concerning the tombs of the Egyptian Pharaohs, Stonehenge, the ancient cities of Athens and Rome, the ruins of Pompeii. I don't quite remember what brought on my sudden depression; I think it was reading about Schliemann discovering the city of Troy. Anyway, I vividly remember running to my mother in tears because, "everything is going to be discovered by the time I grow up!"

This sentiment, that it's all been done already, also affects those adventuresome souls who enjoy exploration. There is no Wild Frontier anymore; the North Pole, the South Pole, all the far corners of the Earth -even outer space-have been explored. So now, exploration must become simply adventure. And there is a lot of adventure still out there to be had.

In honor of all the explorations of the past century, David Roberts pulled together an anthology of 41 excerpts from some of the greatest adventure tales of the 20th century. The book is called "Points Unknown." Each excerpt is taken from a work originally written in English, and which highlights great adventure writing.

Roberts makes a distinction between great adventures and great adventure writing in his introduction. He says, "The first ascent of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 exemplified expeditionary mountaineering, but...Sir John Hunt's "The Ascent of Everest" is a plodding book."

So Roberts looked for great stories told with skill. He didn't want just hairbreadth escapes, but also the whimsical, the humorous, the lighthearted adventures, as well. The book is divided into three sections: Obsessions, Idylls, and Ordeals. Each excerpt lists the author, the book the excerpt is from, and an introduction to the piece. Here are some of the pieces included:
Robert Falcon Scott's diary from his last expedition, trying to be the first to reach the South Pole in 1912, is a heartbreaking, tragic story. The introduction says "Scott's diary, which he kept faithfully to the end, is the most vivid and detailed account of slow deterioration and inevitable death in polar annals. For decades, its last page has lain open, under glass, in the British Museum...The last of the five men to die, he managed, after five days' silence in the last camp, to rouse himself for one last entry, giving the world two of the most memorable closing lines in exploratory history."

We follow Bertram Thomas as he becomes the first man to cross the Empty Quarter in southern Arabia-probably the world's most inhospitable desert-in 1931. Joshua Slocum takes us with him on the first solo circumnavigation of the globe at the turn of the century, a voyage that took just over three years to complete. Eric Hansen heads out, alone with very little gear, into the rain forest of Borneo in 1982, an American vagabond intent upon exploration. Robyn Davidson, who had undertaken a similar solo trek by camel across the western desert of Australia, said of Hansen, "Only a consummate traveler or lunatic would set off alone across Borneo with nothing but a pair of ratty sand shoes and a knapsack full of trading goods." We experience one of the great partnerships of modern mountaineering, that of Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker, as Peter describes the ascent, and then the more dangerous descent of the mountain called Changabang, in India. Roberts says, "The duo has to pull out all the stops to get down from the summit alive. Then, just as they anticipate relaxing and gorging themselves at base camp, they stumble into the tragedy all mountaineers dread-and find themselves driven to a mission of mercy more macabre than any climb."

I like these adventure books because, let's face it: I am not putting out $70,000 to possibly die on Mount Everest; I am not canoeing down the Amazon dodging poison dart guns. It's just not happening. But I can get the thrill of the adventure from the comfort of my own home, thanks to all these men and women who have gone before me, and written about it. In fact, I got the thrill of 41 different adventures.

If you are an armchair adventurer too, you will enjoy "Points Unknown: the greatest adventure writing of the 20th century."