Richard Bangs' Adventures with Purpose is an anthology of fifteen of the author's most recent eco-minded mini-expeditions. The collection spans the globe from Egypt to Papua New Guinea, Annapurna to the Missouri River.

As part of my personal reading program for the new year, every third book must be from the travel lit category. Several years ago I was a voracious reader of travel/adventure/exploration lit to both whet and sate my own appetite for such pursuits. In the interim, I have discovered passions need to be nurtured, and so it was I picked up Bangs' volume that had been sitting on my bookshelf unread for too long.

Adventures opens with a dry encounter about pursuing crocodiles along the Nile River, followed by a slightly better yet mediocre second chapter in Rwanda. Ay, I said, this is going to be a long book. But, perseverance is rewarding and from there on nearly each chapter was more fluid and intriguing, peaking with Bangs' base camp perspective as Ed Viesturs summited Annapurna, capping his pursuit of all fourteen of the world's 8,000 meter mountains.

Particularly after its tedious beginnings, Adventures with Purpose far exceeded my expectations in reigniting my own hankerings for adventure and has given me a slew of must-do experiences to add my life list. More importantly, the book highlights the worthiness of both experiencing and protecting our endangered inhabitants, environments and cultures. ( )

This was a fabulous book to read. I am a bit more of an armchair travellar, or was back in my earlier days, but now I tend to read a lot of travel narratives and this one has it all!! Running into the wilds of Ethiopia, facing hardships...and admitting it...whereas most travel narratives gloss over the hard parts. In this book you are take to exotic locals, burt with an ecologists eye for the environment. Bang's carries you to Libiya, to Panama and even out into the American West. You will not be wanting for adventure when you read this book!.

What I especially liike about Bang's work is that you are also introduced to the culture, the environment, the ecosystems, and what is happening to them...in the present day and age. Not only will you find yourself enthralled by his accounts of his travels, you may find yourself prodded to be come a bit of an eco-activist to follow up on what is happening to our world. ( )

When I first began reading this book, I thought the author had forgotten to write for his audience and was instead writing for himself. Each story after the introduction opens a little window into these areas. The people are real and the author's voice in his stories gives the impression that he is truly awed by their determination and sacrifice. I'm glad I made it past the intro and truly enjoyed this book. ( )

The concept for this book is great and most of the adventures are amazing. The book is full of good stories and compelling personal journeys. Many of the places and stories in this book are fascinating. There were many highlights in this book for me –like the trip down the Neretva River in Bosnia or visiting an isolated village in Papua New Guinea. I found the last chapter of the book—a quick sketch of an African safari—to be touching.

At issue for me, unfortunately, is the writing. It took me over a month to read Adventures with Purpose and I struggled to finish it. Bangs is clearly a storyteller at heart and I imagine his wit comes across better in person than it does on the page. Bangs is a very casual writer and his writing doesn’t hang together very well. I think if the editing had been better it would have vaulted this book to the next level, because the bones of a good book are here.

After struggling to stay involved with the book, I asked my husband (who is also a voracious reader and is unlike me an outdoorsman) to read Adventures. He too found it difficult to get through and gave up about a quarter of the way through.

The first several chapters highlighted the plight of places/people in need of help. In the first chapter, for example, takes Bangs to the Nile, where he explores work to bring the crocodile back from the brink. In another, very interesting chapter, he visits the Moken people of Thailand’s Andaman Islands, who are struggling to recover from the devastating 2004 tsunami. There was a good mix in these chapters of both environmental/ecological and humanitarian concerns to which Bangs brings attention.

I was really disappointed, then, when the book lost this focus on helping. Richard Bangs’ definition of purpose is broader than I expected, but I thought that once the scope expanded to include stories of personal purpose, the book bogged down. The chapters on mountain climbing, in particular, were indulgent and out of place in this book—especially when there so much other material Bangs could have explored in more depth in some of the other chapters. Bangs, in my opinion, should have cut the number of chapters in half and put more energy and information into the remaining chapters.

http://archthinking.blogspot.com/2008/09/review-richard-bangs-adventures-with.ht... ( )

This is a wonderful book, with "adventures" that take you to some incredibly remote (and very interesting) parts of the globe. There were so many favorites, I'm hard pressed to pick one. What I really liked though is Mr. Bangs' eco-friendly approach to his tours and also, he just lets the native people, animals and areas shine in their own right. He doesn't try to make them "be" an one ideal or preconceived notion we might have of the areas and what is within. In a way, he lets you think for yourself. There is immense tragedy here, in the expansive destruction of our world, but even so, most of the stories had a hopeful tone to them. I learned more in this book of stories about say, Macedonia, than I have in my prior 40 years of life. All are fascinating. I did not give it five full stars because I did not care for the chapters on mountianeering. They seemed misplaced in an eco-focused book. They were stories about a couple of guys climbing their "demon" mountains (Eiger and Annapurna). Okay, but certainly not on a par with the other stories, where he just goes to explore and report on the land(s) he finds. On some areas he offers unique insights having gone years prior ~ and he reflects on the degradation and demise of the areas, but also the success stories. Great book. Highly recommended for both the armchair adventurer and those who might want to go out there and make a difference. Mr. Bangs is your average Joe and if he can do it, I felt many times, wow, so can I. Time to get off the beaten path and leave only footprints; and maybe even give back to our ailing planet too. ( )