This isn't tri related in any way, but I wanted to put this up there. Check these out. You'll be glad you did.
Deep Survival, by Laurence Gonzales.
It's an examination of survival in wilderness situations and why some people live and others die. He goes into the difference between emotion as a primal, physical force and our intellectual understanding of it. "You don't run because you are afraid of the bear, you are afraid of the bear because you run," and how our consciousness and ability to create and live by mental maps of the world govern our reactions when the world differs from those mental maps, sometimes with disastrous consequences. For those of you in training, he also covers stories about striving through pain, despair and hopelessness to survive. Really worth the read. If you don't believe me, check out the "Words To Live By" at the right.
The Raw Shark Texts, by Stephen Hall
The cover lists a review calling it "Herman Melville meets Michael Crichton, or Thomas Pynchon meets Douglas Adams." I've never read Pynchon, but it's certainly better than anything Melville or Crichton has turned out. I think I'd go with "Chuck Palahniuk meets William Gibson, or maybe William S. Burroughs." There's definitely something Naked Lunch meets Neuromancer about it. I can't think of a good way to describe the plot, but it involves an amnesiac, past lives, quasi-imaginary fish and a red cat named Ian. If that doesn't get your attention, I can't help ya.
That's it for now. If you've got some time, check out the other tri kids I've linked to off to the right. Some good reading out there.
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