Non-fiction: Peter Matthiessen: End of the Earth (National Geographic Society, 2003)
This is the worst Antarctica book I’ve read so far. Its crimes include pointlessness and a lack of content, but far worse is its surprising ability to resist reading. Whether I’m tired or feeling sharp, after reading half a page my mind wanders and after [...]

Non-fiction: Roland Huntford: Shackleton (Abacus 1996, orig. 1985)
One of Roland Huntford’s three massive biographies of the explorers of the Heroic Age, I left this for the last because Shackleton is so fashionable these days, I’ve gone through his story three times so far already, once in Shackleton’s own account, South, about his third and most [...]

I woke up thoroughly disoriented, surrounded by beautiful white light. Every detail of my surroundings was etched with sublime clarity, the superhuman distinction of all surfaces forming a riot of detail. Birds were singing and chirping, and it seemed they were right with me. Shockingly close. It was seven in the morning. The wall [...]

Non-fiction: Christer Boucht: Lähdin Etelämantereelle (Kirjayhtymä, 1993)
This is the first Antarctica book I read in Finnish. Although the author is a Finn, it’s originally been published in Swedish. It’s about a 78-year old guy who goes on one of the Adventure Network trips to Antarctica in the late Eighties. It’s a pretty trivial, flimsy book, [...]