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THE ADVENTURER'S GUIDE by Jack Wheeler

THE ADVENTURER'S GUIDE

By

Pub Date: Oct. 29th, 1976
Publisher: McKay

If you're interested in climbing the Matterhorn or vacationing with headhunters, this book tells you how, or claims to. Wheeler recounts five of his own adventures--another was swimming the Hellespont at midnight--and then tells the reader what he or she needs to equal the feat. Of course his experiences are dated, since he conquered the Matterhorn at 14, played with headhunters in the jungles of Ecuador at 16, hunted man-killing tigers in Indochina when they could still be compared with ""Viet Cong"" in the same area. But his lists of costs, basic equipment, hotel and travel accommodations he has tried to bring up to date, and the physical and mental conditioning required he tells about as though they were timeless. Especially the ""mental conditioning"" which Wheeler claims is more important than all the rest, minimizing the need for great physical prowess if one only has the right attitude. The writing is as questionable as the thesis--""To hell with the impossible dream!""--as in his description of the thrill of it all: ""It grabbed at your innards like a double shot of day-old moonshine on an empty stomach.