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Roman Dial

Goodreads Author

Born

in Seattle, The United States

Genre

Memoir, Sports, Science

Member Since

September 2019

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Roman Dial lives in Anchorage, Alaska with his wife Peggy and Icelandic Sheepdog Poppy. A professor of mathematics and biology at Alaska Pacific University since 1992, he is also an avid adventurer.

He's written two books: Packrafting! An Introduction and How-to Guide and The Adventurer's Son, which was released February 18, 2020 by William Morrow and imprint of Harper Collins. ...more

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I wonder how Jazz felt about the book? Did you intentionally leave her out of most of it per her request? Or was this more to memorialize Roman and your shared adventures?

Roman Dial That’s an excellent set of questions, Margo.

The short answer is that my intention was to tell the story of looking for my son.

Part III does that, an…moreThat’s an excellent set of questions, Margo.

The short answer is that my intention was to tell the story of looking for my son.

Part III does that, and since Jazz came only briefly to Costa Rica, her appearance is also brief, except at the end where her critical role in keeping our family together is clear.

Part II was intended to be the story of Roman’s own journey leading up to his disappearance, to let the reader know that he was competent and why he might be headed into the jungle alone.

So that leaves us with Part I.

Here my hope was that I could describe the life path that led Roman to Central America. I attempted to keep the narrative of that path as straight and narrow as possible: my early infatuation with Alaska and climbing leads me to a mountain there that gives me confidence to meet my future wife Peggy. I quit climbing. We get married, have kids, raise them with travel and adventure—I could probably have done that in a chapter or two!

Those chapters in Part I were meant—not to show that I was a *great* climber/adventurer/father—but why a young man might find himself drawn to the jungles of Central America.

So, while it is a memoir, I tried to tell the story of Roman and me, keeping the focus there.

It’s probably fair to say that the idea of a memoir appeals to many “adventurers.” But memoirs also seem self-congratulatory and narcissistic; I’d rather have written stories about my amazing adventure partners over the decades than about me and my family. Dealing with the terrible events that unfolded, however, forced me to confront my role, and writing helped me deal with that.

If Cody Roman had not disappeared, my memoir—if I’d ever make time to write one—would have been very different.

I love my daughter very much. But she is alive and well and married, and I want to afford her some privacy.

So yes, this book is meant to tell the story of looking for my son, how he came to be missing, and what led up to that disappearance from my point of view.

Jazz agrees with the NYT reviewer Blair Braverman: a better title might have been the “Adventurer’s Father,” as the book is about my search for my son, the adventurer.
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I am a fellow lover of wilderness and adventure. Looking forward to when your next book comes out. Our hearts go out to your family and you (TAS). Will your next book include a connection between mathematics and the natural world? Or how you use mathematics when out in the wilderness?

Roman Dial Hi Erin,

Thank you for your question and expression of sympathy. Writing the Adventurer's Son emotionally drained me, but it was so very important for…moreHi Erin,

Thank you for your question and expression of sympathy. Writing the Adventurer's Son emotionally drained me, but it was so very important for me to write it.

My next book will be about climate change's effects in the Brooks Range as seen through the lens of my experiences in America's biggest wilderness. It will include science and adventure and relationships among people.

As certain aspects of science are quantitative ones, and the best tool for logically exploring quantities is mathematics, scientific results often rely on mathematics. For example, as the climate warms, mathematical models can tell us how fast vegetation might climb up mountainsides. However, I doubt that I'll include any equations in the narrative.

One story that I would like to tell in this upcoming Brooks Range book, however, is about an application of a mathematical model to predict how far two of us could travel across the wilderness carrying all of our food, without caches, help, or foraging.

Having taught calculus since my 20s, I've come to appreciate the importance of making math accessible and pertinent. I hope to do this in the Brooks Range book without any equations.

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Roman Dial’s books

Average rating: 3.94 · 9,656 ratings · 1,185 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Adventurer's Son 3.94 avg rating — 9,606 ratings — published 2020 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Packrafting! An Introduction and How-To Guide by Roman Dial (Goodreads Author), Jon Krakauer (Goodreads Author) (Foreword) 3.92 avg rating — 50 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Il figlio dell'esploratore 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Packrafting! An Introduction and How-To Guide by Roman Dial (2008-06-23) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies

by Geoffrey B. West

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Roman Dial and 1 other person liked Taryn's review of The Adventurer's Son: "Very well-written account of Roman's relentless search for his son in the jungles of Costa Rica. It starts out with Roman's life of adventuring first; it recounts his early climbs up mountains and glaciers as an alpinist, his love for Alaska and all " Read more of this review »
May 28, 2024 06:36PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Adventurer's Son by Roman Dial. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Adventurer's Son by Roman Dial <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Roman Dial and 1 other person liked Jennifer Edelmeyer's review of The Adventurer's Son: "This book had a much longer introduction than memoirs typically have but it was well enough written to entertain an armchair traveler like me, who likes well manicured nature and creature comforts, like the cup of hot hibiscus tea at my elbow as I ty" Read more of this review »
Feb 25, 2024 09:18PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Adventurer's Son by Roman Dial. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Adventurer's Son by Roman Dial <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Quotes by Roman Dial (?)

“Follow intuition. It often leads in the right direction, if not directly to the destination.”
― Roman Dial, The Adventurer's Son

2 likes

“All fathers readily see their foibles reflected in their sons,”
― Roman Dial, The Adventurer's Son

0 likes

“But the real lesson had been this: Follow intuition. If often leads in the right direction, if not directly to the destination.”
― Roman Dial, The Adventurer's Son

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Polls

Time to vote on our books for the November 2020 thru January 2021 nonfiction selection.

We have a good selection (over 10 books, because I wasn't watching!) but better more than less!

This poll will remain open thru October 23rd

Pick your favorite...

Becoming

by Michelle Obama

8 votes, 17.4%

Our Wild Calling: How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives—and Save Theirs

by Richard Louv

7 votes, 15.2%

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America

by Bill Bryson

5 votes, 10.9%

Lost in Shangri-la: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II

by Mitchell Zuckoff

4 votes, 8.7%

The Adventurer's Son

by Roman Dial

4 votes, 8.7%

Year of Yes

by Shonda Rhimes

4 votes, 8.7%

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari

4 votes, 8.7%

Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

by Erik Larson

3 votes, 6.5%

Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court's Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America

by Adam Cohen

2 votes, 4.3%

Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying

by Sallie Tisdale

2 votes, 4.3%

The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan

by Jenny Nordberg

2 votes, 4.3%

The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A True Story of Resilience and Recovery

by Andrew Westoll

1 vote, 2.2%

46 total votes

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Roman’s Quotes

“At that stage of my youth, death remained as abstract a concept as non-Euclidean geometry or marriage. I didn't yet appreciate its terrible finality or the havoc it could wreak on those who'd entrusted the deceased with their hearts.”
― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

18 likes

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver

tags: poetry

9263 likes

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

tags: books, life, limits

20205 likes