The Art of Living Dangerously: True Stories from a Life on the Edge

by Richard Bangs

In 1973, Richard Bangs founded Sobek Expeditions, the original and now the largest adventure travel company in the world, with over a million clients guided since its beginning. But this is not just a story of an unusual company, one that profoundly transformed the way we travel and experience the world. It presents true stories, both perilous and awe-inspiring, from the full array of adventure trekking, climbing, sailing, diving, adventure cruising, kayaking, back-country skiing, mountaineering, biking, cultural immersions, canyoneering, and more. Sobek pioneered scores of adventures, from trekking in the Himalayas, to cruising the Galapagos and Antarctica, to first descents of some eighty rivers around the world. The author personally led thirty-five first river descents, capsizing on six continents (a unique, albeit dubious, distinction), and organized and led the first trips into North Korea, Libya, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, New Guinea, Iran, and even China back in 1978. Sobek clients have included Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mick Jagger, Barry Diller, and Daryl Hannah. It is the shadow company behind National Geographic Adventures, New York Times Active Journeys, and Smithsonian Expeditions. This book traces fifty years of adventure travel and how it has evolved through times of war and peace, terrorism, the rise of the internet, the pandemic, and the first virtual expeditions.

376 pages, Hardcover

Published November 7, 2023

About the author

Richard Bangs is a world adventurer, international river explorer, Web pioneer, and award-winning author of over a dozen books and hundreds of magazine articles. He is also founding partner of Mountain Travel Sobek, America's oldest and largest adventure travel firm. He is currently producing and hosting the new PBS series, Richard Bangs Adventures with Purpose. An episode about Quest for the Sublime will air Fall 2008. "

Reviews

[Linda Galella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Bangs is certifiable! Not only did he found Sobek Expeditions, he quite literally put his life on the line to make that dream come true; repeatedly. THE ART OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY: True Stories From Life On the Edge, is that story. Buckle up. It’s one crazy ride.

There are 65 chapters in this adventure travel tome; not a sleeper in the bunch. Bangs is a great storyteller. You’ll experience all the feels from his earliest, shoestring adventures to the later successful mega company that could handle A-list celebrities. Quite frankly, the celebrity section is tiny. It’s inconsequential in the grand scheme of true adventure travel. Sure, these folks raise funds for their various causes but that’s not the main purpose of this book. The majority of his writing focuses on his building the Sobek brand by taking one expedition after another. They’re recorded here.

Bangs takes readers to locations that are not accessible to most people. Some are forever unavailable due to changing nature and others because most humans are unable to physically handle the rigors. With the excellence of his writing, readers have a front row seat and get stunning pictures to accompany the prose as a bonus.

You’re also going to feel the bugs, predators trying to annihilate you, blisters, sunburn, indigenous peoples who aren’t so happy, others that are friendly, bugs, crocodiles, hippos, hunger, thirst, being wet, cold, hot, wet, Wet, WET! Oh, did I mention the BUGS?!? It’s a full time job to manage them…

This title really does say it all - it’s dangerous and to face death as many times as Bangs did and live to write this book, well, it’s art and then some; not all his friends and colleagues were as blessed.

Without a doubt, the most adventurous true story I’ve read to date. Well written, acceptable for 10 year old adventurers, (with adult supervision, due to some intense and scary stuff and a few death by nature events), and all travel junkies. Highly recommended 📚

Read & Reviewed from PW Grab A Galley eARC, via Edelweiss, with thanks

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories from the life of a founder of an adventure travel company who has also worked for Microsoft and produced adventure travel TV programs. There are descriptions of rivers and other adventures from around the world and a unique view of many places around the world. I found the writing in this book inconsistent with chapters that felt like adventure writing, some that felt like promotional materials, and others that felt like a retiree recounting their trip to Hawaii. This book finally hit home for me about 60 chapters in and I enjoyed the authors take on the adventure travel business, how they have developed over the years and soft adventure versus hard adventure but it felt like it took a long read to get to that that point. I received a free kindle edition of this book from the publisher.

[Thomas Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

With travel this book dragged on but I finally finished it in South Korea. At times, the history of MT Sobek is must reading but the wordplay and endless chapters and the sometimes pose that feels better suited to the MT Sobek catalog gets in the way of an otherwise good story. A great biz story, a good add to the baby bloomer story but in the end the book fails to answer the question — for the worried well, why is travel — and especially Adventure Travel viewed so positively.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic! Each story was a combination of thrilling, terrifying, and How-Did-He-Live-To-Tell-This-Tale?

Action packed from start to finish, and an excellent memoir to read on a dreary winter's day while dreaming of future travel plans and exciting vacations.

Thanks & much gratitude to Grab-A-Galley, Edelweiss & Lyons Press for this ARC.