356 Books
See allI really wanted to like this book. I've heard nothing but good things about it. At first it was fun to hear a backstory for all of the old greek gods, but by about halfway through the book I didn't care about any of the characters and reading it seemed like a chore. So I decided to just give up on it and not finish it. I usually have a hard time not finishing books, but I'm not even curious how this book ends.
This was a good book with some solid principles. Each principle is backed up with some interesting stories from William McRaven's experience in the SEAL teams. My only reservation is that the content is very similar to a lot of the other SEAL based books that have been coming out recently. In particular a lot of the content seemed very similar to Damn Few by Rorke Denver (probably because of shared experiences). On a plus side this book was very brief and to the point which made it a quick afternoon read.
I started this book thinking that it was just an adventure story of some rafters that sped down the Colorado River. It turned out to be a much bigger story than that. I would say that there are three main components to this book. First, there is the story of three men daring to make a speed run at the highest flow that it ever reached. Second is the story of the engineers struggling to keep the Glen Canyon Dam from tearing itself apart due to some devastating structural flaws. The third story contained in this book is a powerful tribute to the majesty and history of the Grand Canyon itself.
Before reading this book I had visited the north rim of the Grand Canyon a couple of times. It was beautiful, but I never had any much desire to do much more than look at it. After finishing this book I now have a new item for my bucket list. I need to raft the canyon in a dory so that I can fully experience the canyon.
The way that the author describes things is very powerful and at times almost poetic. If you can't experience the canyon for yourself this is a very close second.