Several years ago, my husband and I took a horsepacking class. While I've since forgotten how to throw a diamond hitch, I still remember a warning from local outdoor expert, the late Papa Bear Whitmore, about survival situations. He admonished us to be prepared, "...or you will die."

Maybe thatz's why I enjoy a good survival story. And, it appears I'm not alone. The recent publishing success of The Worst Case Scenario Handbook (and its subsequent spin-offs) indicates survival is big business. Authors Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht interviewed hundreds of survival experts to answer questions such as, "How do you fend off a shark attack?" or "What's the best way to jump from your office window into a dumpster in the alley below?" Granted, many are unlikely scenarios, but they do make for fun reading.

I have a small poster at work featuring a grizzly bear standing in the rushing water of an Alaska river about to catch a spawning salmon in his jaws. The caption reads, "Sometimes a journey of a thousand miles ends very, very badly." The irony of the message serves as a reminder that not all survival stories have a happy ending. Take for example Jon Kraukauer's book, Into the Wild. It's the true story of Christopher McCandless, a hapless young man from Virginia who tries to live off the land in Alaska. Unfortunately, the story ends very, very badly. Kraukauer is a gifted writer, however, and keeps you turning the pages even when you know the outcome of the story.

For an Alaskan's take on the Christopher McCandless story, read Sherry Simpson's essay, "A Man Made Cold by the Universe" from her latest book, The Accidental Explorer. Simpson visits the abandoned school bus where McCandless' body was found and wonders about the wisdom of turning a young man on a fool's journey into a tragic folk hero. It's a compelling and thoughtful essay.

For those of you who enjoy a fictionalized account of a true story, give Afterlands by Steven Heighton or Sole Survivor by Ruthanne Lum McCunn a try. The former is the tale of 19 men, women and children cast adrift on a large ice floe off the coast of Greenland in 1871. The latter is the story of Poon Lim, a steward on a British merchant ship torpedoed by a Nazi U-boat in 1942. He survived in a life raft in the South Atlantic for 133 days. Both are gripping tales of survival, masterfully told.

If full-length survival stories seem too daunting, you can dip your toe in with any one of the excellent anthologies out there. Try Wild: Stories of Survival from the World's Most Dangerous Places edited by Clint Willis or The Greatest Survival Stories Ever Told edited by Lamar Underwood. Both books contain a mix of fiction and nonfiction stories.

You can check out these books and more at any Jefferson County Public Library location. Talk to your librarian for more recommendations.