Going to Extremes

by Nick Middleton

Book Overview

In Going to Extremes, Nick Middleton visits the world's hottest, coldest, wettest, and driest inhabited places. He visits Oymyakon in Siberia, where the average winter temperature is -47 degrees, then... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0752220160
• ISBN13: 9780752220161
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Not Avail
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Whole is Less than the Sum of Its Parts

While the four individual sections (Coldest, Driest, Hottest, and Wettest) are enjoyable, I was disappointed that Nick Middleton makes no effort to connect the sections or even come to any overall conclusions about why people live in such extreme realms. In addition, the sections themselves seemed occasionally padded. The Driest section is the worst offender, with a lengthy section on living at extreme Andean altitudes, which, while fascinating, isn't related to the main topic (this is ironic to me since it's the main reason I bought the book, having visited -- for twenty minutes -- the airport at Arica, Chile, enroute to La Paz, and being curious about this desert beachfront place). The best section is the first (Coldest), being a rather vivid look at the peculiar adaptions the people in a Siberian town make to live with extreme cold, as well as some fascinating descriptions of the phenomena associated with a -50 degree climate. Perhaps the TV series it's based on is more enlightening, but since it's not out on DVD yet, I can't find out