Holiday Gift Guide: The Adventurer’s Handbook by Mick Conefrey

Though The Adventurer’s Handbook (Palgrave Macmillan) is nominally set up in true handbook style, it’s really more like a history of adventure with tidbits and tales from some of the most dramatic adventures -- and adventurers -- of all time.

Filmmaker author Mick Conefrey uses examples from various expeditions -- some well known, some not so much -- to illustrate points and smooth his own narrative. As Conefrey says, in the book, he tried to “find a different way to look at the history of exploration, to present it through a kind of how-to manual in order to examine its paradigms and principles.”

The device has worked on a number of levels. Actor and producer Jonah Hill (Superbad, Get Him to the Greek) currently has a film version of the book in development. (At press time, it’s slated for release in 2012.)

First published in 2006, this new paperback Palgrave Macmillan version makes a terrific stocking stuffer. ◊


David Middleton is art director and art & culture editor of January Magazine.