To Build a Fire

That's funny you should post this, I checked out Jack London from my library yesterday, I wanted to read it all after finishing Into The Wilderness last week.

I remember when we read it in school my teacher, Mr Rumsey, skipped over it and waited till winter. He then had all the windows in the classroom opened, and let some of the girls go get jackets. We then read it aloud as the room got colder and colder, it was memorable to say the least. Something about seeing your own breath as you read it actually did add something to the story.
 
Great story, with a very realistic ending. ALways loved Londons writing, and that one is a favorite.
 
GREAT story.
It was rading this story, plus being caught out as a young boy on a particularly cool fall night that first got me interested in the PRACTICAL aspects of EDC gear. I was already a scout, but the fact that my gear and training might intersect with days when I wasn't carrying a backpack was a new concept. Haven't been without redundant firestarting capabilities very often since then!
 
It's a favorite of mine, there is also a movie made from it in 1969, narrated by Orson Wells. I found it at a store for $1.00. Some no name actor that rarely speaks to his dog, while O.W. narrates the story.

I did a quick search and found Amazon has it for $9.99, having watched it twice, I'm gonna say that it really isn't worth $9.99, especially if you already have the written version.
 
I read it years ago, I remember how vivid it was, I could picture myself in the guys frozen boots.
 
I have a Cooper of that one. It was one of my favorite books back in high school. Great story.
 
Its interesting that everyone is telling the pretty much the same story...read it years ago...loved it....it was so vivid.

Same with me...after all these years I still had remembered many of the details.

And the idea of how cool it would be to carry one "...of those biscuits, each cut open and sopped in bacon grease, and each enclosing a generous slice of fried bacon" with me at all times never left me.
 
Thanks for the link, like the rest of you I haven't read that in like 25 years :eek: Dang I must be gettin' old...
 
I like to think of the story as Murphy's Law meets Stubborness in the Extreme Cold.

3 things that don't go well together!
 
Thanks for bring this story to my attention. Next to Hemmingway, I read London.

I have.......his 36 short stories [one of which you mentioned], 4 novels, and his Memoir.

Good reading! ;)
 
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