Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
Jaguars Ripped My Flesh
by
Tim Cahill
Tim Cahill has clambered up Mount Roraima in the Guyana highlands, searching for the site of Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World. He's dined on baked turtle lung in the desolate northeast of Australia and harvested poisonous sea snakes in the Philippines. He's watched a wrestling match between a shark and an "underwater zombie" during a horror movie shoot off the coast of Mexi...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
September 1st 2003
by Black Swan
(first published 1987)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
1,165)
An absolutely outstanding book. This is a collection of pieces the author wrote for Outside and some other magazines during the late 70s and early 80s. The book far exceeds the quality of Pecked to Death by Ducks, which is the only other of his collections I have read.
The first half of the book covers experiences he had in south America, Australia, the Philippines, and Mexico. I especially liked this section because these were truly adventurous excursions to remote places most of us have never...more
The first half of the book covers experiences he had in south America, Australia, the Philippines, and Mexico. I especially liked this section because these were truly adventurous excursions to remote places most of us have never...more
I didn't even finish this book. I have been seeing it on the shelf for years and while I liked another book by the same author, for some reason, this one just didn't appeal to me. But I'll always try something from the library, nothing lost there but time. I spent a week trying to get into it and finally yesterday morning, I gave up.
Just random travel adventures, which normally I like, but I think they have to take place in a part of the world that I have an interest in going and these where tak...more
Just random travel adventures, which normally I like, but I think they have to take place in a part of the world that I have an interest in going and these where tak...more
This is a collection of short travel essays. A lot of them are adventurous - we have caving in Kentucky, skydiving, watching the eruption of Mount St Helens at close quarters etc. There are also tales of epic travels in various south American countries. But Cahill is, for me, at his best, a true environmentalist. Life and Love in Gorilla Country is a wonderful close encounter with the gorillas in Volcano Country Park, Rwanda, it is clear that Cahill totally enjoys getting close to these magnific...more
After reading the dreadful crumudgeon Bill Bryson and his unfunny, uninteresting musings on the state of modern travel, Tim Cahill couldn't have been a bigger breath of fresh air. Cahill is the real deal. His sense of humor in the face of danger, his true willingness to engage in potentially lethal activities, and his tremendous sensitivity and insight into other cultures make this collection (and all of his collections) a must read for anyone feeling the old wanderlust. If you can't travel to t...more
Perfectly enjoyable adventure-travel writing. Made me feel slightly inadequate, as Cahill keeps presenting himself as a Bill Bryson-like incompetent, while he actually seems to be a totally badass swimmer/diver/rockclimber/adventurer. I was especially interested in his essays about Mount St. Helens right before/after the eruption (yeah this book is like 30 years old, I just found it in the PC library). Anyway, it was a pretty fun, quick read, but I wouldn't really recommend seeking it out unless...more
Immediately after finishing A Wolverine is Eating My Leg, I picked up Jaguars, another collection of essays by Cahill—more timely, but with similar themes. Cahill’s often self-deprecating wry humor and crack-a-joke-in-the-face-of-death attitude make for fun reading. He’s like Allan Quatermain meets Anthony Bourdain, with a little David Attenborough tossed in. Quite a few of the stories feature thrill-seeking sports, such as spelunking, rock climbing, skydiving, swimming with sharks, and hang-gli...more
A collection of outdoor/adventure essays; entertaining brief pieces. Some are a little dated but are still enjoyable reading. Good kind of book to carry around in the purse for waiting periods. This book goes all over the globe: Africa, American deserts, mountains, and plains, Mexico, Peru, etc, and covers caving, volcanic eruptions, sea turtles, mountain gorillas, scuba diving, sky diving and many more adventures I will only experience from my armchair.
Read this book about 10 years ago and decided to give it another "read" after I found the audiobook. Still holds up very well considering most of the adventures Tim Cahill rights about happened in the 80's. Honestly no one man should be allowed to do as much cool stuff as Cahill. Sky diving, scuba diving with sharks, rock climbing in Yosemite, caving in Kentucky, visiting Mount St. Helen's as it's erupting, and more.
Thank goodness he's a great writer so I can live his adventures vicariously thro...more
Thank goodness he's a great writer so I can live his adventures vicariously thro...more
I really did not enjoy this book at all. I found his stories to be exhaustingly boring. I hate leaving a book unfinished, so this novel took me weeks to get through. Perhaps because this book was requiredreading for a call is why I found it so dull, but I don't think I have the willpower to give it another go.
One of my favorite collections of stories. Tim Cahill is easily one of my favorite writers. I have several collections of his and I literally laughed and cried during some of them. And by laugh I mean laugh out loud in study hall several times and getting strange looks.
May 19, 2012
Dave Ward
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
on-the-road,
non-fiction
Jaguars Ripped My Flesh by Tim Cahill (Vintage Departures Books 1987)(nonfiction) is a collection of adventure travel writing which was first published in Outside Magazine. My rating: 5/10, finished 5/21/12.
One of my favourite books. Tim Cahill has travelled the world and explored out of reach places and met unbelievable people along the way. These are a few of his inspiring experiences.
Funny crazy stories that had me holding my breath and sitting on the edge of my seat. Cahill has the life that I love to dream about and I could probably read him endlessly.
One of my favorite travel writers. Always funny and thoughtful. Life and Love in Gorilla Country is one of the best travel essays I have read.
Just another fun read from the man who invented adventure and is willing to explore various aspects of life when traveleing
Some touching and poignant writing about humans impact on Earth here. The article where he describes his first jump out of an airplane was particularly memorable.
Great, funny and short travel stories from the master. His first and best.
Tim Cahill makes me laugh out loud. Great fun reading this one.
A collection of adventure travel stories.
hunter s thompson meets jon krakauer
Incredibly eloquent. Made me want to visit every place he has traveled to.
Jul 29, 2009
Laura
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
adults
Recommended to Laura by:
Books Inc
LOL adventure travel writing
Tim Cahill has been everywhere and has done everything. He is so fun to read, and he is an admirer of Bill Bryson...
This book is loaded with short essays/accounts of his adventures in many different countries. Some funny, some political/historical. He's mostly a funny guy, tho. With some beautifully written descriptions of some other-worldly moments. He's one of my all time favorite reads.
This book is loaded with short essays/accounts of his adventures in many different countries. Some funny, some political/historical. He's mostly a funny guy, tho. With some beautifully written descriptions of some other-worldly moments. He's one of my all time favorite reads.
Very good book! The author has lived an extremely interesting (and slightly insane) life and has a witty way of telling his stories. He covers topics such as exploring ruins in Peru, mountain climbinb and adventuring in Venezuela, and caving, skydiving, hangliding, and scubadiving in the United States. The articles held my interest and often made me chuckle.
This, the first collection of Tim Cahill works to be published (I think) spans the globe from montane cloud forest to subterranean caves.
Among my favorites are: "The Shame of Escobilla," "Life and Love in Gorilla Country," "Cahill Among the Ruins in Peru," "Fire and Brimstone on the Volcano Watch," and "Eruption."
Among my favorites are: "The Shame of Escobilla," "Life and Love in Gorilla Country," "Cahill Among the Ruins in Peru," "Fire and Brimstone on the Volcano Watch," and "Eruption."
Jan 08, 2008
L.J.
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Adventure, travel
Shelves:
belongs-on-my-shelf
A successful follow-up read to 'A Wolverine...' and still fun, well paced stories from Cahill. I enjoyed this book and remember how it was a collection of both insightful travel writing and adventure hi-jinks. Good read for travel or just wanting a collection of fun adventure stories.
Rollicking adventure travel, collected from various magazines which Cahill wrote for. Written in the 80's, some of his insights regarding Rwanda and what was about to happen there make me wonder why, exactly, no one was listening. Very well-written and hardly dated at all.
This book sat on the coffee table while I was house-sitting and I would always turn it over so I wouldn't have to look at it. One day I picked it up just to see why my house-sitting family liked this book so much, and found out why. Now I'm a big Tim Cahill fan.
Cahill has led an enviable life -- climbing up mountain faces, jumping out of planes and scrambling through Amazonian jungles in order to write about his experiences. A fun, light read that reminds you to get out and find adventure.
Brilliant travel writing, taking in both the beauty and the terror of the natural world. The volcano chapter, when a friends walkie-talkie cuts out, is exceptionally moving. Great stuff, highly reommended.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Tim Cahill (born 1944 in Nashville, Tennessee) is a travel writer who lives in Livingston, Montana, United States. He is a founding editor of Outside magazine and currently serves as an "Editor at Large" for the magazine.
More about Tim Cahill...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Most of us abandoned the idea of a life full of adventure and travel sometime between puberty and our first job. Our dreams died under the dark weight of responsibility. Occasionally the old urge surfaces, and we label it with names that suggest psychological aberrations: the big chill, a midlife crisis.”
—
4 people liked it
“Finally, consider your predicament a privilege in a world so shrunken that certain people refer to it as the 'global village.' The term 'explorer' has little meaning. But exploration is nothing more than a faray into the unknown, and a four-year old child, wandering about along in the department store, fits the definition as well as the snow-blind man wandering across the Khyber Pass. The explorer is the person who is lost.”
—
2 people liked it
More quotes…
Jul 28, 2008 01:46pm
Jun 10, 2012 03:20am