Richard Bangs' Adventures with Purpose: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Earth

by Richard Bangs

Running such wild rivers as the crocodile-infested Tekaze in Ethiopia, Richard Bangs used to lived for the adrenalin, for the rush of reveling in the misery of hardship and sidestepping death around every bend. Now a respected conservationist, he still travels to demanding exotic environments, but with a new, more sober he wants to save these special places. Bangs' personal experiences of "witnessing many special places preserved and lost" led him to write Adventures with Purpose, and the book follows the author to Bosnia, Libya, Panama, the American West, Rwanda, Thailand, and more as he seeks out disappearing cultures, peoples, habitats, and ecosystems — particularly rivers — so that he can show readers that the loss of these special places will be a catastrophe. Written in the vivid, intimate style that made his earlier books both critical and commercial successes, Richard Bangs’ Adventures with Purpose is an unforgettable composite portrait of a world in peril and an inspiring guide to rescuing it.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2007

About the author

Richard Bangs is a world adventurer, international river explorer, Web pioneer, and award-winning author of over a dozen books and hundreds of magazine articles. He is also founding partner of Mountain Travel Sobek, America's oldest and largest adventure travel firm. He is currently producing and hosting the new PBS series, Richard Bangs Adventures with Purpose. An episode about Quest for the Sublime will air Fall 2008. "