Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Oct 15, 2012 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it liked it

Shelves: memoir, ultimate-reading-list, travel, humor-and-comedy, non-fiction, science, biography, young-adult

The subtitle is “the fine madness of running the Iditarod” and “madness” doesn’t begin to cover it. For those who don’t know, the Iditarod is a dog sled race in Alaska from Anchorage to Nome covering 1,180 miles of Alaskan wilderness in weather that can hit 60 below--Fahrenheit. That doesn’t begin to delineate its dangers which include attacking moose, frozen whirlpools and sea ice giving way under you. This is Paulsen’s first hand, first person account of his rookie race taking 17 days--and let The subtitle is “the fine madness of running the Iditarod” and “madness” doesn’t begin to cover it. For those who don’t know, the Iditarod is a dog sled race in Alaska from Anchorage to Nome covering 1,180 miles of Alaskan wilderness in weather that can hit 60 below--Fahrenheit. That doesn’t begin to delineate its dangers which include attacking moose, frozen whirlpools and sea ice giving way under you. This is Paulsen’s first hand, first person account of his rookie race taking 17 days--and let me tell you, several times (including in preparing for the race) he came close to winning a Darwin Award. (They’re given for doing humanity a service by removing yourself from the gene pool by causing your death with your stupidity.) I think you probably should be given the award--or a straight jacket--just for wanting to do the Iditarod--doing it with Paulsen’s admitted lack of preparation is just insane.

There’s more to this book though than just hair-raising adventures. Above all, there are the dogs. A blurb on the front cover from a Washington Post review claimed that the book is “one of a handful of indispensable dog books.” And the pack of dogs Paulsen uses in the race do come through as individual and endearing personalities, especially lead dog Cookie and the aptly named Devil. (Although more than once I thought pack leader Paulsen could have used some training from Cesar Millan in their handling.) The dogs are the highlight--nay, the stars--of the book. There’s one other redeeming feature--a sense of humor. One that a couple of times threatened from me a burst of giggling out loud. There was the incident with the skunks...and Paulsen’s wife Ruth had a winning sense of humor--probably much needed to deal with her husband. For instance, one exchange when Paulsen was training with the rowdy sled dogs, who are not your standard pet:

“They remind me of that time when you were drunk and brought the bikers home to dinner ...”

“I thought we were never going to talk about that again.”

“They kinda remind me of them though--only they’re cuter.”

“The bikers?”

“The dogs.”

There’s also less. It would have been nice for instance to have more background about the race itself. It’s never stated within the book, but the Iditarod, like the marathon, was instituted to commemorate a specific event--a journey from Anchorage to Nome by dog sled to bring life-saving medicine. (For that story you might want to look up Gay Salisbury’s The Cruelest Miles.) I also could wish Paulsen had cut the final self-pitying chapter. The book should have ended with the end of the race--the final chapter felt jarring and out of place. ...more

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Nov 02, 2007 Deb rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-group, non-fiction, humor

4.5 stars. I laughed out loud as Paulson tells his adventures. I still remember that he ate 5 sticks of butter while running the Iditarod.

I seldom read books twice, but I re-read this for book group and loved it just as much. It has everything... lots of humor, plenty of adventure. I particularly loved reading about the "spirituality" and "play" of the animals in the wilderness. This is one book I recommend to many people! ...more

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