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| Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft | 
 enlarge | Author: Thor Heyerdahl
Publisher: Pocket
Category: Book
List Price: $5.99
Buy New: $0.01
You Save: $5.98 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (58 reviews)
Sales Rank: 93973
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.1 x 1
ISBN: 0671726528
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.09164
EAN: 9780671726522
ASIN: 0671726528
Publication Date: May 1, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Legend of Kon Tiki July 26, 2003
4 out of 21 found this review helpful
I have to admit, Kon Tiki has become something of a legend in my school. All the incoming freshmen have it as required reading, and I have yet to meet someone who passed through the school and actually enjoyed this book. It's tiring and tedious, and honestly, it's just boring, at least to the 3000 students at the local high school.
 Sharks, ship wrecks, storms, tropical islands... June 12, 2003
33 out of 35 found this review helpful
With each passing year, less and less of the world remains to be discovered. With GPS and satellite imagery, our oceans have been charted and the jungles surveyed. Our world is no longer a mystery. No longer do we have maps fringed by threatening pictures of dragons and sea monsters warning sailors and explorers of the unknown that lies out there. But when I picked up this book I was taken back fifty years in time. Back to a time when men ate meat raw and walked around with clubs hunting big game. OK, perhaps I am getting carried away. Thor Heyerdahl believed the Polynesian islands were inhabited by sea faring travellers from Peru. But his thesis on this topic was ridiculed because no one would believe that the pacific ocean could be crossed by a flimsy raft made of balsa wood and bamboo. So Heyerdahl decides to prove IT IS possible by building a raft using exactly the same materials the ancient Peruvians used and sailing off the coast of Peru hoping to eventually reach Polynesia. Nearly every step off his journey was filled with nay sayers who said he was crazy and "experts" who variably told him he was going to die, the raft was going to break apart, or the balsa wood would absorb the sea water and sink. He ignored them all. When they told him balsa trees of the size he needed no longer existed along the coast, he took a jeep deep into the jungles through flooded roads and GOT his trees. Which then they floated down to the ocean in a river. Heyerdahl is keenly aware of his surroundings and describes his voyage vividly and in simple prose. I could smell the sea breeze and feel the spray of the ocean. It was like taking a mini vacation every time I sat down with this book. You'll swim with whale sharks and get caught in ferocious storms. The six men caught sharks with their hands and even had a pet parrot. I suppose all self respecting seamen need to have a parrot. The ending to this book was surprising but perfect. It brings the story full circle and could not have ended any other way. So prepare yourself a margarita, kick back, and begin a sea adventure.
Excellent April 1, 2003
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
A great story if you like modern adventure, biology, anthropology, and exploration or all of the above. Heyerdahl (hard name to spell) uses a pretty straightforward, cheerful writing style that anyone can appreciate. I guess my only complaint is that he doesn't really get in to the "nitty gritty" of the voyage. No squabbles between crew members, no bathroom humor, no ancedotes of that nature. That's allright though, not really the purpose of the book anyways. Highly recommended.
Historical Crossing of the Pacific January 1, 2003
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
I first read of Thor Heyerdahl's voyage across the Pacific when I was in high-school and it had left a lasting impression on me. I recently ran across the book and reread it. Kon-Tiki is an amazing story of Heyerdahl's determination to prove a theory that it is possible to sail from Peru to the South Pacific islands by raft. He puts together a successful expedition, and with a lot of luck manages to prove his point. Along the way, you get a history lesson, geography lesson, marine biology lesson, and a wonderful sea-faring adventure story all in a fast-paced book. And with the photographs accompanying the prose, you feel like you too are on the raft with them.
The greatest pure Adventure of the last century. June 3, 2002
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Immediately after WWII, young Thor Heyerdahl tried to submit a paper to academia outlining his idea that the Polynesian islands were not settled from India and Asia, as was the current wisdom, but rather by people from South America. The problem with this idea, pointed out by a number of people, was that the only boats available to the natives of that area were balsa-wood rafts. It was almost impossible to imagine that such a raft could possibly travel 3,600 miles across open ocean to arrive at the Polynesian Islands intact and with living crew. Some people laughed outright at the idea. Many of them thought the idea was crazy.So, in true mad-scientist form, Heyerdahl said to himself "I'll show them. I'll show them ALL!". Rather than building a mad-scientist deathray, which would not only be cliche but also out of his field (anthropology), he decided to literally show them. He, himself, would build a balsa-wood raft, adhering precisely to the old designs, and he would personally sail that raft from the coast of South America to one of the Polynesian islands a quarter of the world away. The saga of his quest to first find someone to back him on the journey, someone to crew his raft, a way to BUILD the raft, and finally the incredible adventure of actually taking the _Kon Tiki_ across the greatest ocean on Earth, makes fascinating reading. Such a voyage was something of an effort even for modern machines of its era; had Heyerdahl not done it, no one would have believed it. Instead he set sail and brought the future with him. This did not end Heyerdahl's adventures, but instead began them. Later he developed a theory that the Americas themselves were, at least in part, visited by or settled from ancient Egypt. Since the only boats THEY used to cross oceans were made of reeds, no one would believe it was possible...
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