The Oxford Book of Exploration by Robin Hanbury-Tenison: Book #27 for 2013
This book is an anthology of travel writing, which I've been slowly reading over the last few months.
Throughout the book are several excerpts from diaries of explorers (some famous, others more obscure) and other writing about them by fellow travellers.
At times, I found this book quite heavy going, although I liked the fact that there was a separate chapter for each continent in the world, and it was enjoyable to know what these peoples' thoughts were as they went on their journeys.
At times it felt a bit repetitive, with a lot of accounts of meetings with naked, or nearly-naked, natives, but some of the incidents recounted were very entertaining to read. Probably the most enjoyable, and emotional, was reading about Roald Amundsen's journey to the South Pole, followed by Captain Scott's own journey, and his discovery that he was not the first person to reach it.
This book was at times quite long-winded, and it was hard to read large amounts in one sitting, but it is definitely a recommended book for anyone interested in exploration.