A remarkable and memorable book on a life lived wild

"Going out into the wilds of the world at an early age," Doug added, "where nature was basically untouched, we got into our souls a sense of beauty".

I had not heard of Rick Ridgeway before this book fell into my lap. However, I had certainly heard of two of his close friends, with whom he spent countless months adventuring all over the world: Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia) and Doug Tompkins (founder of The North Face and Espirit). Rick and his friends called themselves the Do Boys, as they prefer to go out and do things rather than talking about doing things. In "A life lived wild" Rick, at now seventy-two years old, looks back at his life. It is a life full of adventure. A life mostly spent outside (Rick calculated that he had spent over five years of his life sleeping in tents). A life with many lucky coincidences, a lot of travel and exploration, and a lot of love.

I felt a range of emotions reading this book. Rick made me laugh and cry, he made me feel pure happiness, love, loss and fear. He is an excellent story teller. Even now, so many years after some of these stories happened, he is able to look back and remember things so clearly, with the additional benefit of hindsight. Rick comes across as a very smart, interesting and appreciative man who never forgot how lucky he was to lead this remarkable life. I loved reading about all his adventures. About what he learned on the way from so many different people. About his appreciation of friends and family. I am afraid my words cannot truly portray how beautiful this book is. I highly recommend this book.

Have you ever heard of Rick Ridgeway? Neither had I, but I was pulled into this story by the title and beautiful cover. This is the autobiographical story of the many adventures Rick has had during his life, and about his close friends, the "Do boys". I'm an armchair adventurer myself, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the adventures of Rick and his friends. I'd recommend this for any lovers of nature or autobiography. Thanks so much to the publisher for providing this ARC for review.

You might not have heard of Rick Ridgeway, but even the casual hiker will surely have heard of some of Rick’s adventure buddies: Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia), Doug Tompkins (founder of The North Face and Espirit), and even Tom Brokaw (NBC Reporter)! Rick and his friends call themselves the Do Boys, because they DO things rather than just talk about doing them, and this book was full of all the stories.

Rick’s stories have a surprising amount of detail for happening decades ago, but that’s what makes them so rich. This book will take you all around the world and then some. The last quarter of this book highlights the conservation actions the Do Boys have undertaken to save what is left of the wild Earth. You might be familiar with Patagonia’s 1% for the planet — Chouinard’s commitment that Patagonia will donate 1% of its sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. However, Doug Tompkins and his wife, Kris, have personally created over 14 million acres of National Parks in South America!

I highly recommend this book.