Rating: Summary: An excellent look at the world's most deadly profession. Review: I found this book to be a real page turner. For anyone who is into fishing or enjoys reading about the rigors on the high seas, this is DEFINITELY a book for them. The author tells an honest account of the gold fever mentality that gripped many young people in the early 80s to cast their lots and shove off into the dangerous but very lucrative Bearing Sea king crab fishery. This book reads well in it's pace and balance of content. The author did a fine job in respecting the memories of those involved in tragic situations while giving those situations a brutally honest, accurate and fair account. I shall look forward to more works by this man. As far as readability goes, I would put this book on par with "Into Thin Air" and perhaps half a notch below "The Perfect Storm."
Rating: Summary: Gripping! Review: I had been a Coast Guard SAR helicopter crewman on Kodiak for three years before I read this book (with a year underway on a cutter before aviation). I usualy don't like books that have to do with things I am familiar with, they usualy get it wrong.This book was amazing! A truthful account of life on the other side of Search and Rescue! I usually saw only the results of the most dangerous job, this book gave me a greater appreciation for those that went underway. I read it now whenever I start to miss Kodiak.(The only gripe is that in the final ancecdote, only the Coast Guard pilot is mentioned. In CG aviation, we were all a crew; no one could do his/her job without the rest of the crew)
Rating: Summary: Good, but not like "The Perfect Storm" Review: I just finished reading Working on the Edge by Spike Walker. The book had been resting on my night table for about a year. Previously I read "The Perfect Storm" and so thoroughly enjoyed it that I wanted to read another book along the same line. I found Working on the Edge not as compelling as The Perfect Storm which I could not put down. Spike Walker could have gone into more detail about certain events and I found some of his sentences confusing and not adding to the story. Almost wordy. The Perfect Storm is a griping story, where as Working on the Edge is an account of the most dangerous occupation in the world.
Rating: Summary: interesting Review: I likesw this book. I read it on the subway, which was a good choice. You can start pretty much anywhere in the book and its the same story, boats gets lost at sea, fisherman scrambling for their survival suits. It can get a little tiresome, but its still worth it. I would give this book as a gift to someone interested in Alaska or the sea.
Rating: Summary: interesting Review: I likesw this book. I read it on the subway, which was a good choice. You can start pretty much anywhere in the book and its the same story, boats gets lost at sea, fisherman scrambling for their survival suits. It can get a little tiresome, but its still worth it. I would give this book as a gift to someone interested in Alaska or the sea.
Rating: Summary: Excellent Book Review: I thought this was a great add to my nonfiction collection. There are several chapters which are just mind blowing. Some are repetetive. Would like for him to go more into detail on some things, but overall it one of my fave non fiction.
Rating: Summary: A must read insight into a world very few have knowledge of Review: I was told about this book by a good friend I used to work on his Fathers boat Fishing for whelks in of the east cost of Ireland I worked there for a year or two. And they were some of the best days of my life I used to love listing to my skippers stores about what he did and other stores he was told by the men that used to work with him, those men used to come out with us when we were dredging or pulling nets The Adventure that a man can live through and the hardship, drive cold disbelief of what is happening around him, unable to do anything but wait and trust in the skipper and his Crewe mates It made me appreciate the fact that I had had a very small experience in the fishing world. But I don't think I could do what spike walker did. But I would like to thank him for letting me live with him! A small part of what it must have been like working on a crab trawler in that kind of environment.
Rating: Summary: Great true-life accounts of a fisherman- Review: I worked on my father's processor up in Alaska starting when I was a young teenager(girl),working in the galley. Eventually, when I was 18, I started working out on the line. Altogher I did this for 8 years. I know how hard it is working 12-18 hour days in rough seas, but it's nothing compared to what commercial fishermen do. Theirs has got to be the toughest, grueling, most dangerous job that there is. My father was a crab fisherman when I was a child, and we'd sometimes go 7 months without seeing him. I just really enjoyed this book because it hit so close to home - I even know some of the people that Spike talked about, so that makes it all the more interesting.
Rating: Summary: The best book of any kind I have read, lately. Review: If you love outdoor adventure, survival, nature, human interest books, do yourself a favor and order this book right now. This book written by Spike Walker is the finest first-person account of the extremely dangerous job of crab fishing in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska that it would be possible to write.These brave men and women were making $50,000.00 to $100,000.00 or more per year crabbing in the late 70s' and early 80s' and they were earning every cent they made as the odds were pretty much certain that they would get injured or killed on the job. I only wish I had read something like this when I was younger as I would have gone to Alaska to try and get one of these jobs instead of throwing my life away, working at a job I despise just to pay a few bills as most all of us do.
Rating: Summary: A GREAT READ Review: In "Working on the Edge" Spike Walker takes us through the trials and tribulations that present themselves through numerous crab seasons. This book is so well written, that there are times where you feel like you are on the deck pulling in a crab pot right there with him. If you want to a great book about "The Worlds Most Dangerous Profession", I suggest you read this book!
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