Rating: 
Summary: Can't stop...
Review: Apart from being a survival story, this book also is a nice book from a psychological perspective. How do you manage to stay sane when you're completely alone for more than two monts, wht do you think about, how do you amuse yourself.
Also from a physical perspective it is interesting to see how much a body can go through beofre the end comes.But even if you're not interested in the psychological aspects, it is still a great book and hard to put down.
Rating: 
Summary: essential reading for survival preparation
Review: Callahan takes the reader on his epic journey (nightmare) of his solo and subsequent disaster which leaves him stranded on his emergency raft with little supplies and equipment. His intuitivess and survival skills keep him alive and are very entertaining to read and understand. I love true-live survival and adventure, so this book found a place in my library and I would consider it recommended reading for the topic. The only negative I had about the book was that it seemed to preclude an understanding of prior sailing knowledge, and in some (important) points of the book this information would've been very handy, had I known this basic seamanship.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing and frightening!
Review: I enoyed this book immensely. Callahan gave very poetic descriptions of what was happening. I sympathized with him for having to survive on his only friends, the dorados. I was amazed at his will to live and ability to overcome, with his wit, the failed equipment in the raft. I appreciated his drawings so I could better understand the state of things. To be alone on the ocean in a small raft is frightening in itself, without mentioning all the problems Callahan encountered.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing and frightening!
Review: I enoyed this book immensely. Callahan gave very poetic descriptions of what was happening. I sympathized with him for having to survive on his only friends, the dorados. I was amazed at his will to live and ability to overcome, with his wit, the failed equipment in the raft. I appreciated his drawings so I could better understand the state of things. To be alone on the ocean in a small raft is frightening in itself, without mentioning all the problems Callahan encountered.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: I've read this book several times and have always been mesmerized by it. While it is a stirring tale of man against the sea, it is also a great story of a man dealing with crisis, with loneliness, with self-doubt. I've recommended this book to many people I've known who were in the midst of dealing with personal crisis---illness, divorce, loss of employment and such. All of them have told me that the book moved them and helped them. All of us can be "adrift" in life, feeling we're cut off from what is important to us, that the world seems to be against us. Callahan's experience shows that it is possible to meet crisis with faith in God, faith in oneself, ingenuity and just sheer perseverence. That if you do not lose hope, that if you endure, landfall and rescue are eventually going to happen. What I thought was most inspiring about Callahan's book was that, after all he'd been through, he continued to go sailing. Lesson? That no matter how difficult an experience you've had, in a lousy job, a bad relationship or whatever, that after you've reached landfall and have recovered, you "set out to sea" again, seeking new challenges, new relationships, and new knowledge about oneself.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: I've read this book several times and have always been mesmerized by it. While it is a stirring tale of man against the sea, it is also a great story of a man dealing with crisis, with loneliness, with self-doubt. I've recommended this book to many people I've known who were in the midst of dealing with personal crisis---illness, divorce, loss of employment and such. All of them have told me that the book moved them and helped them. All of us can be "adrift" in life, feeling we're cut off from what is important to us, that the world seems to be against us. Callahan's experience shows that it is possible to meet crisis with faith in God, faith in oneself, ingenuity and just sheer perseverence. That if you do not lose hope, that if you endure, landfall and rescue are eventually going to happen. What I thought was most inspiring about Callahan's book was that, after all he'd been through, he continued to go sailing. Lesson? That no matter how difficult an experience you've had, in a lousy job, a bad relationship or whatever, that after you've reached landfall and have recovered, you "set out to sea" again, seeking new challenges, new relationships, and new knowledge about oneself.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: It is amazing how far man can go physically and emotionally in order to survive, and on how little you can get by when necessary.
What's even more amazing that somebody can still be alive to tell about an experience like this!
Rating:
Summary: An Incredible Ride
Review: Steve's survival story is truly amazing. While reading I felt like I was right there, lost at sea. Being lost at sea for seventy-six days and surviving to tell the story is incredible. The risk of sailing across the Atlantic by himself takes a lot of courage, but to keep on going after you see your survival gear fall helplessly to the bottom of the ocean is something else. I felt Steve Callahan's pain and glory during his story. The burning sun roasting his body and the waves pummeling his raft. Not having any dry clothes for over two months. But then your adrenaline starts going again when he sees a boat in the distance or a plane flying over. You think He'll be saved. But then nothing. Back to the horror. Mr. Callahan does and excellent job of putting the reader right there to take the ride all over again. The reader knows the outcome of the journey because Steve survives, but can't help wondering and feeling what is going to happen next. Steve Callahan's journey across the Atlantic can only serve as inspiration to others. He never gave up hope and did what had to be done to survive. It just shows that no matter how bad the situation may be, one can persevere. Steve put me in that place with him and what an incredible ride he took me on.
Rating:
Summary: An Inspiring Tale of Survival
Review: Steven Callahan's book, Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea is a remarkable retelling of his unimaginable ordeal on the Atlantic Ocean. Callahan retells his story in an exciting and gripping fashion. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The main point one gets out of this book is the power of the human spirit. Callahan fought against every problem and disaster with fierce determination. His determination saved his life, and truly is an inspiration to anyone who reads this novel. The novel made me consider how lucky we are to have the luxuries we have at our disposal. It's hard to fathom losing every luxury on the ocean except for your basic needs, food and water. Callahan has to deal with the torment of dying physically and mentally for seventy-six days alone. The book never gets repetitive; Callahan always captures the imagination with his different trials on the sea. It is an excellent read.
Rating:
Summary: One mans epic battle with his sanity and a very lonely sea.
Review: Steven Callahan's story of sheer determination is one of the best survival tales since Swiss Family Robinson. I believe the book's most powerful asset lays within the nararation though, having the story told by the actual survivor gives the reader an extremely good feeling of what it was like on that small raft. The nararation also opens the mind of the author so the reader can experience first hand Callahan's struggle with sanity. The story starts in Callahan's boat as he attempts to sail around the whole world, alone. When disaster strikes Callahan's ever present knowledge of the sea is shown. Having grown up on a sailboat, one of my favorite features of the book is its vast variety of factual information pertaining to nautical exploration. Although the pictures were shown in rather awkward places at times (pages ahead of where they were to be talked about), they were extremely helpful and interesting as well. Overall I would say that Adrift by Steven Callahan is a great read. If you like stories of adventure, this is a dose and a half of pure survivalism, at its best. I feel that Callahan's story is so surreal that I could say that I might have serious reservations about actually going out on the open sea again, but not about picking up another book of this caliber.
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