Someone mentioned that this group is a good source of book recommendations, a sentiment with which I heartily agree. I will add one here: "South," by Sir Ernest Shackleton. This is the account of his 1914-1916 attempt to cross Antarctica by land, traversing from the Weddell Sea to McMurdo Sound on foot and dogsled.
He never made it, but the account is a tale of hair-raising feats of survival. His ship, "Endurance," was trapped in the ice at the beginning of the attempt, in September of 1914. They spent an entire winter there, and eventually the ice crushed and destroyed the vessel, leaving Shackleton and his party (28 in all) to try to survive and make their way to safety. This took them another year and a half, culminating in Shackleton's feat of navigating a small boat 800 miles to South Georgia Island, and returning to rescue 22 men he'd had to leave marooned on Elephant Island. The other components of the Expedition were aboard another ship, "Aurora," which was also locked into the ice early on and spent a year adrift, having been forcibly ripped from her moorings by ice movement, stranding her shore party with not much in the way of supplies.
Of the 56 men on the Expedition, 3 perished from the Aurora shore party, but everyone else made it home. The story of their exploits and their stamina is simply incredible. Not only did these guys spend 2-1/2 years living on penguins and seal meat, they carried out as much of the original purpose of the expedition as they could. As it had been a scientific mission to study the biology, physics, geography, and oceanography of the region, they dutifully set up their instruments, recorded observations, took notes, brought home data, etc., etc. EVERY ONE OF THEM kept a diary, as well, and much of the book is based on these personal records. Given the extremes under which they lived, it's amazing they didn't just devote their entire effort to getting out alive; but the sense of duty and responsibility of this group of men is almost beyond belief.
They'd left England almost on the day World War One broke out, and were cut off from all contact with the external world during their ordeal. Upon their return, finding the war was still raging in late 1916, EVERY ONE OF THEM volunteered for service in the armed forces, several were killed, a couple won the VC, and many others earned Mentions and other decorations.
All in all, a very rousing and uplifting book, written in a matter-of-fact style by a man who had the heart of a lion and who was obviously a leader of leaders. We could use more men like that in the world, especially in a world where "leadership" is defined as "how much you can get away with." Well worth the time. It's out in paperback to coincide with an exhibit on the Expedition at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington.