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pennyriley 's review for:
Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod
by Gary Paulsen
Gary Paulsen is such a good writer. This tells of the time in his life when he fell in love with dogs. Not just any dogs but sled dogs, and specifically Iditarod sled dogs. He decides to prepare to enter the Iditarod, and the parts of him training his team in the Minnesota summer on dry trails is some of the funniest writing I have possibly ever read. Most of the book is deadly serious and when he gets to the Iditarod he writes so well you are really there with him. I know quite a lot about the Iditarod having followed it passionately for several years, while not being in the least a ‘dog’ person. He is careful to name few names but I would have liked to know which mushers he was actually writing about at times. The Last Great Race on Earth as it is sometimes called has to be possibly the toughest individual race there is, across 1080 miles of frozen snow ice and sea, and with some of the most dangerous and inaccessible terrain to be covered. Paulsen has adventures aplenty in this book as I am sure every musher who even starts this race must. The Burn, Rainy Pass, Norton Sound are all possible contenders for the worst section and with Paulsen you are along for the ride on every one of them.