The group has selected The Ascent of Rum Doodle for our June 2026 read, with the discussion opening on July 1.
Google says:
The Ascent of Rum Doodle is a classic 1956 comic novel by W. E. Bowman that satirizes mountaineering expeditions, following a bumbling team led by the incompetent Mr. Binder as they attempt to climb the fictional 40,000-foot Rum Doodle mountain in Yogistan. The book is known for its hilarious portrayal of the team’s mishaps, including the perpetually ill Dr. Prone, the lost navigator Mr. Jungle, and the riot-causing Mr. Constant, and has become a celebrated parody of the genre.
Hi @1000_Books group! I opened the topic for The Ascent of Rum Doodle today. It’s a day early, but I was thinking about it & who knows what tomorrow may bring, haha.
I’ll add my comments later, but I’d especially like to know who read it vs. listened to it in audiobook format.
interesting that Bill Bryso wrote the Introduction because it could be assumed that his own writing style was heavily influenced by this book. In his books, THE LOST CONTINENT and WALK IN THE WOODS, he undertakes adventures while parodying that which he encounters. In THE ASCENT OF RUM DOODLE the entire story is a parody. The narrator, who is the expedition leader, can’t get out of his own way. He sounds like Cap’t. Wrongway Peachfuzz of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame in that he knows where he wants to go but seems to have no control over the path that he takes to get there.
One anecdote sums up the tone of the whole book. Early on, when the expedition encounters a crevasse, the misguided navigator goes into rather than around it. As additional members foolishly follow down the crevasse, they request champagne to relieve their anxiety. When the situation later gets resolved, the leader refuses to believe that the men’s actions are due to their being drunk. Instead he naively attributes it to his own misperceptions that were adversely affected by altitude.
The ending is its own parody in that this misguided mission failed to achieve its goals even though it exceeded them.
Overall a fun and easy read for those who enjoy the subtleties of British humor.
I couldn’t help but enjoy Rum Doodle mainly because of the sly British humor. After all, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is one of my favorite movies. Because the book was written around the same time as many of the nonfiction accounts of mountaineering occurring in the 1950s, I wonder if Bowman may have been doing some skewering of the braggadocio of those adventurers. I also wonder if he was making a point in a reverse way that individuals have to take responsibility for their actions, but that at the same time we can’t take ourselves so seriously all the time. The politeness and understanding of Bender at all times was amazing. I would have been ready to jump off the mountain if I would have had to deal with the rest of his party. All in all, Rum Doodle was an easy fun break from what I normally read.
Agree, that overall it was a fun and easy read. A nice change of pace. However, at times, at least with the audiobook, the humor became a tat tedious - too much of a good thing and I had to step away. It may very well have been the manner in which it was delivered by the narrator. With that said, I did enjoy the book
As a side note, I really liked Bryson’s introduction. And, I found it fascinating that this book has a cult following with climbers.
Not my cup of tea. Ok, bad pun. There were some humorous episodes such as walking in a circle all day. I listened to the audio format, which dragged for me at times. I can believe, though, that mountain climbers would appreciate and relate to the book.
I had to request the book through Interlibrary Loan from my local library as I couldn’t locate it anywhere else. A library in a little town on the high plains of northwest Kansas lended its 1956 first edition copy to my library. It was fun to not only step back in time with mountaineering, but also with publishing. The smell, the inks, the photo like illustrations, the thick pages all bring on nostalgia.
