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Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “It's something everyone dreams of, but few do. It's something with great adventure, but great danger. It's being on the top of the world, as high as birds fly. It's climbing Mt. Everest. In this book, you learn about the inredible true story of the expedition of 1996. Jon Krakauer is a journalist...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“I kinda sorta wanted to read this when it was a bestseller, but I didn't get around to it. A copy was just lent to me, and it has been a satisfying, engaging, and interesting read. And the much more recent postscript, following all the controversy over Krakauer's account, I found equally interesting for both its human and its journalistic content. Without having investigated to any degree, I'm inclined to give this guy my respect.”
Rosy wrote this review 16 hours ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“After two books, I'm going out on a limb and say Jon Krakauer is always a solid read. Yes, he is an adventuresome type and writes on adventuresome subjects, but he is always thoughtful, even melancholy--a great spirit always lingers around and behind his words.”
calamity vaughn wrote this review 22 hours ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Into Thin Air is a retelling of a tragic accident that occured on the world's summit in 1996. But you already know that. Anyone who has glanced at the book's cover page knows that. What many people don't know about Into Thin Air is that it is very much like a work of fiction. The "story" is character driven, and starts before Jon even sets foot on the mountain, so that you can become accustomed with all of the different people on the journey. For the first half of the book you listen to these characters, you learn about their backgrounds, where they come from, why they are climbing Everest. You build close close friendships with these charcters, and all of a sudden, they vanish. The turn is as abrubt as it is disturbingly thrilling. I couldn't put the book down as I read onwards, anxious to discover the fate of the characters I had spent so long getting to know. The way the book just "takes it all away" is fantastic. The book also has other good features such as the author filling you in on Mountineering/Himilayan facts and history when the story gets a little boring, and the 8 or so pages containing pictures of the expidition, which really help to bring the characters and the mountain to life. I was initially drawn to the book because it tells of an other-worldly adventure I have always dreamed about. I kept reading due to Krakauer's amazing writing and storytelling.Into Thin Air is an interesting and thrilling read, and I would definitely reccomend it to anyone who enjoys works of fiction, non-fiction, or simply mountaineering topics in general.”
Michael Michael wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A gripping true story of death and daring on the world's tallest peak. Finished this one in a day.”
Clay T wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Adventurous, tense, realistic, tragic, and captivating. These are all the words I would use to describe Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer. Into Thin Air depicts the treacherous but rewarding journey up the tallest mountain in the world. Even with the expeditions’ technological advantage, they inevitably run into some problems. Reading this story was like a riding a roller coaster, exiting and unpredictable. This non-fiction novel is outrageously realistic; every detail of it is spot on. The author truly knows his facts. Into Thin Air is truly one of the best adventurous books that I have ever read, its jam packed with action! I truly found it difficult to put down. This novel will always be on the top of my list! I highly recommend you to pick this book up and read how Jon Krakauer makes the transition from innocence to experience. ”
Aaron Li wrote this review 7 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Jon Krakauer really captures his audience's attention in his breath taking book "Into Thin Air". I really enjoyed the book because it tells of an adventure we've all dreamed of.”
Anderson wrote this review 7 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Simple yet incredible. If Life of Pi was my grade 10 English teacher, Into thin Air would be my grade 11 English teacher. When I read this book, I felt I had taken a personal journey to Mount Everest. It seemed like I was climbing Everest with Jon and every step he took, I took. I have never read a book as simply worded as this one but with information so full and intriguing. This was the kind of book I could not put down once I started. This was the kind of book I finished in two days. ”
Cheungdaddy wrote this review 7 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Up 27, 000 feet, Jon Krakauer takes his readers through his journey up Mount Everest. As a reader, reading about the horrendous blizzard gave me chills, it was like I was a character supporting the climbers in every battle. Every page was exhilarating and it was impossible to put down. The book was analytical as well as informational, the book contains details about mountain climbing as well as the author's point of view on the 1996 Mount Everest Incident. This story truly touches the heart and it makes one think about the significance of pursuing a dream. ”
Karen Chan wrote this review 8 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“"I grew up with an ambition and determination without which I would have been a good deal happier. I thought a lot and developed the far-away look of a dreamer." - Jon Krakaeur
James P wrote this review 11 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
"We tell ourselves stories in order to live... We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the "ideas" with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience."
"Death through exhaustion is - like death through freezing - a pleasant one." - Reinhold Messner
There were many, many fine reasons not to go, but attempting to climb Everest is an instrinsically irrational act - a triumph of desire over sensibility. Any person who would seriously consider it is almost by definition beyond the sway of reasoned argument. The plain truth is that I knew better but went to Everest anyway.
(About Edmund Hillary and Tenzing's summit of Everest in 1953:) It is hard to imagine now the almost mystical delight with which the coincidence of the two happenings [the coronation and the Everest ascent] was greeted in Britain. Emerging at last from the austerity which had plagued them since the second world war, but at the same time facing the loss of their great empire and the inevitable decline of their power in the world, the British had half-convinced themselves that the accession of the young Queen was a token of a fresh start - a new Elizabethan age, as the newspapers liked to call it... And marvel of marvels, on that very day there arrived the news from distant places - from the fronteirs of the old Empire, in fact - that a British team of mountaineers... had reached the supreme remaining earthly objective of exploration and adventure, the top of the world... The moments aroused a whole orchestra of rich emotions among the British - pride, patriotism, nostalgia for the long past of the war and derring do, hope for a rejuvenated future. --This was augmented by the fact that it occured in India, one of Britain's old colonies. It has been compared to the first manned landing on the moon in visceral impact.
By the time I was in my early twenties climbing had become the focus of my existence to the exclusion of almost everything else. Achieving the summit of a mountain was tangible, immutable, concrete. The incumbent hazards lent the activity a seriousness of purpose that was sorely missing from the rest of my life. I thrilled in the fresh perspective that came from tipping the ordinary plane of existence on end.
It had become fashionable among alpine congnoscenti to denigrate Everest as a "slag heap" (the Southeast Ridge as the "Yak Route") - a peak lacking sufficient technical challenges or aesthetic appeal to be a worthy objective for a "serious" climber. -- This perception was strengthened by the large number of people who had summitted with limited mountaineering experience but had paid tons of money for skilled guides. When he gets there he realizes Everest is more challenging than he though due to the altitude and the technical stretches (Icefall and other places).
Everest is being littered by oxygen tanks, feces, etc. India, Tibet, and Nepal are all fairly poor and so charged as much as possible per pass and took as many people as they could. Recently, professional tour groups have realized that to ensure the sustainability of their businesses, they need to clean up after themselves.
"My hunger to climb had been blunted, in short, by a bunch of small satisfactions that added up to something like happiness."
"I used to try to console myself with the thought that a year ago I would have been thrilled by the very idea of taking part in our present adventure, a prospect that had then seemed like an impossible dream; but altitude has the same effect on the mind as upon the body, one's intellect becomes dull and unresponsive, and my only desire was to finished the wretched job and to get down to a more reasonable clime."”
“Krakauer again! Although it didn't give me the same hair-raising reaction as before, i still think is was a great story. Its subject is quite exceptional, though i still have doubts about the style of the book. There is a neutrality feel to it which is not completely compelling: Krakauer was personally involved with everything related in the book, yet he still uses a journalistic tone throughout (except for the 1998(?) postscript), making me wish i knew the other side of the same story (this being reason enough to search and read "The Climb"). Still, very impressive!”
Flinx wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
