Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster | Jon Krakauer

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster | Jon Krakauer | My second inside to Jon

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Into Thin Air: A P...

	Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster Jon Krakauer Anchor, 1999 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 1499 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Killer read and a testament to the human spirit!

I just read this book while on vacation in Mexico for a week. Talk about gripping! Each successive camp takes you higher and higher, as the suspense builds. You really get a feel for the determination and ultimate tragedy that drove and still drives people to climb Everest. Some people take issue with Krakauer, but you should give it a read and decide for yourself. PBS recently ran a two hour documentary on this trip that was simply breathtaking!! GREAT BOOK!

My second inside to Jon

Personally, Jon Krakauer is my all time, hands down favorite author. I am an adventure junkie. This was the second book i ever picked up of his and i seriously could not put it down. I am in college, normally college students have tons of other things to do than read, but i put things off just so i could read this book. I LOVE IT! If you are an adventurist, adrenaline junkie, a climber, a camper, a hiker... read it...

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Very readable; the whole truth may never emerge, though...

I read this after seeing the PBS doc Storm Over Everest and found it quite an interesting adjunct. I note that all the one-star reviews here say read Boukreev's book and see what a liar Krakauer is, but I doubt it's that cut and dried. I don't see that he's as egocentric here as many say, nor that he is as noble. He seems a little of both to me, ie a human being.
In any case, the book reads well, though it's no great piece of literature, just a solid, somewhat overlong narrative of a fascinating and tragic event.
Sandy Pittman must be thoroughly ashamed of herself if half of this is true; she tried to buy her way to the top while getting sherpas to carry her espresso machine and satellite dishes, and good people died as a result. The Taiwanese climbers seem equally egocentric and uncaring for others. Then again, the guides Rob Hall and Scott Fischer may be equally to blame for encouraging people who weren't ready to make the climb, just so the guides could make more money and get more recognition.
Looks pretty much like the Mother Goddess spanked them all damn hard, and in some ways this reads like a straight-up Shakespearean tragedy, with all the hubris and drama that entails.
Worth reading.
I'm looking forward to reading Boukreev's book, but I think in the end there'll be three sides to this story...

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Gripping... but heartbreaking.

I'm not a big non-fiction adventure book aficianado, but this book was wonderful. Jon Krakauer is the type of author who can make you feel what he's feeling and see what he's seeing without being overly verbose. I felt the epilogue was especially poignant.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

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