Reviews

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

kittykatkatboom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

retros_x's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

nermrlib's review against another edition

5.0

Steve and I read this book aloud to each other over the course of a few weeks. It was wonderful to get his perspective on the altitude, given his history as an in-flight C130 mechanic. This book is a fascinating account of a harrowing journey. It does give you a peek inside the world of mountain climbing and the enduring mystique of Everest. After reading the book, we immediately watched the Everest IMAX film (available on Netflix). It was amazing to see the places and people mentioned in the book. Highly recommended.

maddog_g14's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.25

zowho's review against another edition

HEY HOW ABOUT WE STOP CLIMBING THIS GODDAMN MOUNTAIN

megplant's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

kiisa's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

the_book_addict_16's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative tense slow-paced

3.5

llacey's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative tense fast-paced

4.25

janey's review against another edition

4.0

I have such mixed feelings about this book. I think that it did what it intended to do, and I think Krakauer is very good at this: Telling a story. Not deriving meaning, not making a larger statement, just telling a story. Maybe looking at cause and effect or actions and consequence, but not writing for anything other than facts.

And that's good. But for me, this story isn't about why those people died on that day. This story is really about why anyone risks their life to summit Everest. He tries to explain it, but that's not really his story, and so he doesn't do very well, at least not for me. It sounds completely awful, beginning to end. No joy. Just, I don't know, bragging rights. So I'm rating this book on whether it told the facts. And now I'm turning to [b:Terra Nova|1588832|Terra Nova|Ted Tally|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1335709837s/1588832.jpg|1581800], which I saw probably 35 years ago and which I think is all about why. Not Everest, and different circumstances (it's the competition to reach the South Pole), but it's largely introspection and maybe that's what I want.