ashley_pl's review
adventurous
informative
reflective
3.0
This one fell a bit flat for me. There were some good parts. But overall, the writing and descriptions of his experiences were too surface level. The author talks about how meeting people in different cultures are what drives him to explore. But none of that carried through to the reader.
lilygwendolyn's review
1.0
I disliked this book so much that when searching for other 1-2 star ratings and finding just a few I started to doubt my skill as a reader. But alas, I'm holding strong with the one star.
I had reasonable expectations to like this, I mean it has travel, adventure, nature- all things that are most enjoyable. But no, it just doesn't work. His characterizations of people are inane, and rather simplistic. It's like he expected to write certain experiences and meet certain kinds of people, and so the narrative formed to that instead of the other way around. I'd include an excerpt or two as an example but the ebook has already been returned to the library. Maybe if I had seen the television series I'd have been more involved and attuned with him as a narrator. And I never rely on the movie/show to carry the book. That is sacrilege.
What really made this a 1-star instead of a 2-star is his writing. Like, it felt like a high-schooler writing a creative essay for a school assignment or something. His descriptions are dull and uninventive. It took the pleasure out of reading. Maybe this seems harsh but I can't stress how bored I was while reading this. I would've DNF'd it but I was on a long train ride and it was the only book I had downloaded besides poetry. (I haven't got phone data).
I had reasonable expectations to like this, I mean it has travel, adventure, nature- all things that are most enjoyable. But no, it just doesn't work. His characterizations of people are inane, and rather simplistic. It's like he expected to write certain experiences and meet certain kinds of people, and so the narrative formed to that instead of the other way around. I'd include an excerpt or two as an example but the ebook has already been returned to the library. Maybe if I had seen the television series I'd have been more involved and attuned with him as a narrator. And I never rely on the movie/show to carry the book. That is sacrilege.
What really made this a 1-star instead of a 2-star is his writing. Like, it felt like a high-schooler writing a creative essay for a school assignment or something. His descriptions are dull and uninventive. It took the pleasure out of reading. Maybe this seems harsh but I can't stress how bored I was while reading this. I would've DNF'd it but I was on a long train ride and it was the only book I had downloaded besides poetry. (I haven't got phone data).
storytellersworld's review
2.0
For a book on the Himalayas, this one is flimsy and superfluous. It seems the journey was undertaken only to write the book and not the other way. The stories and anecdotes he shares are cliche, without any real depth to them. And the fact that he calls illegal and unplanned development in Kathmandu which led to massive loss during the earthquake of 2015 'man's triumph over nature' is naive and ill-informed.
I labored my way through the book on most days, always wondering if it would be worth it. Turns out it wasn't.
I labored my way through the book on most days, always wondering if it would be worth it. Turns out it wasn't.