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Summary: Write Guy at Right Place at Wrong Time
Review: For anyone who ever thought about climbing a mountain (or reading about somebody else who climbed a mountain), this is definitely the book for you. The risk, the danger, the tragedy--it's all here.Krakauer does a masterful job of blending the history of conquering and dying on Mount Everest with his own harrowing tale of the 1996 expedition. (Also check out his book, IN THE WILD. They're both great reads!)
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Summary: Into Thin Air
Review: When I chose this book, I chose it because of all of the good things I heard about it. How it was so exciting, wrenching, impossible to put down.
Well, I got to reading it, expecting a thriller, only to be absolutely bored. He rambled on about useless information that had no great impact on me besides losing my interest completely. Yet, I had picked this book to do a project on for english, so I had to read all of it. Once I got to page 207 it wasn't that bad. The pages before that however were pure torture.
I also questioned how true his account of the event was. He seemed to shine a light on himself throughout the book. He made it seem like he was the only one on the mountain who know what was going on. I found a lot of that hard to believe, which led me to further dislike the book.
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Summary: A Wonderful Account of a Real-Life Adventure Tragedy
Review: To give you an idea how much I loved Into Thin Air -- I first listened to it on book tape, then immediately bought the book and read it, and then followed up by buying more non-fiction "adventure" books on mountain climbing. I know that "A Perfect Storm" was very well liked by readers, but I think Into Thin Air beats it hands down. You might seriously consider getting the audio tape, which is read by the author. Something about his emotionless reading of what happened to the group of climbers make it especially haunting. (I know normally emotionless doesn't seem like it would be good in a book reading, but in this case it does.) The main thing you realize on reading this book is, why would anybody want to climb up a snow-covered mountain that has a 1 in 4 chance of killing you. These people are so stupid, which makes for good reading. Get the book or audio tape, and be spellbound by the narrative.
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Summary: Into Thin Air
Review: Into Thin Air is by John Krakauer, an author and mountain climber. Outside Magazine hires him to write an article on the commercialization of Mount Everest. John joins a climbing service and ends up taking the climb of his life. The book is actually written after he survived a life-threatening ascent to the summit of Mount Everest. This book was an unbelievable adventure from start to finish. Being an athlete, I really enjoyed the book. I love being outside and doing adventurous things, and his life or death situation would be a rush to me. Climbing Everest would be an amazing journey, and his insight and story make me want to go out and climb right now.
This book appeals to almost anyone looking for an exciting and adventurous read. Into Thin Air has many good reviews; it is hard to find a negative outlook on the book. Climbers especially would enjoy this read; his hard work and will to survive would inspire anyone to go out and climb. Anyone with a love for sports or the mountains will enjoys this book. Life and death just hangs in between each turn of the page. By the end of the book, readers won't even want to put it down.
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Summary: BEST BOOK EVERRRRRR
Review: This is one one of the best books I have ever read,correction it IS the best book I have ever read, there are no slow parts and as soon as you start it you will never want to stop in your whole life it is incredible because it gives background information that some idiots think arent needed but just add to the amazement of the people who climbmed it that year and you will respect them forever, if you are willing to read this without being tainted by jackasses who say it was not real or say it is boring you will agree that this book will change your ------- life, as soon as I read it I wanted to climb everest myself it is written so well as he clibs you run short of breath, you may think it could be to hard for you and whatnot but Im only 13 and I understand everything in it, because of the background information you will understand whats going on.
If you read this you will never regret it and will cherish this book for the rest of your life, take 3 hours a frozen pizza sit down on your bed read and eat.
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Summary: Into Thin Air
Review: John Krakaurs first book on Mt.Everest is about a perilous tale about the deadly climb of Mt.Everest in 1996. It was the most deadly season ever in the History of Mt.Everest. On May 10th 1996, John Krakauer reached the summit of Mt.Everest as the sky had begun to roil with clouds. He hadn't slept in 57 hours and was about to kneel over from the drugged like effect of oxygen depletion. It was at 29,028 and was the cruising altitude of an Airbus jetliner. As he began his decent down Mt.Everest as twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly to the summit. This book is about the perilous climb up Mt.Everest in its deadliest season.
I liked the book because it didn't use vocabulary that you would have to look in the dictionary to find out. "Twenty-five minutes before midnight, I strapped on my oxygen mask, switched on my headlamp, and ascended into the darkness (page 214)."This quote is from when John Krakauer was attempting to get to the summit of Mt.Everest from camp four. The higher the camp number the higher the altitude is. It goes from base camp all the way to camp 4. Then it is so high that it is impossible to have a camp at that height. I usually dislike books that are nonfiction but this is one book that I seem to like.
I dislike the book at the end because it is very boring to read about how John Krakaurs life is, as he didn't get hurt or lose any fingers or toes. One other guy lost most of his nose, a few fingers and toes, and has to live as a handicap for the rest of his life. It doesn't seem so bad but if I was like that then I wouldn't be able to type at twenty-five words a minute. I couldn't get a job either without some fingers. The end is the most boring, as it was the epilogue. "When I last spoke to a certain teammate, his life had been thrown into turmoil." There is a good use of vocabulary, but as you can see it would be even more boring without it.
My favorite part of the book was when John Krakauer was climbing down from the summit and the twenty other climbers were still going up the humongous mountain. "Plodding up the last few steps of the summit, I had the sensation of being underwater, of life moving at quarter speed. And then I found myself atop a slender wedge of ice, adorned with a discarded oxygen cylinder and a battered aluminum survey pole, with nowhere higher to climb. A string of Buddhist prayer flags snapping furiously in the wind. Far below, a side of the mountain I had never laid eyes on, the dry Tibetan plateau stretched to the horizon as a boundless expanse of dun- colored earth (page 237-238)." It is my favorite because there is so much description about the journey down the mountain. It is also very interesting.
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Summary: Into Thin Air
Review: I had the good luck to meet John Krakauer here in Richardson Texas, at a slide show and discussion John did about this very climb to Everest. I think John did an exceptional job writing his account of what happend on Everest during his climb. The Book in my opinion is excellent, will leave you gasping for air as you read the accounts of what went on, and heart broken for those who did not make the climb down. John Krakauer is a "very modest man" and I was very impressed with the way he told the story with slides, answered questions, and he can sure hold his own. When this book was first released he took a lot of "heat" from other climbers regarding his accounts written here.
I did have the chance to remind him that "he should not feel" badly about the way things went on that climb". John does however as he expressed "have guilt" regarding the chain of events. I don't think he realized that I had already read his book. Many folks there that night were having copies of their books signed (me too), they bought their copy at the show, I brought mine from home. I did follow this climb via internet daily with sound card etc., so I got to listen first hand to what was going on during this climb and the fateful ending. It was indeed heart breaking. This story has it all, so incredible, exhilarating, and totally heart breaking. The Climb to Mt. Everest a disaster just waiting to happen. Too many people climbing up and decending at the same time in my opinion caused this fateful disaster. Thumbs UP for John and his account about "what really happened".
You will enjoy this book.
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Summary: Great book
Review: I read this book when it first came out, and it made a very strong impression on me. I find myself still thinking about it a lot. I'm not a mountain climber myself. But I am a reader. When I read some of the other reviews here, I couldn't help thinking that those people never normally read anything. Apparently they were assigned the book for a class. They were complaining that the book is too long. Probably any book is too long for them. I guess they would have preferred to wait until the movie version came out. I liked the personal elements in it: Krakauer is an adventurist himself and the incidents in this book forced him to reconsider why he liked to pit himself against forces of nature and risk death so often. He might have left those thoughts out of the book, but I'm glad he put them in. I do find it hard to remember the title of this book, for some reason. When I recommend it to people it is always "that book by Jon Kracauer about the Everest expedition that got trapped".
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Summary: Classic first-hand account of mountain madness.
Review: In his chilling classic of mountaineering literature "Into Thin Air", journalist and mountaineer Jon Krakauer delivers a compelling first-hand account of the ill-starred 1996 Everest expedition in which the mountain claimed the lives of eight climbers. While the main focus of his gripping narrative recounts the events leading up to the 1996 tragedy, Krakauer gains a sense of wider perspective by frequently dipping in and out of past tragedies (also hair-raising survival stories) that litter the history of summit assaults on high-altitude mountains. Krakauer airs controversial issues surrounding the history of Everest expeditions ranging from the dumping of used oxygen cylinders turning the mountain into a giant rubbish dump to the "westernisation" of Khumba culture following the boom in Everest tourism. Accusations of showing disrespect to the mountain have been levelled at commercial expeditions such as Adventure Consultants and Mountain Madness - led respectively by rivals Rob Hall and Scott Fischer in 1996 - specialising in high-altitude guiding of relatively inexperienced climbers who fork out small fortunes to realise their dream of setting foot on mighty Everest's summit. Hall and Fischer's expedition teamed up for a combined assault on the summit, launched from camp 4, some 26,000 feet high on the South Col, an altitude climbers call The Death Zone. An important safeguard, a pre-set turnaround time-limit fixed by Hall at 2pm at the latest - regardless of how close climbers were to the summit - was extended by default beyond the deadline, Hall's judgement possibly compromised by the knowledge that it would be bad for business should Adventure Consultants fail to put anyone on the summit two years running, especially if the competition, Fischer's Mountain Madness, succeeded. Danger signs such as the insidious trickling away of precious time as some 30 climbers, caught in a bottleneck at Hilary Step, a 40 foot vertical outcrop of rock, moved upwards at snail's pace, and a sudden deterioration in the weather signalling an approaching storm, went unheeded. The worst tragedy ever to befall an Everest expedition loomed as a group of inexperienced climbers, left floundering around in sub-zero whiteout conditions, lashed by unrelenting jet stream winds whipping across the Col, struggled desperately to survive in the storm now blasting through the Death Zone. With the increase in popularity of commercial expeditions, for many, it was a tragedy waiting to happen. Highly recommended!
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Summary: Into The History Of Everest
Review: I read Into Thin Air for an english literature class. I didn't really enjoy this book very well because I thought there was to much history included in the book. Jon Krakauer should have just told the story of the climb instead of past climbing expedtions. Also I couldn't keep track of all the characters in the book and hated refering back to the index to see who each person was. If you can getting past the boring history of everest then the book isn't that bad. It was just hard for me to stay interested in the story with all the facts and history.
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