Rating: 
Summary: Charcter assassination on Everest
Review: Jon K fails to get the point, writing a good story is not enough when it comes to mountaineering books. This book is a great read, but read The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev and you will feel as if JK has taken you for a ride with his good story. This is because a good story does not need to stick to the facts. It is clear from the reaction of the American Alpine Club to Boukreev - awarding him a high honour for his actions on Everest- that they did not share JKs view of Boukreevs conduct.In short JK uses Boukreev as a stooge/villian around which to base his most gripping narative and in doing so absolves himself of blame. Read The Climb after you have read this book and you will get the point.This book will grip non climbers but it a slur to the memory of one of the greatest High Altitude Climbers the world has ever seen - shame on you JK
Rating: 
Summary: Jon Krakauer should be ashamed of himself
Review: Being that many of the main people of the ascent on Everest died and can not refute any of the "so-called" facts of this story, Mr. Krakauer has molded a very self serving picture of what took place on that mountain. Somehow, with many more experienced climbers with him he tells a fable of how he made it to the summit first, and with relatively little discomfort, as opposed to say Beck Weathers, who was frozen in a block of ice. He casts a very dim picture of the actions Hall, Harris & Fischer. Saying that he believes Robert Hall selfishly pushed his team to go further than it should have just to beat Scott Fischer. A man with Robert's credentials would not just sit on a freezing mountain and wait to die. I could go on and on about what a deplorable human being Jon Krakauer is but I will just say 3 last things, 1, Most of what took place on the top of Mt. Everest was done as Jon sat in his tent drinking hot tea and feeling sorry for himself as his fellow climbers desperatly searched for safety and fought to stay alive. 2, Jon's lack of participation with Fischer , the Sherpas and the Imax team to help Hall, Harris, Weathers, Namba and the others displayed an act of cowardice I have not seen in my 30 years. And 3, I would like to send my sincerest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives on Mt. Everest.
Rating: 
Summary: Into whine air
Review: The book "into thin air" is unabashedly depressing, thoughtless, and droll. Though adept at whining, Mr. Krakauer does not focus on the real story, that of himself, rather the book quickly degenerates into a self gratifying attempt to remove blame from himself and place it upon others. Page upon page of statements beginning with "if only" does not benefit the survivors or dignify those who lost thier lives. In short, Mr. Krakauer has done little to honor those who died and much to hurt those who survived.
Rating: 
Summary: It made a lasting impression.
Review: I finished Into Thin Air in one sitting, and subsequently developed a mini-obsession with Everest. If you enjoy books that evoke a frisson of horror every few pages, you'll love this one.
Rating:
Summary: A Picture Well Painted
Review: Before reading the book, Into Thin Air by John Krakauer, I expected to go in and find a Hollywood-type story. I am glad to say that my assumption was incorrect. From the beginning Krakauer paints a picture of Mount Everest, and the degree of difficulty it involves. With virtually no knowledge of high-altitude climbing or Mount Everest, I was shocked to learn of the condition of the mountain and how HAPE effects the human body. The state of Mount Everest, including the overcrowding and the ignorance of some, directly plays a role in the tragic day of May 10, 1996. Jon Krakauer tells his story with such an emotion that you cannot help being caught up in the mystique the mountain possesses. Never before have I been drawn to a story the way I was with this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I feel that the book Into Thinn Air was one of the greatest books of all time. Into Thin Air is a story of a climbing expedition to the top of Mount Everest. One of the many reasons I liked this book was the fact that it was a true account written by Jon Krakauer. The story starts out very uniquely, where as the first chapter is actually telling you what happens when Jon Krakauer and his team of inexperienced mountaineers are at the top of Everest when all the trouble starts. Jon Krakauer makes it to the top of the mountain, celebrates his life long goal, and begins his decent. With many other people on their way to the top,(and only one rope for all of the people who are going up or down) Jon is forced to stop his decent and wait for people to get off the rope. He sits down and notices a storm rolling in that would change him and his fellow mountaineers lives forever. This story goes from happiness to sadness, and from laughter to regret. It tells of a young man and his life long obsession to climb quite possibly the most dangerous mountain of all, Mount Everest. Into Thin Air is a great book that I recommend to people of all ages that like to read true stories and adventure books.
Rating: 
Summary: A unique insight into Jon Krakauer's book "Into Thin Air"
Review: The book,"Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer tells of his perils of reaching the peak of Mt. Everest. In the book, Krakauer describes different factors that caused a number of people to die. Krakauer used enough detail and information for you to easily follow the story line without making the reading dry and boring. Krakauer also supported his book with large amounts of research. Krakauer used an interesting format that jumped around to different parts of the climb. For example, the story began with him and two of his teammates reaching the peak. Then in the second chapter, he talked about the history of Everest such as where it got its name and how it was eventually found to be the tallest point on earth. In my opinion, the storyline could have run more smoothly if Krakauer had done the story starting from the true beginning. By the true beginning I mean from when "Outside Magazine" sent him to do a story. I read Krakauer's newer edition that was illustrated and had information about "The Climb" a book that was written by Bourkreev, a guide on the disastrous Everest climb, who made contradictory claims as to of those in Krakauer's book. A quote from the postscript states," What disturbs me, though, was Boukreev's refusal to acknowledge the possibility that he made even a single poor decision. Never did he indicate that perhaps it wasn't the best choice to climb without gas or go down ahead of his clients."
Rating:
Summary: Into Thourough Air
Review: Well, this book was very funny, happy, sad, etc., but it was a little too thourough maybe. Hey, I'm only 13 so you know how it is for me, and sometimes I thought it was only right to explain in lots of detail, but it makes the book drag a little bit and you start to wonder when the chapter is going to end. It also got me a little confused with the chapters, how the first chapter was about him at the, well, you'll find out, and the next chapter was basically the beginning, well, it confused me! Even so, I thought it was a good book. I give it 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Carlton's Title
Review: I enjoyed the book Into Thin Air. I believe that this book addresses the right issues about the commercialization of the mountain. I believe that Mr. Krakauer did an excellent job of describing the harsh conditions of Mount Everest. I enjoyed the book because it shocked me, and at the same time, it made sense. I was surprised by the will of Mr. Weathers. What he did was unbelievable and it showed courage and true skill. I also liked how Mr Krakauer used direct quotes from the people that said them. This helped us to understand how the climbers felt and what their perspective was. I enjoyed this book, and I think that everyone should read it.
Rating:
Summary: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Review: The Good -Into Thin Air is absolutely riveting! I could not put it down. Very well written, easy to read. Contains enough technical info to keep non-mountaineers like myself informed but not so much as to bog down the flow of the story line. A story of true human tragedy. The Bad - The content is excellent and it appears at first blush that the author went to extensive effort to corroborate the details of his story. However after reading "The Climb" there are some doubts in my mind as to whether he ignored some details for his own purposes. The Ugly - ITA has generated a huge amount of "who's to blame" atmosphere around the tragedy and the author takes the time to "get his licks in". I felt that this was totally unnecessary and that the book would have been a Herculean literary result without the accusations. Let's face it, when dealing with extreme altitudes of this nature it is enough of a burden to survive much less trying to remember every fact or event that occurred. There is no scientific evidence to examine only the recollections of some very impaired witnesses. The only glaring "fact" from the tragedy is that of the Adventure Consultants expedition the expedition leader, a guide and two clients perished. Secondly, if not for a miracle of the highest order, a third client (Beck Weathers) would have perished. The Mountain Madness Expedition on the other hand, lost Scott Fischer, the expedition leader. In my opinion Mr. Krakauer totally ignored this fact when casting around for someone to blame. He totally ignored his own expeditions failures and focused on the man of an expedition that lost ZERO clients, and lets face it, Boukreev's ultimate responsibility was to his expeditions clients. I think Krakauer would have been much better served if he had stuck to what he witnessed and let the reader decide who was at fault. But don't let the BAD and the UGLY put you off. This is definitely one of the best reads in Amazon's big catalogue.
|
