Rating: 
Summary: Everest is Microcosm of World - Chillingly
Review: I am not a camping out/mountaineering person and
I loved this book. The author, Jon Krakauer, shows the
psychology of the people climbing - and to lessor
extent those around them - supporters - observers -
from the internet community to the press. There are
heros and self-servers, diverse nationalities, and
best of all ordinary men and women trying to
discover how to live gracefully and decently with
themselves and others. It is clearly a struggle to do
the latter. Climbing the mountain is a climb to
self-discovery, and it often is not a pretty one. It is
a climb to acceptance of our humanity (we are not
supermen/women) and our fraility. To the author
Jon I would say: Jon, you are a very self-aware
human person - please learn to love and accept your
own idealism and your own and other's fraility. And
thanks for this frank reality check for others who
may be tempted by the glittering summit
Rating:
Summary: Everest is Microcosm of World - Chillingly
Review: I am not a camping out/mountaineering person and I loved this book. The author, Jon, shows the psychology of the people climbing - and to lessor extent those around them - supporters - observers - from the internet community to the press. There are heros and self-servers, diverse nationalities, and best of all ordinary men and women trying to discover how to live gracefully and decently with themselves and others. It is clearly a struggle to do the latter. Climbing the mountain is a climb to self-discovery, and it often is not a pretty one. It is a climb to acceptance of our humanity (we are not supermen/women) and our fraility. To the author Jon I would say: Jon, you are a very self-aware human person - please learn to love and accept your own idealism and your own and other's fraility. And thanks for this frank reality check for others who may be tempted by the glittering summit
Rating:
Summary: A riveting first-hand account of the 1996 Everest disaster
Review: I have climbed Everest.
I have never been in Nepal or Tibet, but I was with Jon Krakauer and his team in spirit as they mounted their assault on the highest mountain and greatest challenge known to mankind (why? because it is there...). "Into Thin Air" is Krakauer's fascinating recollection of famed leader Rob Hall's expedition and its tragic consequences for his team and others. I was spellbound as "we" endured frigid howling gales of blinding snow, crept up sheer ice walls, inched above yawning crevasses and became disoriented in the thin air on the perilous peak as the oxygen tanks gave out. This tale goes beyond the elation of reaching the roof of the world by exploring human nature and the dilemma of teammates choosing to risk sacrificing themselves to save others or making the difficult decision to leave the weak to their fate...and in some cases, welcoming back those left for dead. Krakauer details how the strongest, most competent climbers can be conquered -- in mind and body -- by the mountain and its fury. They remain there today...You won't be able to put down this true story.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating and Chilling Account
Review: "Into Thin Air" is an extraordinary account of an unusual expedition gone awry. Jon Krakauer is able to pull the reader into this bleak world of machismo and ultimately survival-of-the-fittest where 90% of the world population would NEVER dare to go.
I'm not normally a reader of this genre of literature, but I was intrigued by the topic since I know for a fact that I'll never attempt such a feat. I thought it was an interesting way to vicariously experience life in it's most primitive state. I still do not understand WHY a person would subject him/herself to the perilous conditions of Everest, however, and perhaps that is part of the intrigue that surrounds the book.
My only criticism of the work is that I would have liked to have had a glossary of climbing terms to rely on. Although Mr. Krakauer initially wrote his account for "Outside" magazine which is directed at those who are more familiar with the "lingo" of mountaineering, he should understand that he has thrust himself into the general reading public with his more in depth account of "Into Thin Air." Perhaps later printings can include such an appendix.
Rating: 
Summary: A gripping read
Review: The story moves forward relentlessly. Like the author in his efforts to reach the summit, you will keep reading not because you want to, but because you have to
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but short
Review: A very entertaining novel but at 250 pages, only takes a weekend to read. Is it just me or is anyone else out there getting tired of spending $20+ for 250 page efforts. It makes you appreciate Clancy, Michener and King who will at least give you a novel that can keep you entertained for weeks at a time
Rating:
Summary: I'm waiting for the book from Beck Weathers
Review: This book was absolutely incredible. It amazes me that people who were in no way involved with this disaster have been placing blame on certain individuals on Everest. Unless they were there (or atleast get some insight from the book) they will never understand how unimaginely horrible this was. People go into survival mode, they are suffering from lack of oxygen to the brain, they're in pain and desperate.
The person in this book who amazed me the most was Beck Weathers. I would love to hear his story. I wonder how he survived the conditions and how it felt to be left to die (twice).
Rating:
Summary: Just Read The Book!!
Review: Really, from all the feedback of the people that have read it, I gather that whatever I am going to say is pretty redundant. It is not about how well the author writes, not about how he is selfishly trying to purge himself of the haunting guilt, not about the stupidity or irrational behavior up in the mountains, not even about selfishness, humanity, understanding or justification...
It is about reality, what perhaps had or will happen in those altitudes. It's REAL and the chilling realization that these things that we are so detached from are actually happening jerk us back to reality so violently. It is hard to comprehend what had happened and why people are so foolish to let that happen, because we are not there to judge nor do we have the right to. I can only say that the rawness, the truth chills me more than any other horror novels I had read. Because I know that out there, bodies are hanging in the crevasses, corpses buried in snow and perhaps at this very moment, a breathe is snuffed out from a helpless climber.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting, riveting, engrossing; well-written and easily read
Review: Into Thin Air is a fantastic, non-fiction tale of one of the worst disasters on Mt. Everest in recent history. The author brilliantly describes the brutal conditions of the mind and body in the rarified air above 26,000 feet. The book is both factual and emotional, and the author took no liberties regarding a "plot", nor did he inject any ficticious story in an attempt to make it more interesting. This book is a collection of the facts surrounding the disaster on Everest in 1996, assembled into a haunting, riveting, edge-of-your-seat tale
Rating:
Summary: A Thin Perspective
Review: In the introduction of Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer seeks a "...raw, ruthless honesty... The result is raw, like frostbitten skin. The honesty is an accusing finger - pointing at the organizers, guides and Sherpas. The result is a visual and chilling drama that is thin on perspective.
Krakauer's builds and maintains tension on a widely reported story. Everest's summit pulls us up the mountain. Colorful characters emerge from his team, and from the wild array of other masochists - playing a wealthy person's 'Russian roulette' in a treachorous, oxygen-starved environment.
The focal point is not the peaks or faux paux's, but the author, who is searching for his soul in 293 page attempt at peace. Time is the oxygen cannister he seeks. Time sorts out his own mistakes on a fateful day of triumph and tragedy. Time brings perspective.
This story and its victims, including the author, scream for a sequel in a couple years. Without it, this best seller is like a summer action movie - exciting, but very thin on any legacy for literal or figurative climers.
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