Rating: 
Summary: This was a captivating, well written novel.
Review: I thought that Into Thin Air was an excellent book for the most part. It did, however, have its parts that did not appeal to myself. Before reading this book, I knew very little about Mount Everest and had little interest in climbing. After reading this captivating novel, I have found myself intrigued with the many mysteries of Nepal, Tibet, and Everest. I have also become more interested in the sport of mountain climbing. I have become interested in climbing, but not to the extent that I am packing my bags and flying to Kathmandu to risk everything for "one shot at the summit." I felt that Into Thin Air had some very strong, well-illustrated sections. As I read through the sections when they were descending from the summit on May tenth and eleventh I was very captivating and could almost feel the wind pelting the ice against my face. As Anatoli went out into the blizzard to find his lost clients, and Andy Harris made his epic attempt to supply Rob Hall and Doug Hansen with precious oxygen when they were stranded above the Hillary Step, I could not put down the book. I thought that the adventure and passion contained in this book made it an excellent novel. I thought that, despite the discrepancies between what Jon said and what actually went on were compensated for with the in depth descriptions of the places, people, and the events that occurred on Everest in May of 1996.
Rating: 
Summary: An astounding thriller that's bound to captivate you!
Review: INTO THIN AIR was an exciting novel robust with a sense of danger throughout it's pages. It is a historical documentation of tragic happenings, and as you read, it is hard to believe the events have actually occured to real life people. The most astounding aspect of INTO THIN AIR is it's intricate descriptions. Krakauer made you feel as if you were actually ascending Everest's powerful face.
Rating: 
Summary: The plot was interesting, but something was missing.
Review: Jon Krakauer's novel, "Into Thin Air", was a good read. It is Krakauer's eyewitness account of the tragedy that occurred on Mount Everest in 1996. He recounts the two months he and his team, the Adventure Consultants, spent on the unforgiving mountain acclimatizing to the oxygen deprived air. Although the book was exciting, something was lacking. It was almost as though Krakauer missed the point of his own book. He was trying to hard (or not hard enough) to say something that he never quite got out. It seemed to me that he was trying to make up to the families of the victims for discrepancies in the article he wrote for "Outside Magazine." Instead, he spent more time pointing fingers at people (himself included).
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Summary: Jon Krakauer's novel was suspenseful (ignore the first)
Review: Jon Krakauer's suspenseful novel of the tragedy on Mt. Everest in 1996 is fantastic. This gripping novel accurately portrays the events and problems that were experienced on Mt. Everest. I feel this book was a great and fantastic look at what may be one of the most tragic events on Everest. Krakauer's personal experience of the expedition gives the story a first-hand view of what happened and tear-tugging touch. Krakauer's experience with the climbers who survived and those who didn't gives the reader a real sense that these were real people, not just pulled out of somebody's head. In my brief time on this planet, I believe that Into Thin Air is was of the best written non-fiction book that I have ever read. Krakauer gives the story an extra touch of reality by reminding the reader that these people did have families, and that other climbers were also emotionally attached. The story begins when Krakauer reaches the summit of Mt. Everest. From there he takes you all the way back to when the first climbers discovered Everest. He describes past expeditions and climbers who successfully and unsuccessfully climbed Everest. From there he takes you from the beginning of his journey up Everest. From his home in Seattle to reaching the summit, and then the long and tragic journey down the massive mountain. The thing that I liked the most about this book was how Krakauer also gives in depth backgrounds of almost all the climbers on the mountain. Explaining their past climbing experience and their reason(s) for being on Everest. He tells the emotional states of each climber as he sees it, and as other climbers see it as the climb the 29,028 feet to the top of the world. The only thing I found difficult was the extreme vocabulary Krakauer used to describe some normal words. In the end, I found the best way to read this book is with a dictionary by my side. He also tells of the injuries and illnesses that people experienced on Everest. HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema), HACE (High Altitude Cerebral Edema), frostbite, and other illnesses climbers encountered on the way to the summit. He tells who got it, and how it affected them. Krakauer's story is truly inspiring. It is a great story of heroism, pain, suffering, loss of life, but at the same time human triumph. It shows the rescue efforts and what it felt like, which no other writer could do without being there and experiencing the sorrows, joys, and other emotions felt during the 1996 tragic expeditions. Krakauer delivers a powerful story, full of emotion and facts. He holds nothing back in writing Into Thin Air, he lets the true words people spoke and their true actions tell you what happened not just what he thought. He interviews other climbers about subjects into order to enhance the point he is making. His powerful words and descriptions help to make Into Thin Air as powerful as it is. I strongly recommend this book to everybody. It is a fantastic and accurate book about what happened on Everest. It is powerful and helps to remind you what is really important in life... life itself.
Rating:
Summary: I thought this was a great book.
Review: I thought this was an excellent book. Jon Krakauer takes you step by step through the disasterous events that occured on Mt. Everest in 1996. He includes his own feelings and gives the book a nice emotional tone. He also gives his own thoughts as to why this disaster occured. He includes the feelings everyone experienced and conditions they endured. He gives you a sense of how dangerous mountain climbing is. This book gives you a feeling of the dangers the climbers faced. I thought this book was very informative. It is very realistic and made me appreciate life. It made me realize how fragile the human life is. Each time I began reading this book, I couldn't put it down. It was a mystery unfolding in my hands. I felt as though I was on Mt. Everest with the climbers when the tragedy occured. I especially liked the way Krakauer analyzed everyone's actions on the mountain. It gave you a stronger sense of what actually occured and how much pain each climber endured. The only thing I didn't like about this book was the difficult vocabulary. I kept a dictionary by my side, so I could look up each word I didn't understand. Overall, I thought this book was expertly written. I understand how hard this book must have been to write, but I thought he did a excellent job. Hearing what happened on Everest first-hand gives you a better understanding of what actually occured.
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Summary: Into Thin Air was so exciting it took me "into thin air"!
Review: Jon Krakauer's novel, Into Thin Air, is a powerfully moving peice of work that obviously took an extremely massive amount of research. Krakauer does an outstanding job of presenting the facts and information without causing the reader extreme bordom. Not only are there facts pertaining to the 1996 disaster, but it also included a lot of intriguing information about Mt. Everest's past and important issues directly relating to the mountain. Even though this novel was informative and at the same time it posessed a very rare quality. Into Thin Air was an intense and adventerous story filled with drama and emotion. Krakauer takes on a difficult challenge when he attempts to introduce each of the many characters, proceed with the story, and still allow time for some emotional attachment. By doing this, Krakauer supplies critical insight to the tragedy. At the conclusion of the novel, you feel as physically and mentally exhausted as Krakauer and almost want to sit down and cry right along with hime. Without even experiencing any type of event that compares to Everest, you feel as though you were there. One can only begin to imagine the intense pain and horror the clients as well as the guides, must have gone through.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book for the Adventurous Reader
Review: Adventure has always intrigued me. Books, movies, and sports all have that critical element of action and suspense that makes for interesting media. Into Thin Air met, and at sometimes exceeded my expectations. Jon Krakauer does an excellent job of portraying the raw emotion of losing his comrades and friends. I really felt as though I was there on the summit, among Scott Fischer, Rob Hall, and Niel Beidleman. The sheer realism of the situations presented to me was expertly crafted. I felt triumph at reaching the summit, sadness at the loss of Doug Hansen, and I felt the true burden of leadership that was quickly and brutally placed on the shoulders of Stuart Hutchinson and Neal Beidleman. I also enjoyed the book becasue it gave some of the history of Everest. I especially enjoyed hearing of Reinhold Messner, an alpine legend. The only problem with delving into history is that Krakauer got a little too engrossed in it and strayed from the story. Learning about where Everest got its name may be interesting to some, but I prefer to stick to the climb itself. Another plus in the book that I enjoyed was Krakauer's interaction with the other climbers and how he showed the way they felt and what was going on. These extra "characters" add lots of depth to the plot and make for a more interesting read. I also was a little frustrated with the way the timeline skips around. This is very apparent in the later chapters of the book, where keeping track of time becomes increasingly difficult. Into Thin Air is a well done book, and nearly got five stars, if only Jon Krakauer stuck to the basics and stayed organized.
Rating:
Summary: This was a very interesting and exciting book!
Review: This book contained a lot of information not only about the climb in 1996, but it also contained a lot of historical information about the mountain itself. Jon Krakauer writes many details about the members of his team as well as the other teams on the mountain. He talks about their lives away from climbing and their experiences in mountain climbing. As far as I know, Krakauer describes almost every event that happened during those fatal weeks on the mountain as accurately as possible. It seems like you are actually on the mountain sometimes and the events can be seen from a first-person point of view. I liked the way Krakauer wrote what was on his mind because it let you know his concerns and opinions while on the climb. I think Krakauer did a great job of describing the people on the expedition because it made the book more personal. One of the drawbacks was the way we only got one perspective on the climb. Everything was from Krakauer's point of view and we are supposed to accept his relaying of events as facts. Other than that, the book was great.
Rating:
Summary: I thought the book Into Thin Air, was well written.
Review: Into Thin Air is a book that describes a man's personal encounter with Mt. Everest. The author, Jon Krakauer, wrote this book after he had experienced the deadly wrath of Mt. Everest. In the book he describes the events that occurred on his expedition and the history of the mountain. It is a book of intrigue and fast paced drama. The book starts out with Krakauer on the summit of Mt. Everest. To me, this seemed like a very odd way to start the book because it was suppose to be about the ENTIRE expedition, not just the journey down. As I continued reading, I realized that the book went back and forth in time. For this type of book it was a very good way to present the information. If the author would have written the events in chronological order, many significant details would go unnoticed by the reader. Along with describing the events that occurred on the 1996 expedition up Mt. Everest, Krakauer also gave a brief history of the moiuntain. Ever so often you would encounter a section in the book where he would tell you about how Everest was discovered, past expeditions up the mountain, and other interesting facts. The only part of the book I think should have been changed was the language, maybe the climbers chose to use swear words when the terrible events happened, but we don't have to read their exact words. Even though there was a draw back when it came to the language,of this book I think it was well written, and should be read in high school English class around the nation.
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Summary: Into Thin Air is an inspiring story that is very suspenseful
Review: I had heard that this was a good book from my mom. At first, I didn't know if would like it because my mother's and my reading tastes can sometimes differ. When I had to read Into Thin Air in my English class, I was ready to give it a chance. Now, after reading it, I am very glad that I did. I thought that Jon Krakauer's book, Into Thin Air was an exceptional adventure. Normally I would expect this kind of adventure from fiction, but it is amazing that Krakauer lived to tell the story of this sketchy expedition. Throughout the entire book, I constantly wanted to read further than I was supposed to. I think I could have easily read this book all at one time because it is so exciting and has all the emotional trama that I look for in a story. What I thought was so great about the book was that Krakauer gives many different views from the different people on the expedition. It gives that story more clarity and it gives it a sense of realism to the skeptic reader. The entire book is very detailed; so detailed, in fact, that you feel like you are on the mountain with Krakauer the entire time. What I find amazing is that Krakauer lived to tell that tale, and also that he was able to tell about the deaths of all the expedition members. I would imagine that this would be incredible difficult to write. I know that when I read these excerpts I was overcome with a sense of sadness. Overall, I would highly recomend this book to anyone seeking a good adventure.
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