Rating: 
Summary: A 9th Grader's Perspective
Review: The book Eiger Dreams is very exciting and attention grabbing. The book is made up of articles written by Jon Krakauer that include some very interesting people and some intense first hand climbing experiences. Many of these climbers are classic fairy tale heroes or bedtime story characters. Krakauer captures your attention with laughable incidents or captivates you with near-death experiences. It is a must read for anybody who is crazy about mountain climbing.
This book does not have a plot. It is a book designed to entertain and enrapture, which it does very well. The clippings are not put together in any specific order it seems; they could be thrown anywhere in the book and it would be none the better or worse. The one thing that bugged me while reading the book was the title: Eiger Dreams. The author talks about how he tried to ascend the Eiger once, in the first chapter, and then never mentions it again. I think that a different title that refers to the articles as a whole would be more suiting.
The author's writing style is very good. He explains the important details of each character or incident, and he dwells on the events that either make your skin crawl or make laugh. The author also makes facts that would normally be boring and compares them to a different statistic or fact, which captures your attention as you learn something new. I really think that this author has some very good ideas and shows excellent knowledge of how to write a good book.
I really enjoyed reading about the climbers and mountaineers that Krakauer mentions in this book. My favorite people were, by far, the Burgess boys. These two classic English twins are every day heroes that children will dream of someday becoming. Despite having a knack for trouble, these handsome, witty young men can talk their way out of any situation, unless the situation involves fists. The Burgess boys have also pulled off some fairly amazing feats and have the respect of many authorities in the mountain climbing world. These twins are not the only interesting characters, though. You can read about a man who relies on shear finger and mind strength or explore any number of high-flying climbers (whether in a plane or on foot). The people of Eiger Dreams are figures who can be looked up to and dreamed about.
As I said before, this book is a must read for any person crazy about climbing or for someone who just wants to read something new and different. It will entertain you for the entire time you read it and something new will always be around the corner.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Great Piece by Jon Krakauer
Review: Along with Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild" and "Into Thin Air," "Eiger Dreams" is yet another masterpiece of mountaineering histories. In "Eiger Dreams," Krakauer describes 12 different tales of man's relations and interactions with the awesome power of massive mountains and cliffs like the Devil's Thumb and K2. In many of the chapters, Krakauer makes the reader shiver with the thought what the mountaineers are daring. Multiple times in the book, I glanced down to the floor and imagined it dropping hundreds, or even thousands of feet below me. In the chapter "Gill," I closed my eyes and tried to think of what it would feel like to be holding my entire body weight on my finger tips too far above the ground to survive a drop. This chapter intrigued me quite a bit more than some of the others. It astonished me how John Gill would allow his life to dangle on the thread of a string from a cliff. In one section, it discussed something called "squeeze holds." These are Holds that a climber uses to pull him or herself up with only by squeezing. I could not visualize what it may be to have such an experience. In most books that I read, some aspect of it irritates me one way or another, but this book did nothing of the sort. From cover to cover, the writing style was excellent and never caused me to think ill of his choices as an author. I rated this book with the golden 5 star prize for displaying an enthralling tale of laughter and suspense. Krakauer uses his writing talents in such a way that being the reader, I felt compelled to not only have a new found respect for the mountains and the elements, but to envision what these extraordinary men have done.
Rating:
Summary: Eiger Dreams
Review: Jon Krakauer beautifully explains the human struggle to defy gravity and conquer mountains using examples and comparisons that don't take a mountain man to understand. Eiger Dreams is a collection of twelve short essays about mountaineering, canyoneering, climbing, and the people who do it.
I give this book a rating of five stars, because it is wonderfully written and gives the reader the feeling that they are actually walking in the boots of these world renowned athletes. It sends chills down my spine just reading about the precarious positions these people put themselves in, like climbing up a steep ice face, only clinging to the earth because of two metal picks stuck a half inch into a six inch layer of ice. Because this book is a collection of short stories, the reading is quite fast and is never tedious.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Collection of Stories
Review: "Eiger Dreams" is a compelling collection of twelve stories by mountaineering writer Jon Krakauer. Included are several first person accounts of his own adventures, including his life-defining attempt to climb the Devil's Thimb in Alaska as a young man and his later failed attempt to scale the Eiger face. Krakauer also failed in his attempt to climb Mount McKinley, but manages to say more with one of his defeats than other climbers do with their success.Krakauer also proves himself to be a first rate reporter with his accounts of other mountaineering stories. Particularly good is his tale of John Gill, the man who practically invented "bouldering." Krakauer goes on to describe waterfall climbing, canyoneering and the horrors of being tent bound with his deft narrative touch. At 186 pages, and featuring his easily readable prose, the book is a delightful experience for those who like good adventure stories of the kind featured in Outside Magazine.
Rating:
Summary: Cliffhanger
Review: "I have fallen. I am dying. Please send help. Quickly!" Mountain climbing is on of the most dangerous sports in the world. This quote shows why in the book Eiger Dreams by Jon krakauer. This collection of memoirs is about adventures on mountains and the tragedies that occur on them everyday. This is a great collection of memoirs that are descriptive and very interesting. For instance, when he talks about he climbs, you actually feel like you're on the mountaiwith those brave sole. Even though there are one or two stories that are just boring, the rest of the stories are entertaining and keep you on the edge of your seat. For me, this book was a big page-turner. I wanted to read on from the first sentence to the last word. I occasionally drifted off, but I definitely wanted to figure what would happen next. If you like climbing, you will like this book. Another aspect this book excelled in was that it finished very strong. On every memoir that was recited, there was a good ending. They never left me hanging, and they connect to the memoir. The endings make a huge exclamation mark on an already great book. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. Even if you don't climb. It can have philosophical and physical significance for everyone. Like I said, there are some definite weak spots, but its worth reading through them. This book is typical Jon Krakauer, wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: too much thin air?
Review: "Justifying idiocy" I thought when I first read about ice climbing. As the mother of two boys I am always trying to figure out the WHY of male behavior. Krakauer has given me more insight into the male facination with extreme sports than any other source. He goes beyond mere descriptons of the thrill to examine the WHY. JK provides a peek into the male psyche for those of us fortunate enough not to posses one. Some of the adventures beg credulity - too much hypoxia Jon? But I'd give this book 4 pitons up.
Rating:
Summary: Turn up the heat and secure your climbing harness!
Review: A collection of brilliant stories from Jon Krakauer that will send chills up your spine and waves of vertigo through your mind. No one brings home the terror of dangling 2000 feet in the air by an ice ax like Krakauer. His wonderfully humorous (and occasionally downright absurd) depictions of characters and situations paint a memorable portrait of the anguish, the isolation, and even the occasional reward of cold-climate climbing. If you want to get close enough to vertical ice to feel the shuddering thunk of your ax as it bites into the Eisinglas, or high enough on an arctic slope to see your breath whisked away in a -40 degree gale without leaving the comfort of your living room, then this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Good stories
Review: A good collection of Krakauer's writings. References to the Gunks and other climbing was fun. One thing a found amusing was that he seemed to equate anything hard or scary with unprotected 5.12 face climbing.
Rating:
Summary: A great book, Jon Krakauer is a fantastic storyteller!
Review: A great book, Jon Krakauer is a fantastic storyteller
Rating:
Summary: Well Told Stories
Review: After reading "Into Thin Air", I decided to read Jon Krakauer's other books. This is a collection of 12 stories, 11 of which were very good. (Didn't care for "A Mountain Higher Than Everest?") Mountain climbing is not a subject I would have thought would interest me, but I have a feeling that Jon Krakauer could make the telephone directory into a bestseller.
|
