Rating: 
Summary: Addictive adventure stories!
Review: Jim Wickwire is stalked by adventures that would excite any Hollywood producer (and would support multiple movies!). This well written book should appeal to almost everyone - male/female, old/young, real or virtual adventurer. Remarkably, the climbing jargon is no barrier to enjoying the gripping stories. I have purchased 6 copies for gifts and may go back for more. (I must be addicted too!)
Rating:
Summary: Compelling, page-turner.
Review: Picking up what I expected to be a "man's" book, I found myself immediately drawn in. I literally could not stop reading. There's the traditional "by-the-seat-of-your-pants" recitation of incredibly compelling exploits in the mountains, but I loved the exploration of Wickwire's inner life just as much. Well-written and fascinating. I'm buying one for my dad for Father's Day.
Rating:
Summary: Allegory for Our Own Adventures
Review: Jim Wickwire and Dorothy Bullitt have done a truly remarkable job as storytellers, translating diaries and memories into an exciting, participatory experience. Jim Wickwire's challenges, experiences and losses become an allegory for the personal adventures which all of us have lived. More than documenting the moving and tragic details of the many Wickwire expeditions, the book also provides Seattleites with a compelling social history of recent acquaintances and events. As a Seattle lawyer and native I recommend Addicted to Danger as a great read for all. I am sure the movie will follow!
Rating:
Summary: Riveting adventures/reflections by great U.S. climber
Review: Couldn't put it down. Anyone interested in mountain adventure, or balancing an athletic passion with family and career, should find this a great read. Would be a great father's day gift, particularly for anyone trying to be good at something time-consuming and a good father at the same time. Both gripping and thoughtful.
Rating:
Summary: A riveting personal account of a man driven to climb.
Review: This book is a riveting personal account of a man (not a hero) who is driven to climb and has had extraordinary experiences on some of the most challenging mountains in the world. The book is about saying "yes" to life even though that sometimes means facing death and human frailty.
Rating: 
Summary: Praise for ADDICTED TO DANGER
Review: "Well worth a read . . . Even those not absorbed by this sport will find themselves affected by the author's tales of friends lost on expeditions." -PUBLISHERS WEEKLY"A good adventure story mixed with meditations on the meaning of life and death and dying . . . The descriptions of his adventures are gripping tales." --KIRKUS REVIEWS "This book reveals the mental attitude that allows one to remain calm and focused even while hanging over a four-thousand-foot cliff in a blizzard--and takes you along for a terrifying rush that is life lived on the highest of edges." --Rob Spillman, DETAILS "A book to raise hair on your neck or bring tears of compassion....Out of Wickwire's diaries came a smooth, novel-like narrative of danger, heartbreak, unrequited love, striving, and tortured ambivalence about age and diminished athletic performance." --Emmett Watson, SEATTLE TIMES "A gripping tale of Wickwire's narrow escapes from death--and it's sure to keep readers coming back for more." --Tom Rose, NEW YORK POST "Fascinating and searing. The reader will feel deprived of oxygen at some moments: the instant Marty Hoey pitches backward down Everest, or when young climber Chris Kerrebrock freezes to death, wedged head-down in a glacier on McKinley with Wickwire helpless to do anything about it." --Joel Connelly, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER "ADDICTED TO DANGER is the best book on mountaineering since Herzog's ANNAPURNA...I couldn't put it down." --Doug Glant, KVI RADIO, Seattle
Rating:
Summary: Page-turning adventure for climbers & non-climbers
Review: From the first chapter where you see the author fall into a 25-ft crevasse on top of his friend and follow his attempt to escape up the ice walls with a broken shoulder, you are thrown into the reality of high level climbing. Reading Into Thin Air, it was easy [and also fascinating]to see how the careless climbers and their paying customers got into big trouble on Everest. The deaths there seemed almost inevitable. Wickwire, in a narrative that is fast-paced, often tense, and sometimes shocking, shows that being a careful climber is sometimes not enough--that luck as much as his considerable strength and skill is why he is still alive. You are unprepared for some of the tragedies, but you also know they are descriptions of what really happened and powerful descriptions at that. Great summer book.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent adventure tale, falls flat in introspection
Review: Jim Wickwire is one of the most accomplished American mountaineers of the past 30 years. His epic adventures are retold in a straightforward, descriptive manner. That alone makes this book worth reading, especially if you are a fan of mountaineering stories. His attempts to examine his personal motivation (hence the title: Addicted to Danger) are not developed well enough to provide much insight. No matter. The retelling of the adventures are worth the price of admission.
Rating:
Summary: Honest & Riveting Account
Review: I liked this book and found it hard to put down. I appreciated how honest Wickwire was in telling about his obsession with climbing. He didn't get defensive in retrospect and pin the blame on others when things went wrong on the climb. He openly admitted his mistakes and weaknesses, as well as his strengths. I think he realizes his self-absorption and even selfishness in undertaking such risks.
Although some will disagree, I thought the fact that he openly wrote about his feelings for fellow climber Marty Hoey was refreshing. I don't think that many climbers who become engaged in a "romantic entanglement" while on an expedition would have the guts to tell about it. Who knows though, perhaps he wouldn't have written about his relationship with Marty had she lived.
Although the guy is selfish and egotistical at times, I still came away liking him. He's human with weaknesses like the rest of us.
I only gave this book 4 stars because it's not the best mountaineering book I've read, but I do highly recommend it as one of my favorites.
Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful novel that kept me reading--A real page turner
Review: After attending a lecture given by a professor, I was motivated to purchase this novel. The professor only read one chapter, and after hearing it, I couldn't wait to read every chapter.
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