Rating: 
Summary: That Simpson returned to the mountains is unfathomable.
Review: Joe Simpson's story of a lonely and painful escape down the side of a mountain, out of the bowels of a glacier and through the Peruvian outback is so unbelievable and outlandish, I had to repeatedly return to the picture to believe that he was telling us a true story.
Rating:
Summary: As I read it I kept thinking that it was fiction.
Review: I had to remind myself over and over again that what I was reading was real. It is a must read for any armchair mountanieer.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a thriller
Review: This book is great. My hands were sweating and I almost cried
at the end. This is a book that even a non-climber will enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: A compelling read for all climbers, airchair or real
Review: Joe Simpson's writing style is perfectly balanced for creating a sense of sustained tension. I read this book in two sittings and found it to be among the best adventure
books I have ever read. Simpson's follow-up book, "The Game of the Ghosts" is a must read after this one.
After reading "Touching the Void" I find myself looking at
personal motivation in a different light.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: For those who love the mountains and adventure. Human endurance beating inconceivable odds. Spellbinding, once you begin to read the book you don't put it down until you finish. Then you pick it up again and reread the chapters that your brain found simply too enormous to completely process on the first read through. Simply amazing to find such a well written book by a true mountaineer. Mr. Simpson is a mountaineer and a writer.
Rating:
Summary: A Bit Hard To Read, But Fascinating Nonetheless
Review: It's hard to believe that Touching The Void is a true story. The level of physical exertion that is depicted in the book seems beyond anything a human could produce. But, the searing emotions that accompany that exertion are described so movingly that a reader has no choice but to accept that this story is painfully true.
The only drawback to this fascinating tale is the mountaineering minutia littering the text. I realize that this information was presented to provide some context to the difficulty of the climb and the descent. However, instead of informing me, this information actually bored me with its technicality. It also added a clumsy quality to the writing that ended up disrupting the flow of the story.Like The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev, Simpson makes up for his sometimes clumsy writing style by dramatically portraying the emotions he felt during this ordeal. As a result, Simpson's story is a testament to the power of ingenuity and faith. After reading Touching The Void, it will be impossible not to have a greater appreciation for the inherent strength of the human character.
Rating:
Summary: excellent inspiration
Review: Excellent Inspiration
The awesomely true adventure story Touching the Void, buy Joe Simpson, is the account of two men's epic battle against time, nature, and ultimately themselves. Joe Simpson and Simon Yates are experienced mountain climbers and good friends. For their next task they attempt to tackle the very dangerous West face of a mountain in the South American Andes. No one has made it down alive from this route, but Joe and Simon will be the first. Or will they?
Be prepared to never put this book down. From beginning to end readers will be at the edge of their seats anticipating what is in store on the next page. Not only is this book amazing in the sense that it is a true story, but it is tremendously inspiring. Many people would simply quit, give up, if they were put in the same situation of the lead character (being trapped on a mountain alone with a broken leg). But the way Simpson looks fear in the eye and says "I'm not scared" is sure to be an excellent inspiration the un-inspirable. After reading this book one will never look at adversity in the same way again.
---J. Peña
Rating:
Summary: Astonishing Story
Review: I highly recommend this astonishing tale of survival and the nature and strength of the human spirit. I disagree with those reviewers that felt the book was too technical and of interest primiarily to sportsman and mountaineers. I am a middle-aged, working mother of three, and rank this book among my favorites of recent memory. I do consider myself to be moderately well-read, and was expecting clumsy writing and poor technique, knowing that this was the author's first book. I was, however, pleasantly surprised. The truth is, after the second or third chapter, I was so gripped by the story that the writing flowed and flowed and flowed. I found that I could not stop reading. When I finally reached the point in the book where Joe is rescued, my own head was pounding and I actually felt thirsty, dehydrated, and exhausted. That is a testimony to the power of his writing. A number of years ago I read Jon Krakauer's book of the Everest disaster,Into Thin Air, as well as Anatoli Boukreev's companion book, The Climb. While both of these (especially Krakauer's book) were excellent reads, they pale in comparison to Touching the Void. This is a must read - for those who crave adventure, as well as those who don't.
Rating:
Summary: Decisions - just keep making them
Review: This is the best book on why we do mountaineering I have read.
I avoided the book for years because I had had my own epic including 1000ft fall, crevase and wounded partner in the Italian Alps. But it was the best explanation to me on why we go to high mountains, why we solo, and for me why, one day, I stopped. It was so good at helping me understand I have started again!!
The centre of the book is making decisions - to climb hard, to rescue your partner, to cut the rope, to abseil, to struggle to live. This is why the book is a success, not becuase it is yet another tale of "I clipped the loose piton ...".
I cannot understand why any reviewer cannot give it 5 stars - they either have no emotion or they have not hung themselves out to dry once or twice. Or they worry about the style - shame on you. You really do need to go climbing high mountains.
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading as well as watching
Review: A few weeks back, in search of something good to watch at the video store, I picked up Kevin Macdonald's Touching the Void documentary from the shelf. As I was skeptically reading the back of the DVD case, the fellow standing next to me said that it was a "really good movie." I took him on his word and later disovered a movie that I have since been raving about to all who will listen. It is a riveting story in which an injured climber is left for dead on a Peruvian mountain and manages to crawl his way off. It sounds like fiction, but, as is often the case, this true story is incredible beyond what a writer could believable construct. So, when I found out that Joe Simpson (the climber left on the mountain) had written a book, Touching the Void about his harrowing adventure, I knew I needed to read it. The movie and the DVD extras take the viewer on an emotional path where one at first dislikes the arrongant and impetuous Simpson, while his climbing pal Simon Yates seems more sympathetic. However, as the movie continues and especially if you watch the Return to Siula Grande DVD extra, it becomes hard not to empathize with Simpson's reaction to returning to the place where he had faced so much trauma and to, in contrast, find Yates cold and unfeeling, as if the experience they shared so many years before no longer affected him personally. The end of the movie leaves one with the impression that Simpson, although understanding at what Yates did, does not really like Yates and does certainly not consider him a friend. The book, written several years earlier, certainly leaves a more positive impression of Yates. While Simpson admits to having written the book in part to clear Yates's name in the climbing communitry, his storytelling takes the reader beyond a defense of Yates's actions. In fact, Simpson's description of Yates's attempt to lower the injured Simpson down the mountain portrays an act that is nothing short of heroic. It is clear that his cutting the rope was a last, desperate resort to end a situation in which there was no way out. While the book and the movie both tell very closely the same story, reading the book and seeing the movie is neither a redundant experience nor an exercise in detecting differences in the two plots. In fact, the one enriches the story in the other. The maps and the first-person telling in the book complement the documentary-style script and the sweeping vistas caught on film.
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