Book of the Week #19: Into Thin Air

The book that I read this week was Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. He’s the same guy who wrote Into the Wild, which was sad. Very, very sad. Still, I thought I’d give him a try!

This book is listed as nonfiction, and it’s the story of the author’s trip to Mount Everest. While he’s there, a freak storm rushes in and kills eight climbers, and strands many more. A big part of the book is spent talking about his personal reasons for climbing the mountain, and it’s really interesting to read his thought processes on why and how he chose to go about it.

Climbing Everest has always been something that I wanted to do, but it’s what I like to classify as a “B” dream. It’s less likely to actually happen, and is possibly impossible! I’ve had joint problems in the past, so I find it unlikely that it will work out. Still, in the beginning of the book, he talks about his own personal motivations to climb, and it really resonated with me.

This book was really good. It was dramatic, and touching at times; precisely what a good nonfiction book should be. The only issue I have with it is that for being a true story, it seemed really sensationalised. It was like he had taken the true story and embellished it to be more dramatic and a better read. I try not to Google reviews of books that I’m reading so that I don’t take on a biased opinion of them, but when I first finished the book yesterday and read a couple of a reviews, I saw much of the same thing. It’s insinuated a few times that Krakauer’s account is a little more exaggerated than the official reports. But I suppose that’s artistic license for you.

I liked this. I’d give it an 8/10. Not all nonfiction is interesting, but this one is.

I’m also having some issues with camera sync, so I’m waiting on that to do some more review-type posts. Talk to you soon!