I have long enjoyed books on climbing and mountaineering (when written well) for some time. My favorite two are Into Thin Air and Touching the Void. They are amazingly written and are just good books overall. I have also read some not good ones (my least favorite being High Crimes). I suppose this is strange, as I am not big into mountaineering (although my Dad and Brother both are), and I have only been climbing once before. It was fun, and I have several friends who LOVE to climb, it is something I never got into when younger, and assumed it is now to late for me to start.
The book goes back and forth describing what was going on in the canyon while he was trapped and detailing some of the "amazing" things he had done in the past. When I first told a friend I was going to read this book she told me her mom said he is incredibly self-centered. He is definitely full of himself, it's true, and he likes to tell about all of the "wonderful and amazing things" he has done. He has a degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in piano performance (which is crazy... since in order to get either degree you should live in one department or the other). After working as an engineer for only 5 years he decided to quit his job and move to Aspen to "follow his bliss".
I think, overall, I enjoyed this book. Being from both Wyoming and Washington he talked about mountains in both places. However, as I am not a climber there were times where he got technical that I didn't precisely follow what was going on in the book. He made a stupid mistake in not telling anybody where he was going, and the book did get pretty graphic in how he had to cut his arm off, there are even some pictures. I tried showing one of the pictures to my husband, or describing to him what was happening, but he wasn't interested (/he was disturbed). I was morbidly curious. At any rate, I would probably give this book a rating of 3/5. It was okay, I don't think I'll try and sell it to get it out of my house, but I'm not sure if I would re-read it again.
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