Title of the Book: Into Thin Air Author: Jon Krakauer Number of Pages: 302 Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Review: Into Thin Air is a reflection on unspeakable events that one man lived through. Jon Krakauer writes a first hand account of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster, in which many people were terribly injured, scarred for life and lost their lives. Jon Krakauer was fortunately a survivor of this catastrophe, only a part of the expedition to be a journalist. Into Thin Air dives deep into the topic of the history of climbing, commercialized climbing, and the process of standing atop the world. Much of the book is constantly moving forward, there is an end goal that the limbers must reach and the book is one big build up to a breathtaking event one could only dream of… but the book is far from over as the climbers still have to get down the mountain. There is no stalling in the story, each page and line is building up to the final events just building intensity and eagerness to be there. 

Krakauer tackles this book perfectly, not only because he has a trustworthy first hand account of the events, but because of his writing style. He builds so much detail on subtopics that you learn far more than what you would expect out of a book. He dives intensely deep into previous climbers, the family lives of his colleagues, the history of the mountain and recalling previous disasters such as avalanches and independent climbers going missing. Krakauer makes the book an informative, fun, and adventurous read which makes for a once in a lifetime kind of book. 

There are moments in this book that get your heart racing, and there are others that are real tear jerkers. Such as the close calls over the ice crefaces, the determination of Scott Fischer, or even the final lines that recall the unfortunate death of a great character. Moments like this and the way Krakauer writes them are what make this book worth a read, and there are too many to count of moments like the ones I used as examples. This book is based on real events, none of it is faked or exaggerated… so if you are the type of person who enjoys a good adventure story, or even a history lesson, I highly recommend this for you. Growing up I was always a climber and I am a big fan of learning history. I have never been a big reader nor have I ever truly enjoyed it, but this book was definitely worth it and sparked my interest into a lot of new things. The examples I used are just brief glimpses at the hundreds of moments like to, but the only way you’ll truly know that is if you read it.