Adventure
Annotation: Into Thin Air
Author:
Jon Krakauer Title: Into Thin Air
Genre: Adventure (nonfiction)
Publication Date: 1997
Publisher: Villard (New York)
Number of Pages: 337 pages
Geographic
Setting: Mt. Everest, NepalTime Period: Modern 1996
Series (if applicable): None
Plot Summary: Jon Krakauer is given the opportunity of a lifetime: to climb to the top of Mt. Everest in 1996. Along the way, he meets numerous people, like Rob Hall and Andy Harris, and they each set out to make history. But along the way, they come across below freezing temperatures, frostbites, hypothermia, and many numerous harmful encounters, but the deadliest encounter is a huge snow blizzard that claims the lives of nine climbers. Krakauer survives and he lives to tell his tale of his adventurous and emotional journey of over 29.000 feet to reach Mt. Everest.
Subject Headings: Mt. Everest, Jon Krakauer, mountaineering disaster, expedition
Appeal: For those who like nonfictional adventures, as well as reading about personal experiences from someone who went through the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster. I would say for ages 12 and up due to some foul language and death scenes.
3 Terms that describe book: Slow paced, emotional, truthful
Similar Works and Authors:
K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain - Ed Viesturs and David Roberts: This tells the true story of climbers climbing the second tallest mountain, K2; considered the world’s most difficult and unpredictable mountain.
Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season - Nick Heil: This tells a true story of the 2006 deadliest season on Everest since 1996.
Forever on the Mountain: The Truth Behind One of Mountaineering's Most Controversial and Mysterious Disasters - James M. Tabor: This tells a true story of a group of men who went missing on the world’s starkest and stormiest mountain, and how there was no investigation.
Personal Thoughts: I did enjoy this book, even if it was a little slow paced. It was very emotional to hear from a person who went through one of the deadliest disasters on Mt. Everest. I cannot imagine what Jon Krakauer went through.
"People who don’t climb mountains – the great majority of humankind, that is to say – tend to assume that the sport is a reckless, Dionysian pursuit of ever escalating thrills. But the notion that climbers are merely adrenaline junkies chasing a righteous fix is a fallacy, at least in the case of Everest. What I was doing up there had almost nothing in common with bungee jumping or skydiving or riding a motorcycle at 120 miles per hour" (Krakauer, 1997, 135-6).
There are a lot of people, so it was great they included a list of people who went on this trip as well as including pictures to make a clear picture of where they climbed and what everyone looked like.
“Novels in the Adventure genre appeal to our wanderlust and to our desire to test our limits and explore the boundaries of our universe. Adventure takes us from the confines of our ordinary lives to traverse the known world and beyond” (Saricks, 2009, 33). Adventure is not one of my strongest genres, but reading this gave me an idea of what adventure novels are like.
References:
Krakauer, J. (1997). Into Thin Air. New York: Villard.
Saricks, J. (2009). The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. 2nd Ed. Chicago: American Library Association.
Excellent adventure annotation! I'm scared of heights so I'd have a hard time reading this one! Was this one also turned into a movie?
ReplyDeleteYes. According to Wikipedia, there was a TV movie in 1997 and a movie in 2015, but the movie was not based off of Krakauer's book.
ReplyDeleteWow, this book sounds so intense! I don't know if I'd be able to handle it, honestly. But it also sounds fascinating.
ReplyDeleteGreat annotation! I like how you used a non-fiction title to appeal to adventure readers. I spend a lot of this class only thinking about fiction, so it was a good reminder to think outside the box.
ReplyDeleteI love books (and movies) like this. Although they are usually heart-pounding reads. I loved your annotation, too. As an undergraduate, I read a book on the Donner party and somehow it reminded me of these types of books. I guess being in the snow and fighting for your life. The movie "Alive" is pretty intense if you've never seen it.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an intense book! Adventure is not one of my preferred genres either. It can be hard to read such emotional, adventure packed stories, especially when they really happened. Great annotation - I enjoyed reading your personal thoughts on the book.
ReplyDeleteAdventure is not my preferred genre either. I think I may have to read a few more to decide whether I like it or not.
DeleteI read this book several years ago and found it to be a pretty compelling read for a nonfiction book (not my usual choice). I like the organization you have in your annotation so that relevant details, like the setting and subject headings, are really easy to find.
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ReplyDeleteI love Jon Krakauer's writing style and have read most of his books. I read this book back in the 90's and really enjoyed it. Good annotation!
ReplyDeleteI love Jon Krakauer's writing style and have read most of his books. I read this book back in the 90's and really enjoyed it. Good annotation!
ReplyDeleteI like what you have done with this annotation. The personal thoughts at the end, with the quotations included, help to get a better idea of the genre. One thing I noticed was your inclusion of an age recommendation, I wonder if this is necessary, or even desirable.
ReplyDeleteI do not really like to set an age limit for books, but I know there are some people, particularly parents, who are careful with what their kids read, so I included in this just to give a good idea of what to expect.
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