This review is to help people understand the differences between the paperback version of Mr. Krakauer's book and the 'illustrated' version. (So much has been written about the content, that it hardly seems worth putting down my own paltry thoughts about Jon's Everest adventure.)

The first difference, of course, is the size. The 'illustrated' version is 9.1 x 8.8 inches, and is about 1 inch thick. Hardback, the book weighs 3.5 pounds, which is to say it's pretty hefty.

The cover, unfortunately, is not all that attractive. It's white with a fabric texture, and adorning it is one of Randy Rackliff's images. Unlike the other abstracts by this artist that appear in black and white at the beginning of the chapters in all the different versions of this book, the cover art is in blue and is raised. Personally, I think something else should have been chosen, or else the image should have been much larger.

Buts lets look inside. Between the covers there are some wonderful photos. Some are small pictures of various climbers -- old and new. And some are panoramic vistas. None are in color.

I have some thoughts about that. First, given the number of photos, it just might have been prohibitively expensive to have color. And then again, given the fact that snow is white and mountains are gray and brown, it might have taken away from the beauty and staggeringly menacing rockfaces, to have guys in dayglo orange outfits standing in the foreground and snagging the attention of your eyes. In any case, what you should take away from this part of the review is that there is no color.

So how many black and white photos are there? Generally speaking there is at least, on average, one per page. There are pictures of men such as Andrew Irvin and Edward Norton, and there are pictures such as that of the southface of Annapoura. In addition there are some maps and charts.

As far as I was able to ascertain all text-content was the same.

All in all, I thought the pictures were important to my appreciation of the story that was told. It's one thing to imagine what such and such camp looked like, and another to see it. If I was to own a copy of this book for my home library, then this is the version I'd be likely to buy. (I compared library versions). As far as a gift, I don't know. While it's a great book and the pictures are great, the cover is just unimpressive. So I suppose it would depend on the friend.

Pam T~

Lawson, J. (1997). Into thin air (Book Review). School Library Journal, 43, 150. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from Article Citation database.

Scott, A. (1997). Into thin air (Book Review). The New York Times Book Review, 102, 11-12. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from Article Citation database.

 

Very interesting story of mountain climber and his climb to the top of Mount Everest. ( )

In 1996, sponsored by Outside magazine, Krakauer went on a guided climb of Mount Everest, reaching the summit on a day that turned out to be one of the most deadly in Everest's history. A sudden storm trapped members of several expeditions near the summit, and eight people died. Krakauer's chronicle of these events is harrowing and gripping. ( )

A classic for the arm chair adventurer, outdoors enthusiast, or true adventurer.

The story has its detractors. In particular, other who end up in Krakauer's version of the story. My grumbling is that the author comes off sounding very proud of himself and finds few of his own errors. ( )