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Comment by michael_h | Hacker News Reader

If you found 'Into The Wild' interesting, make sure to checkout 'Into Thin Air' from the same author. It's about a summit attempt of Everest that went awry and is awesome.

Edit: come to think of it, I've read pretty much everything that Jon Krakauer has written. The guy's grocery lists are probably well thought out and have a compelling narrative.

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Pretty much. I actually found "Into the Wild" to be among his least interesting--probably because I couldn't really identify with McCandless."Into Thin Air" is the book that put him on the mainstream map and it's awesome. "Under the Banner of Heaven" is particularly noteworthy as well--although I found the historical parts the more interesting. (The modern story was mostly just depressing.)

I felt the A-story / B-story narrative split in "Banner Of Heaven" made the read a little too disjointed for my taste. Just when the A story is getting good, the B story comes along and stops it dead in its tracks. Then, vice versa. Incidentally, I also found the historical narrative infinitely more fascinating than the present-day narrative. It is exceedingly hard to pull off an A/B structure when both A and B are given nearly equal weight. One of them needs to be subordinated to the other. Krakauer does the equal-weight A/B better than most, but in some ways I think it's just a fundamentally suboptimal approach.

"Into Thin Air" is a fantastic read. It's got its flaws, but they're very minor and quickly forgotten.

What flaws, out of interest?

Krakauer tends to repeat himself. To some extent, this is necessary. For instance, because there are so many people to keep track of in the book, and because some of those people have the same names, he'll often introduce or describe them several times. That much seems forgivable, even helpful. Occasionally he'll also repeat descriptions. Everyone does it, but when he repeats particularly memorable or creative descriptive phrases, they jump out at you.

These are very minor literary lapses, of course, and I don't want to make a mountain out of them. It's a damned good book, and I should be so lucky to write something like it some day.

If you read "Into Thin Air", make sure you also read "The Death Zone" by Matt Dickinson - an interestingly different perspective on the same event.

Where Men Win Glory is a really great book by Krakauer.

All the controversy lately over American Sniper has me wondering where the Hollywood drama about Patrick Tillman is.

You mean this one: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568334/ ?

(Or maybe you're specifically referring to a hollywood-ized drama, not a documentary)

Yes, that's a documentary.

"... has me wondering where the Hollywood drama about Patrick Tillman is. ..."

10 years on and this story still resonates ~ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/20/10-year...

his legacy in providing scholarships for vets & spouses http://pattillmanfoundation.org/about-us is a big FU to those in Government and the Military who tried to cover up the how he died.

If you enjoyed Into Thin Air, you must also read Touching the Void.

Read about the incident in Deep Survival, absolutely stunning survival story.

The Documentary is incredible too.

I love Krakauer's style of writing and have read all of his books. His writing style reminds a lot of Stephen Ambrose.

If you like Into The Wild, you might also like One Man's Wilderness about Richard Proenneke: http://www.amazon.com/One-Mans-Wilderness-Alaskan-Odyssey-eb...

Follow up with The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt.

Great alternative perspective.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/925367.The_Climb

If you liked "Into Thin Air" you should read "The White Spider" about Heinreich Harrer (who was the inspiration for Brat Pitt's character in "Seven Years in Tibet")

I read everything he writes. The only time I have had a problem with anything he said was in "Under the Banner of Heaven" he partially blamed the Mormon church for the kidnap and rape of Elizabeth Smart. I suspect that the guy that kidnapped her would have been a piece of shit no matter what religion he was born into.

are people really born pieces of shit though? or are they molded into one?

I'm guessing you must be Mormon to take offense. For all the glory of God that religion may bring, there's a lot of less "praiseworthy" elements. It's important to acknowledge all of it.

Actually, if he were Mormon, "shit" would be the last word he'd write.

I think his point was more about the indoctrination and conditioning of young women in the LDS system.

"Endurance" is another one well worth reading.

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