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Touching the Void
February 2020: Survival
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Touching the Void/Simpson - 4 stars
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You wasted no time in getting to your first survival book! I totally agree that Into Thin Air sets an extremely high bar for the genre, that book was great!
I swear I am either going to finish my current book tonight or abandon it. It is time to move on to survival.
Nicole R wrote: "..I swear I am either going to finish my current book tonight or abandon it. It is time to move on to survival..."Survival, survival!!!!
The best part of the writing in this particular book is how Joe relates his inner voice as he attempts to save himself from a desperate situation. At the end of the book, he states, " . . .however painful readers may think our experiences were, for me this book still falls short of articulating just how dreadful were some of those lonely days. I simply could not find the words to express the utter desolation of the experience." Well, he did a pretty good job. I don't know how he didn't just give up or go mad.
(view spoiler)[However, there were a few things that kept this book from being five star worthy for me. First, Joe describes the terrain a lot, but he is using mountaineering terms to do so, and even after looking them up, I still had trouble picturing the issue some of the time. I think it would have been nice if he used some analogies or something to help me picture the daunting terrain.
Second, by virtue of the fact that the author is the protagonist, the suspense is somewhat lessened. We know he ends up at least okay because he lived to write the book. Into Thin Air was written by a journalist, so while you are reading, you aren't sure of the fate of the many climbers in the story, and that added suspense for me that this book couldn't really have in the same way. (hide spoiler)]
Once again, I marvel at how people are willing to risk their lives to attempt these challenges, and then return to mountain climbing after these near death experiences. I never get bored reading about this topic for whatever reason.