What Really Matters: Searching for Wisdom in America by Tony Schwartz

After co-writing The Art of the Deal with Donald Trump and reaching the top of the best-seller lists, Schwartz was trying to figure out why he wasn’t feeling on top of the world. He started meditating and spent the next 4 years experiencing various aspects of the “consciousness movement” including psychadelics, Esalen, biofeedback, Enneagrams, etc.

Time was Soft There by Jeremy Mercer

Mercer was a journalist who published the name of a source who subsequently threatened his life, so he went to Paris for a while and ended up living and working at the legendary bookstore, Shakespeare and Co., with some very colorful characters.

Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley

Describes a mescaline trip and Huxley’s musings on the nature of perception. (random trivia: Jim Morrison’s band derived their named from this book.)

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

This is an incredibly disturbing book - but the writing is absolutely fantastic! The writing and the insight into Humbert Humbert are so good that by the end of the book, I didn’t hate him (as I’d fully expected to do); I just felt sorry for him. This writing is even more amazing given that English was Nabokov’s third (!) language. Gotta read more of his.

River of Doubt by Candace Millard

Interesting account of a trip by Teddy Roosevelt down the River of Doubt, a previously unexplored tributary of the Amazon. Has to be one of the worst-planned trips ever (who leaves their lightweight canoes behind when they’re planning to travel down an unexplored river???) While this trip almost killed Roosevelt, he’d been looking for an adventure – and he found one.

Lawrence Block’s “Burglar” books

eg, Burglars Can’t be Choosers, The Burglar who Studied Spinoza, The Burglar who Liked to Quote Kipling, The Burglar in the Rye, etc. The main character is a bookseller by day, burglar by night and, of course, something always goes awry involving him in a mystery, which he solves with a whimsical, dry sense of humor.

Plowing the Dark by Richard Powers

Like The Gold Bug Variations, (which I really enjoyed,) this book has two stories going on, but they don’t tie together well and the writing seemed pretentious.

Team of Rivals by Gail Kearns Goodwin

Absolutely fantastic book about Lincoln and the 3 men he ran against for the Republican nomination in 1860. He was an extremely unlikely candidate and was disdained and looked down upon by all 3 who were strong, nationally known figures. Yet he won the nomination and convinced all 3 of them to join his cabinet, and over time, earned their respect and admiration. Lincoln’s leadership and political genius were astounding. I had a week of extremely abbreviated sleep as I couldn’t put this book down.

Mind Wide Open by Steven Johnson

A personal account of neurobiology that’s very engaging and extremely easy to read. Johnson tries several of the latest techniques in neurobiological testing, and discusses the geography and chemistry of the brain – and the implications for our behavior and emotions. Fascinating read.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I picked up the 50th anniversary edition of this book, which I hadn’t read since high school, and I loved it. Great story, insightful and foresightful (is that a word?) And his coda in this edition – telling the politically correct types to keep their hands off his writing – is passionately written, very funny and absolutely right on target.

Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl

This is an amazing book. The first part of the book is about the 3 years Frankl spent in Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration camps. The second part of the book describes “logotherapy”, his psychological theory based on man’s “will to meaning”.

Brothers K by David James Duncan

About a family in the 1950’s and 60’s. The youngest son, who narrates, describes it as “the story of an eight-way tangle of human beings.” The very different characters go in very different directions, but at the core, they’re tangled together as a family. It’s well written and Duncan’s phraseology is often very creative (eg, describing a family road trip as “pre posthumous purgatory”.) I also really enjoyed his first book, The River Why, and his more recent collection of short fiction and nonfiction, River Teeth.

April 1865 by Jay Winik

This month included the fall of Richmond, Lee’s distinguished surrender to Grant, handled (amazingly) graciously by Grant, Lincoln’s assasination and more. Like the founding era, this book illustrates again that the US is astoundingly lucky to have men of such remarkable character in key positions at critical times. Winik’s writing is overly dramatic, but the content is well worth ignoring his irritating writing style.

A Theory of Everything by Ken Wilber

Subtitled “An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality”, Wilber integrates … well, everything. His vision includes “matter, body, mind, soul and spirit as they appear in self, culture and nature… [and] embraces science, art and morals.” Much of the book is a fascinating overview of developmental psychology applied to individuals and cultures/societies, and then he describes some applications of his theory (which are illustrative, though somewhat superficial.) Interesting stuff.

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

Prompted by the impending release of the movie, I re-read this recently and again enjoyed Austen’s sharp wit and social commentary. (And the recent movie captures that very well, BTW.)

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

An interesting account of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary and the man who, while institutionalized in an insane asylum, submitted over 10,000 of the quotations used as examples. Very easy reading; it reads like a novel.

Nabokov’s Butterfly by Rick Gekoski

A rare book dealer, Gekoski tells the stories of 20 major books that he’s handled in his career. Very fun reading.

Honeymoon with my Brother by Franz Wisner

After being dumped by his fiance right before the wedding and being demoted at work, the author takes his brother on his already paid-for honeymoon to Costa Rica, where the brothers are inspired to go home, sell their assets, and travel around the world for a couple of years. Entertaining read.

The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs

About the year that the author spent reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica – and then hilariously trying to figure out how to use his new-found knowledge. Quirky, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, and (obviously) packed with information about random (though alphabetically organized) stuff you never knew you knew nothing about.

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

This is the first book I’ve ready by Berry and it made me a fan of his writing. About a small town and the people who make up the community, described through stories, anecdotes, observations and memoirs of Jayber Crow, the town barber (and grave digger and church janitor on the side). Insightful and beautifully written.

Sixpence House by Paul Collins

Collins moves from San Francisco to Hay-on-Wye, Wales, a village known for having a population of 1,500 and 40 bookstores. Very amusing.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Another quick, entertaining read from Gladwell (also see The Tipping Point). This one’s about the “power of thinking without thinking” ie, instantaneous decision-making. Unfortunately, much sizzle but little steak… Lots of interesting examples, but weak on real explanations.

John Adams by David McCullough

You’ve heard the rave reviews of this recent McCullough tome, so suffice it to say that this is an excellent book about a fascinating man. And no matter how busy and productive you think you are, John Adams will make you feel like a slacker.

The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers

The first time I started this book, I couldn’t get into it. Second time, I got into it and had a hard time putting it down. The book bounces between 2 timelines – 1950’s and the early study of DNA, and 1980s when a couple is trying to figure out why a very promising young geneticist dropped off the map (in the ‘50’s) and ended up (in the ‘80’s) doing grunt work at a data processing facility. This book is pretty dense and includes (sometimes very detailed) references to everything from music to genetics to art. (The title refers to Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Poe’s short story, The Gold Bug.) Not a lot actually happens in the book, but it’s incredibly clever and well-written. I’ve bought several of his other books to see if I like them as much.
7/06 update: Just read Plowing the Dark – and it’s not nearly as good as Gold Bug. Two different stories going on again but they don’t tie together well, and the writing seemed pretentious.

Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman

A well-written and witty collection of 18 essays about books and language. The first essay is about how, after 5 years of marriage and a child, she and her husband decide they’re “ready for the more profound intimacy of library consolidation.” Then came the issue of how the co-mingled books should be organized. Other essays are about shopping at a secondhand bookstore (from which she buys 19lbs of books), her family and the word games they play (eg, competing to find typos on menus), and the pleasure of reading a book in the location that it describes. A fun and entertaining read.

Daniel Silva novels

I read several of these and enjoyed them. Main character is a Mossad agent who’s also an art restorer. Very entertaining.

Vernon Can Read by Vernon Jordan

Interesting memoir of Vernon Jordan, who played major roles in the civil rights movement and was an advisor to several presidents.

Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner

Through reading his journal from the trip, an elderly couple remember a trip they took 20 years previously. Switching back and forth from the trip to the present, the book is about life, getting old, marriage, commitment, choices. It’s by Stegner – so (as always) it’s beautifully written.

46 Pages by Scott Liell

About the remarkable impact that Thomas Paine’s Common Sense pamphlet (which was only 46 pages long) had on changing the mood of the colonies in early 1776 - leading up to the Declaration of Independence in July.

Recapitulation by Wallace Stegner

A successful diplomat returns to his home town to organize his aunt’s funeral and reflects on the people who impacted him while he was growing up, and influenced who he has become.

Absolutely American by David Lipsky

Lipsky was given unprecedented access to follow a class through West Point. Interesting book about kids who chose a very different college experience. The class he followed graduated in 2002, so Sept 11 had different implications for them than for that class at most other colleges.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

If you notice when people use “it’s” instead of “its”, you’ll enjoy this book. A witty, gentle rant on the use and misuse of punctuation. Who’da thunk a book about punctuation would ever be a best-seller!?

A Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester

At a loss for how to describe this book, I turned to Amazon’s editorial reviews, and they said it better than I could: “A gorgeous, dark, and sensuous book that is part cookbook, part novel, part eccentric philosophical treatise … Join Tarquin Winot as he embarks on a journey of the senses, regaling us with his wickedly funny, poisonously opinionated meditations on everything from the erotics of dislike to the psychology of a menu, from the perverse history of the peach to the brutalization of the palate, from cheese as "the corpse of milk" to the binding action of blood.” Keep a dictionary handy; Lanchester’s vocabulary is fantastic.
Also read Fragrant Harbor, but it was extremely disappointing; I struggled to even finish it.

Moneyball by Michael Lewis

I’m not interested in baseball and I don’t read books about baseball. But this book was fantastic – about a baseball GM who uses takes a different perspective on player statistics and builds powerhouse teams on extremely small budgets. Way more interesting than either of Lewis’ previous books: Liar’s Poker (which was amusing for 5 mins) and The New, New Thing (about Jim Clark & Silicon Valley.)

Finding Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Interesting book about being more engaged in everyday life, rather than passively floating along. (“Finding flow” is like being in “the zone”.)

Huckleberry Finn & Tom Sawyer by Twain

Re-read these classics recently, and was reminded of Twain’s genius.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

True story of the the architect who designed and oversaw construction for the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893 and a serial killer who was murdering women in that neighborhood at the same time. The serial murderer part is bizarre, but the story of the fair is interesting. Reads like fiction.

A Meeting by the River by Christopher Isherwood

Two very different brothers – one a successful publisher with wife and kids in London and a gay lover in LA, the other preparing to take his vows as a Hindu monk - spend some time together after years of distance. The book flips back and forth from the perspective of one brother to that of the other. I enjoyed it and like the way Isherwood writes.

The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski

About the evolution of books and bookshelves, with emphasis on bookshelves. Slow in places where he delves into gory detail on how the certain shelves were constructed, etc., (the author’s an engineer) but I’d never thought about how books and bookshelves have changed over time.

Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

Of the same genre as The Da Vinci code, this story revolves around a 15th century coded document. Better written than Da Vinci code.

John Dunning novels

The main character is a cop who becomes rare book dealer. The stories are mysteries related to rare books. Fun reading – and the book collecting aspect intrigued me.

Longitudes & Attitudes by Thomas Friedman

mostly a collection of Friedman’s NYT columns following Sept 11, but also includes a diary he kept during that time. Insightful, thought-provoking and well-written. (also see From Beirut to Jerusalem).

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

This is a series of letters Rilke wrote between 1903 & 1908 to a young would-be poet. Rilke offers advice on life, love, being an artist, etc.

Boy Genius by Carl Cannon

About Karl Rove. Whatever you think of Rove or the Bush administration, Rove has had an enormous impact on Texas politics during the last 20 yrs and on Bush’s success. This book is an interesting, quick read that describes Rove’s strategies and tactics which, while successful, often demonstrate a nasty “whatever it takes to win” mentality.

Longitude by Dava Sobel

Fascinating book about the problem of figuring out longitude while at sea, and the guy who successfully built clocks that would keep time on board ships to solve this problemt. Read the book to understand why clocks mattered :-)

Ethics for the New Millennium by the Dalai Lama

An approach to ethics based on universal, rather than religious principles.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Hitchhikers Guide meets the Classics. This is this author’s first novel and it’s great – very clever, well-written, lots of word play, and thoroughly entertaining. Set in an altered version of London in 1985, literature is so important, there’s a division of the “police” that handles “literary crimes” (like forging Byronic verse), time-travel is common, and (some) people can move between the “real” world and the worlds in literature. The heroine is a “Literary Detective” chasing a bad guy who’s kidnapping characters out of literature. I’ve also read his second book Lost in a Good Book, and his third (can’t remember the title) but they weren’t as good.

Mauve by Simon Garfield

Excellent story of William Perkin, who invented mauve, which was the first synthetic color, and which took the fashion world by storm. (Until that time, dyes were made from various natural sources – roots, leaves, insects, etc. – and were often expensive to get and produced inconsistent colors.) By demonstrating a very practical (and very profitable for him) use of chemistry, Perkin essentially created the field of industrial chemistry.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Fantastic story about a boy in a life raft with a tiger. (yeah, I know… sounds silly. I looked at it on those front-of-the-store best-seller racks several times, but never bought it until a friend recommended it.) And I loved it. It’s a wonderful, creative, well written story.

Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon

This is my random gem of last year. Not sure where I stumbled into this book, but I loved it. William Least Heat Moon loses his job (as an English professor) and his wife walks out on him at about the same time, so he decides to travel around the country on the “blue highways” (those marked in blue on the maps). This book is about his 13,000 mile journey in a van he named Ghost Dancing. It’s a very well-written, insightful, often very funny travelog that’s generously sprinkled with quotes from Whitman (and others.) A great read.

Good To Great by Jim Collins

Excellent book. Collins has a very simple prescription for creating great companies. I also enjoyed his previous book, Built to Last.

Angels & Demons & Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Very clever, reasonably well written thrillers. Despite the hype about Da Vinci Code, I thought Angels & Demons was better. Also read his earlier 2 books, Deception Point and Digital Fortress, which were ok, but not as good.

Assault in Norway by Thomas Gallagher

Astounding true story of a handful of Norwegians on a mission in 1942 to sabotage the world’s largest “heavy water” plant, which was being operated by the Germans in Norway. (“Heavy water” is a key ingredient for building atomic bombs.) This book reads like a good thriller and, at times, the suspense and coincidences, etc. might seem overdone – if it wasn’t true.

Bush at War by Bob Woodward

Interesting perspective on the goings-on in the Bush Administration from Sept 11 through late 2001.

Secret life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

for some reason, it reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird. Good story and well written. Very easy reading. Her next book, Mermaid Chair, was very disappointing.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

This is an enjoyable, funny, educational sprint through science’s “big questions” - how the universe was created, the laws of physics, how life was formed, the rise of homo sapiens, etc. Not as funny as A Walk in the Woods, but certainly more educational.

Made in America by Bill Bryson

A fascinating history of American English. Packed with excellent, useless trivia about etymology and, of course, Bryson’s humor.

A Cook’s Tour by Anthony Bourdain

Subtitled: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisine. This (in)famous chef (thanks to his other book, Kitchen Confidential) sets out on a far-flung journey to find the perfect meal - and ends up eating some meals that sound like episodes of Fear Factor. But it’s all very entertaining.

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

I really enjoyed this book by a woman who buys and renovates a villa in Tuscany. She obviously loves the area and she writes well. Very descriptive and entertaining. Great summer reading.

Greg Iles

I don’t remember which of his books I read first, but I liked it, and then read all his other books. Good airplane reading.

Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins

I’m not a poetry connoisseur, but I really enoyed this collection. The poems are clever, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes humorous.

The Soul Sessions by Joss Stone

The story is that she was about to record yet another “Britney Spears wannabe CD” when she heard some of the classics of soul and she changed direction. This CD is fantastic. It’s hard to believe this is a 16-yr old British girl.

Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder

True story about the search for a ship that sank somewhere off the East Coast in 1857 with 21 tons(!) of gold on board. It's about an entrepreneur/scientist who puts together the venture for this search (including inventing all sorts of new technology, private funding, building his team, etc.) and how they found the ship in 1989. Fascinating story, well written. I couldn't put it down.

The Making of Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

Excellent pulitzer prize-winning book. Heavy stuff (figuratively and literally; it’s 800 pages!), but an amazing story about extraordinary people. Well-written, and remarkably easy to read.

Personal History by Katherine Graham

Graham's Pulitzer prize winning autobiography - First third is pretty boring - socialite girl, growing up and getting married. Then her husband commits suicide and she takes over running the Washington Post. Great story.

Genome by Matt Ridley

Fascinating, easy-to-read story about the human genome and the impact of mutations.

Lion’s Game by Nelson DeMille

Entertaining airplane/beach book. I read all the rest of DeMille’s prior books and enjoyed them. His more recent books have been lackluster.

Angle of Repose & Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

My favorite writer. Great stories, beautifully written.

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman

Short stories about Einstein day-dreaming about different concepts of time. Incredibly creative book. Also read a book of his essays Dance for Two, which I enjoyed, and his second novel, Good Benito, which I didn’t like much.

Cleopatra's Nose by Daniel Boorstin

Boorstin is a historian and was librarian of congress for years. He has written prolifically and I've enjoyed everything of his I've read (also see The Discoverers). This is a series of essays subtitled Essays on the Unexpected, in which he “uncovers the elements of accident, improvisation and contradiction at the core of American institutions and beliefs.”

The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin

I re-read this recently, and - like the first time I read it - it was great. Essentially a history of science, but in classic Boorstin fashion, it's not a boring time-line of what happened when. He takes the time to go into detail about people and discoveries that he thinks are particularly interesting or important. And he asks (and answers) interesting questions - particularly the questions about why things didn't happen a different way.

From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman

Friedman was pulitzer-prize winning NYT correspondent in Beirut and then Jerusalem beween 1979 & 1989. Excellent book on the dynamics of that part of the world.

Snows of Kilimanjaro by Hemingway

Great collection of short stories.

Absolute Power by David Baldacci

I think this is the best of his novels. Though his earlier books are also good airplane reading.

Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis

Pulitzer prize winner. Excellent, very well written book that confirms how incredibly precarious the US was at the time it was founded. In the intro, Ellis describes the founding as "an improvisational affair in which sheer chance, pure luck - both good and bad - and specific decisions made in the crucible of specific military and political crises determined the outcome." And how the framework for our political institutions that was "built in a sudden spasm of enforced inspiration and makeshift construction."

Shogun by James Clavell

Fantastic book. A "must read." (I took a class at college on feudal Japan because of this book.) The rest of that series are also good, but not as good.

Setting the World Ablaze by John Ferling

A comparative biography of three key players in the American Revolution – Washington, Adams and Jefferson.

Last Place on Earth by Roland Huntford

Great story of Amundsen and Scott’s race to the South Pole. The contrast between the very practical Amundsen (who won the race and survived the trip) and the arrogant Scott (who did neither) is amazing.

With Malice Toward None by Stephen Oates

Good, easy to read biography of Lincoln. Oates also wrote a really good, easy to read biography of Martin Luther King (Let the Trumpet Sound) that I read several years ago.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman

Very entertaining autobiographical anecdotes by the Nobel-prize-winning physicist who has a fantastic sense of humor and a child’s sense of playfulness. I also enjoyed What Do You Care What Other People Think?

Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy

My favorite of Conroy's – about a kid at military school. I also really enjoyed Prince of Tides. The Water is Wide is another great Conroy story – about a year he spent teaching on an impoverished island off the coast of S. Carolina. It’s scary that there are parts of the country seemingly living in a different time - but it’s a good story and well-written. I didn’t like Beach Music much.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Laugh-out-loud-funny book about hiking the Appalachian Trail. His book about Australia (In a Sunburned Country) is also good, but not as good.

America Afire by Bernard Weisberger

About the contested (and nasty) election of 1800 between Jefferson & Adams. Was particularly interesting in light of the election of 2000.

All too Human by George Stephanopolous

Interesting insider's view of the Clinton White House. Well-written and it came across as pretty honest.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

One of my all-time favorites. I first read Atlas when I was 12 or 13 and then reread it every few years into my twenties. In a 1991 Library of Congress survey, a majority of Americans named it second only to the Bible as the book that had most influenced their lives. I also enjoyed the The Fountainhead.

Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz

About the space program by one of the earliest mission control flight directors (Gene Kranz was played by Ed Harris in the Apollo 13 movie... He was the guy who wore a white vest in mission control.) Not very well written, nor particularly insightful, and I would've liked more detail in several places (but I'm a space junkie, so I'm not representative of the broader audience this was obviously written for.) Nonetheless, interesting reading about very young, very smart guys, who carried enormous responsibilities while constantly working on the bleeding edge of technology...and obviously performed amazing feats. Imagine NASA as a start-up.

Fourth Procedure by Stanley Pottinger

medical thriller with a great plot twist. excellent beach reading. This was his first book. The second one - titled something like Slow Burning wasn't nearly as good.

Eyewitness to Power by David Gergen

Gergen has been a Washington insider for decades, during which he’s worked closely with 4 presidents (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Clinton). In this book, he offers his assessment and insights on the leadership qualities of these 4 men.

An American Life by Ronald Reagan

A folksy, engaging autobiography – that also demonstrated there was more below the surface than most people gave him credit for.

Dream West by David Nevin

Historical novel about Charles Fremont (explorer and first (? or at least very early) governor of California. Also read Eagle's Cry, Nevin's novel about the Louisiana Purchase but didn't like it as much. Maybe because of personal interest rather than the content of the book, though.

The Eight by Katherine Neville

Smart, entertaining book about 2 women in different centuries; story revolves around a chess set. Entertaining novel. Very clever. Her second and third novels, A Calculated Risk and The Magic Circle, were bad and worse.

Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks

Insightful, easy to read, and often funny commentary on today’s cultural elite (the bourgeois bohemians) which is based on brainpower and personal accomplishment rather than family lines.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Applies epidemiology to social change. Very easy read and fascinating. Also, check out Gladwell’s web site (www.gladwell.com) for the random, interesting articles he’s written for the New Yorker. (A few of these articles were the foundation for Tipping Point.)

Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner

great book about water policy in the western US, which I read while backpacking in the desert of SE Utah. Fascinating read.

Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam

Excellent book about Michael Jordon and the NBA.

How the Mind Works by Stephen Pinker

Explains the complexity of the mind and why it's so incredibly hard to make a computer do what your mind does.

The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte

Clever, well-written mystery. It's a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Godel, Escher, Bach. And if you know anything about art/art history (which I don't), you'll probably like it even more, since the art world is the backdrop. I’ve subsequently read the rest of his books – all of which were disappointing.

Sphere by Michael Crighton

Very engaging novel about a spherical space ship lying on the floor of the ocean. Great beach reading.

Great Books by David Denby

Denby is a 40-something movie critic who returns to Columbia Univ. to take the Humanities Literature and Western Civ classes that all students are required to take. The book is about his thoughts on the books, the class discussions, the profs and the students as he takes these classes again 25 yrs after he took them as a freshman - and obviously with a perspective including 25 more years of "life experience".

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Krakauer is an experienced climber and writer for Outside Magazine who joined a 1996 Mt Everest expedition to write about the commercialization of the mountain. This is his first-hand account of the disasterous expedition on which 8 people died. Krakauer’s Into the Wild was also ok in a bizarre, 'rubbernecking at a car-wreck' type of way.