For Christmas I received a $25 Barnes & Noble gift card. Today, I hoped to take advantage of the after-Christmas sales and spend it. I got three books, one of which was Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer.
As I thumbed through it, I started thinking about how deeply affected I have been by his other books; all of which I have read in 2006.
I started reading Into Thin Air just before by stepfather died. I was glad to have this book along with me at the funeral in Walpole. As I dealt with death, near death, and family drama, the book was a welcome escape. The problems of mountain climbers at 29,028 feet – hypoxia, cold, wind, delirium – all seemed so wonderfully simple.
Once I finished Into Thin Air, I ran out and purchased Into The Wild. Into The Wild is by far my favorite Krakauer book. It is about Chris McCandless, a supremely idealistic young man with a will perhaps too strong for his own good. McCandless gives up his worldly possessions (including his $25,000 life savings) and walks into the Alaskan wilderness, never to be seen alive again. Krakaue’s account of McCandless’s life is compassionate, but not without deservedly harsh criticism. It is hard to say weather I liked the story of Chris McCandless more, or the way in which the story is told. My favorite part of Into The Wild is an autobiographical essay on climbing The Devils Thumb by Krakauer, who identifies deeply with – but finds it difficult to fully understand – McCandless.
At this point, I became a serious Krakauer fan. Inspired, I had signed up for hang gliding, started rock climbing, and had gone whitewater rafting. Krakauer’s books showed me something I hadn’t known I was looking for – a new way of pushing my physical and mental limits. When I closed my eyes to sleep at night I had fantastic hypnagogic visions of mountains, caves, and harsh landscapes. On nights when I had been hang gliding, I would close my eyes and experience nothingness; no visions, no fantasies, only the deep and complete void of rest.
The last book I read by Krakauer was Eiger Dreams; a collection of essays on climbing. I don’t remember disliking any of the essays, but there were a few that I especially loved. At the top of the list would have to be Gill, an essay about John Gill, the "father of modern bouldering," and The Devils Thumb, which includes a description of a landscape that made my head spin.
For these great books, Jon Krakauer is My Favorite Author of the Year.
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