Into Thin Air
by Jon Krakauer
★ Top 10 book of 1997 · #6 on Best Books of 1997
Jon Krakauer reached Everest's summit on May 10, 1996, exhausted and short of oxygen, just before a storm closed in on the climbers behind him. His eyewitness report covers the deadliest season on the mountain and the pull it exerts on people.
Best for: Armchair adventurers drawn to true survival stories and the lure of Everest
Into Thin Air is #6 on BookWard's Best Books of 1997, out of 27 1997 books that cleared our data bar.
What Into Thin Air is about
Jon Krakauer, a journalist for the adventure magazine Outside, set out to report on the commercialization of Mount Everest and meant to climb only as far as base camp. But the mountain revived a childhood dream, and he asked his editor to delay publication by a year so he could train for a summit attempt. He joined an expedition led by Rob Hall of Adventure Consultants, while Scott Fischer, whose agency Mountain Madness was seen as a rival, led another group on the same summit day.
Krakauer reached the top on the afternoon of May 10, 1996, after being awake for fifty-seven hours. A storm then struck, killing eight climbers and stranding others. His account is sober and reflective, and it concludes that competition between guiding agencies sometimes compromised essential safety methods. It will appeal to readers of adventure writing and anyone curious about ambition, risk and what happens when the wildest places become a business.
Into Thin Air on the Best Books of 1997
Into Thin Air came out in 1997. Of the 27 books first published in 1997 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #6 on our Best Books of 1997 list.
Why it made the list: 466 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.4 out of 5 (39 ratings); 25 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
It earns Reader favorite.
Nearby on the 1997 list
- The Adventures of Captain Underpants Dav Pilkey, #4
- The Power of Now Eckhart Tolle, #5
- The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy, #7
- Wizard and Glass Stephen King, #8
See all Best Books of 1997 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1996 Best Books of 1998.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 384 want to read it, 25 are reading it now and 57 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.4 out of 5 from 39 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 63 | 55% |
| Reader love | 100 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 74 | 20% |
Questions about Into Thin Air
When was Into Thin Air published?
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer was first published in 1997.
Was Into Thin Air one of the best books of 1997?
Into Thin Air is #6 on BookWard's Best Books of 1997, out of 27 1997 books that cleared our data bar. 466 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.4 out of 5 (39 ratings); 25 are reading it right now.
Why is Into Thin Air on the Best Books of 1997 list?
466 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.4 out of 5 (39 ratings); 25 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 1997
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling, #1
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad Robert T. Kiyosaki, #2
- Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond, #3
- The Adventures of Captain Underpants Dav Pilkey, #4
- The Power of Now Eckhart Tolle, #5
- The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy, #7
See the full Best Books of 1997, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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