Welcome to Litsy!

A re-read for me, but perfectly timed for when it‘s cold and the wind is howling. This is the book that started my love affair with high altitude climbing stories and it still holds up almost 30 years after publication.

Which of my lovely gifted books should I read first? Decisions are hard.

A beautifully written book on the history of mountains and mountaineering. MacFarlane has invested a great amount of research and emotion in writing this book and it is a must-have in every mountain-lover‘s library. The book delves into how mountains were perceived 200-300 years ago and traces the evolution of mountaineering in the West‘s imagination to the present day. A must read with exquisite prose.

This was a very harrowing story that makes you doubt the sanity of anyone who summits Everest. The story was well written, but a little bit rambly at times switching between 1996 and previous expeditions, at times this was lightly annoying because I wanted to hear more about what happened in 1996, but I understand that a lot of context needed to be set so that the layman (like me) could understand mountaineering terms.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

📕Fire & Blood
📕Akechi Kogoro
📙The Witness for the Dead

Progress:

Almost forgot to post this week.

I Finished both of the Michelle Paver books. Dark Matter was far better than Thin Air but they were both enjoyable enough. Been making very good progress with F&B though I am trying to pace myself a bit to not finish it in a few days.

The setting was interesting, though this was a bit less character driver than Dark Matter was. I can't say the characters were completely flat but they felt a bit more trope-y than the other book.

My main gripe with it is that a lot of the plot was copy-pasted from Dark Matter and followed the exact same story structure. You can literally draw direct parallels from both, it's a bit too on the nose if you read both.

overall it was good, though.

I'm gonna finish this tomorrow. I'm really liking it so far but some plot elements feel directly copy-pasted from Dark Matter which is a bit disappointing.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

📕Fire & Blood
📕Akechi Kogoro
📙The Witness for the Dead
🎧 Thin Air & Dark Matter

Progress:

I didn't finish anything this week but I am sure that I will finish both of the Michelle Paver books as they are on the short end of things. Made good progress with F&B, I need to stop being tired in order to read the physical books.

2 ⭐ This is a DNF. This book was 18 hours and it feels like it. Maybe if I was reading this book instead of listening to it as an audiobook that might‘ve made a difference. I got more than four hours into it, and I don‘t care about anything that‘s happening. Plus, there is slippage going back-and-forth. different characters brought in, it‘s sometimes confusing. There is something out there in the mountains.