What Are You Reading?

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Finally I also picked up "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and"The Girl Who Played With Fire".

I am actually jealous that you get to experience it for the first time. That's how good it is.

[OBX 51]

I am actually jealous that you get to experience it for the first time. That's how good it is.

I'm excited to read the series; I've heard only good things...hope I'm not disappointed.

[NBtoPitt 2]

I finished A Storm of Swords a week or so ago, and have since started on A Feast for Crows in the A Song of Fire and Ice series. A little disappointed that it's slowed down so much since SoS, but hoping it will pick up again

[Nina~ 431]

I finished A Storm of Swords a week or so ago, and have since started on A Feast for Crows in the A Song of Fire and Ice series. A little disappointed that it's slowed down so much since SoS, but hoping it will pick up again

Loved the Fire & Ice series. I can't wait for the Game of Thrones to premiere on HBO next spring.

[Krikit 1,164]

I've finished the Harry Potter series.

I guess I have to find a new book now.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

I have just finished reading one of the most incredible books I have ever read in my life! I picked it up yesterday as something I thought my Dad might enjoy for Christmas and started browsing through it. Well, browsing turned to reading and I became so engrossed that I literally lost sense of time and place. Everything around me vanished and I was seeing this story unfold in front of me. i had actually started in the middle of the book too. Anyway, several hours had passed and Joe said it was time to go home - time that I hadn't even noticed passing. I bought the book and started to read it again after dinner, this time starting from the beginning. At 3:45 am I had to make myself put the book down and try to get some sleep. I picked it up again this evening after getting back from Thanksgiving Dinner with friends and have just finished it. It is a true story and one so remarkable that even after reading all of the detail (and feeling like I was there experiencing it all first hand) I still shake my head in awe.

The book is Dead Lucky "Life After Death on Mount Everest" by Lincoln Hall, Penguin Books, 2007.

Hall is a High Altitude Mountaineer with over 3 decades of experience. He was one of the climbers on the first Australian climb of Mount Everest and the first team to try to climb the North Face of the Mountain in 1984. They were forced back by hurricane force winds around 150 feet shy of the summit. In 2006 he joined a team supporting a 15 year old Australian boys attempts to do the 7 Summits - to climb the highest mountain on 7 continents - and trying to be the youngest climber to climb Mount Everest. They arrive early April in Tibet to climb the Northwest Ridge - the most common approach and spend 2 months acclimatizing to the altitude. The boy ends up not being able to adjust to the altitude so drops out, but Hall ascends the summit on May 25th and reaches the top of the 29,038 ft summit at 9 am (yeah - they start climbing at midnight - in the dark!).

After photographs he and his 4 Sherpa guides start the descent and almost immediately Hall suffers from a cerebral edema - swelling of the brain due to altitude. He loses his ability to think, hallucinates, becomes lethargic, often falling down and not being able to move. The Sherpas manage to get him down to 28,000 over the next 9 hours where he basically collapses. Two of the Sherpas themselves are in very bad shape and will die if they can't get down soon so they continue their descent and the remaining 2 spend the next 2 hours trying to revive Hall. They do everything they can but finally, they can no longer detect any signs of life. After reporting to the Expedition leader by radio they are told to leave him there and descend themselves as they too are near death from exhaustion. The news spreads that Hall is dead near the summit of Everest. His family in Australia are told and as it has been a tragic season on Everest there is a lot of media interest.

It is near the end of the Spring climbing season and next morning one of the last team of climbers who will try to summit that season arrive where Hall was left the night before. They find him sitting up and relatively lucid as he greets them. He had no food, no water, no oxygen and had just spent the night in -35 degree weather (mild for Everest) with a cerebral edema at 28,000 and was alive, although he was obviously near death. The team give up their own summit try and radio the news back, then wait with him while a rescue team is sent to help get him down the mountain. They share their water and their oxygen with him.

If someone dies on Everest, their bodies are not brought down - it is almost impossible to do. During the summit climb, Hall records the names of the various bodies he passes - even ones from previous seasons, preserved by the cold but mangled by the storms and winds.

The story of his night on Everest and his descent while still in the throes of his hallucinations brought on by the cerebral edema, exhaustion, hypoxia (lack of oxygen) and dehydration is incredible. He is the only person ever to have survived an unprotected night out on Mount Everest at that level and survived and the fact that he had been declared dead the night before makes everything even more astonishing.

Anyway, it is a compelling read and very well written. It felt like I was actually there with him the whole time.

While absolutely unconnected, not even by coincidence, the night/day he survived Mount Everest was the same day my green card was approved. It is a somber reminder of how much else happens in this world of which we are truly ignorant. We have our own trials and tribulations, our own victories and celebrations but it is good every now and then to have our eyes opened so clearly to the challenges and victories that happen, unheralded and unknown, to others in this world. If Lincoln Hall had indeed died and not made it down the mountain, I would never have known the difference - he would just have been another Everest 'statistic'. I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to read his remarkable adventure.

Edited November 26, 2010 by Kathryn41

[Krikit 1,164]

Interesting. I'll have to give that a read. I just finished reading "Breathless". It was a little strange. lol. I just picked up John Grisham's The Street Lawyer. I can't recall if I have read it or not. I hope not. lol

[CBM 14]

Interesting. I'll have to give that a read. I just finished reading "Breathless". It was a little strange. lol. I just picked up John Grisham's The Street Lawyer. I can't recall if I have read it or not. I hope not. lol

I have read most of John Grisham's novels, with the exception of Playing for Pizza and maybe another one... have you read The Chamber or A Time to Kill??? I really liked those ones!

Also... do you like James Patterson? I love him and wish he wrote the Alex Cross novels faster!! And I'm waiting for the latest Women's Murder Club book (the 9th??) to come out in paperback!

Be still my heart, I love those men and their books. hahaha

[Arabella 4]

Loved the Fire & Ice series. I can't wait for the Game of Thrones to premiere on HBO next spring.

I read all 4 of these books as well. I'm just disappointed that A Dance With Dragons has no specific release date. A lot of Martin's fans are speculating that he is giving up on the series.

I'm interested to watch the HBO series though. The books were fantastic!

[Krikit 1,164]

I have read most of John Grisham's novels, with the exception of Playing for Pizza and maybe another one... have you read The Chamber or A Time to Kill??? I really liked those ones!

I have read those. They were great! I really enjoy John Grisham novels.

Also... do you like James Patterson? I love him and wish he wrote the Alex Cross novels faster!! And I'm waiting for the latest Women's Murder Club book (the 9th??) to come out in paperback!

I think I've read a couple of James Patterson books. I want to say Along Came a Spider and maybe The Lake House. I can't quite remember. But now that you've brought him up I'm going to check into it. I'm looking forward to getting a library card. For various reasons, I don't have one yet.

[CBM 14]

I have read those. They were great! I really enjoy John Grisham novels.

I think I've read a couple of James Patterson books. I want to say Along Came a Spider and maybe The Lake House. I can't quite remember. But now that you've brought him up I'm going to check into it. I'm looking forward to getting a library card. For various reasons, I don't have one yet.

I don't go to the library simply because there isn't one close to me... but I constantly stalk the used book stores for those 2 authors, and usually have great luck, and usually for less than $1 a book I like to re-read my books, so I don't mind buying them if they're cheap!

[Krikit 1,164]

Good point! Will have to find the closest used book store. I think I might try Goodwill. I've seen that, but I haven't seen a used book store.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Totally as an aside 'cause it's probably already been discussed.. but I love my Kindle If anyone's looking for an honest opinion, weird at first but I love it. My mum's a paperbook girl, she borrowed it one night to read a book I got for free (Mr. Darcy's Diary - Mr Darcy's version from Pride and Prejudice). She said she was so into the book and so relaxed all snuggled up in bed clicking the pages that she read a LOT more than she planned...

My only complaint? It's far too easy to buy lots of books I think I've bought more books since I got the Kindle than I have bought in my entire life

[Arabella 4]

Totally as an aside 'cause it's probably already been discussed.. but I love my Kindle If anyone's looking for an honest opinion, weird at first but I love it. My mum's a paperbook girl, she borrowed it one night to read a book I got for free (Mr. Darcy's Diary - Mr Darcy's version from Pride and Prejudice). She said she was so into the book and so relaxed all snuggled up in bed clicking the pages that she read a LOT more than she planned...

My only complaint? It's far too easy to buy lots of books I think I've bought more books since I got the Kindle than I have bought in my entire life

My mom is a "Kindle-Holic." She bought one for herself, then 2 ("I've got to have one for back-up!"), then a third when the newer versions came out. She gave me one of the original 2 and I enjoy using it. When I went online to her amazon.com account I saw pages and pages of books that she has downloaded. I'd say she easily downloads 15 books a month (she's retired now).

While I love the Kindle, I think I'd rather go to the Library than spend that kind of cash on all of those instant downloads.

[Krikit 1,164]

Can you buy used books on a Kindle? lol