But this book wasn't the experience that Born to Run was. I had high hopes, as I love reading just about anything about 14ers, and although I can't say the book sucked it certainly wasn't as exciting as I thought it might be.
My beef was that, as someone who climbs and parties on 14ers, this was a very G rated description of climbing them. To sum the book up in one sentence: A guy has a mid life crisis and changes his life for the better by hiking all the Colorado 14ers. Yawn.
There was some cool stuff I got from the book. A few good nuggets about some of my favorite mountain towns like Salida and Leadville and Silverton. There was a chapter that included my buddy Shad. There were mentions of the Leadville and Hardrock hundreds. So the time spent reading the book was not a total waste, but truth be told there's much better stuff on the 14ers.com messge board than what was in the book.
I give the book a C+. Worth reading if you're one of those weirdos who likes reading, but I'd borrow it from me or check it out of the library and spend your money on something better.
Interesting note of his mention of Hardrock, which was going on as he had finished climbing Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks (which I climbed with Katie a few years ago and had a much more exciting experience up there than the author's account in the book). I was running my first Hardrock, and very well may have seen the author at the trailhead. But he writes that we were headed up Handies Peak at that time, which is incorrect. We would have been heading down from Handies.
5 comments:
I read "Last Man Standing" by Marcus Littrel. You should too, it'll make climbers seem like pansies.
I stay away from war books. Can't believe someone shot his dog though!
Oh, so now I'm a weirdo huh? Maybe your next book should be How to Make Friends and Influence People. ;-)
Thanks for the review. I'll look to pick up something else.
Thanks for the review. I'll make sure I won't read it.
A hella funny book is Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green by Johnny Rico.
The Afgan experience was only part of the book. He covered his life leading up joining the navy, basic and the whole seal training, the Afgan mindset, and his life afterwards. It's a really good read.
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