Tales of adventure have been my reading obsession lately.

I re-read an old favorite. One thing I love most about this book is just how it reminds me of my early 90's and some characters I knew back then. I had not read that book since then. I see it in a much different light this time around. Sal is an idiot for not seeing Dean for what he truly was. I knew a lot of Deans but I saw right through them. I never understood some of the people around me who didn't. Yes Dean was fun, but selfish and arrogant and self-destructive and he brought everyone around him down. Camille would not have been anyone I would have been friends with and MaryLou was so stupid to fall for Deans BS so many times. I guess I lost sight of what attracted me to this in the first place so long ago, the adventure of just traveling across the country, no real plan, just living, that is what I used to love about this book but now the second time I read it I am truly disgusted at how no one realized what a waste Dean was until he wrecked so many lives so late in the game.

I read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry because Fredrik Backman also wrote, A Man Called Ove, and I loved that book so much I just wanted to see what else he had out there. This was a little slower to get started but another interesting and different story with a misfit cast of characters you just can't not like. Pulls at the heart strings, not nearly as bad as Ove did, and not as many laughs but a very entertaining read.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer has shown up on so many must read adventure lists I keep coming across. I was 5 pages in and I was hooked. I could not put this book down. It is the true story written 6 months after the author, a journalist, got back from the disastrous 1996 Everest expedition. At that time is was the deadliest accident yet. The greed, the arrogance, the ego, the laziness, it just blows my mind what went on. Just learning how difficult of a time it was just to get to base camp has me devouring anything I can find and read on the subject. The people who climb this mountain, whether they summit or not, are fascinating. Some people just should not be there AT ALL, but if you have enough money... and the Sherpas. The whole story just blew me away from start to finish. I did not sleep because I had to finish this book. I have since watched this documentary on K2 on Netflix. I have also learned that K2 is considered much harder to climb than Everest, though Everest is the tallest mountain in the world it is by far not the hardest. Anything above 26,000 feet (the death zone) is hard just because of the altitude alone. I am now completely obsessed with all things on the subject of the seven summits. 

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