UKC

I am collecting Mount Everest books as a hobby and just wondering which you think are the best to have.

In reply to Everest Fan:

I really enjoyed Everest The Hard Way. 

In reply to Everest Fan:

Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air and Anatoly Boukreev's The Climb between them provide fascinating different perspectives on the '96 disaster. I wouldn't read one without also reading the other, so take as a pair!

In reply to Everest Fan:

All the pre-war ones good from a historical perspective but Noel's Through Tibet to Everest is one of the better ones in the sense he was travelling through the great 'unknown'.

Hope you have deep pockets BTW  

In reply to Everest Fan:

I enjoyed Venables book about the Kangshung Face

In reply to Everest Fan:

I enjoyed ‘The ascent of Everest -John Hunt’

there is a nice looking hardcover on Amazon for £1.50

In reply to Everest Fan:

Everest by Walt Unsworth.

A concise and detailed history and analysis, up to 1980ish

In reply to Everest Fan:

“The Moth and the Mountain”

”Everest: the unclimbed ridge”

In reply to Everest Fan:

Everest The West Ridge. Thomas Hornbein

By far the best to me

In reply to Everest Fan:

Everest alone at the summit (also known as Everest Kanshung face) Stephen Venables

Nine Lives, Robert Mads Anderson

Everest the West Ridge, Thomas Hornbein

Ultimate High, Goran Kropp (different to get hold of in the UK as it inadvertently libeled a UK mountaineer)

Everest the Cruel Way, Joe Tasker. Necessary reading but they didn't get very high.

I'm often been tempted to start a thread about crap Everest books, it would be a longer list.

In reply to Everest Fan:

If you are serious about collecting Everest books I've got Mount Everest The reconnaissance 1935 by Tony Astill, see my UKC review, let me know if you're interested.

In reply to Everest Fan:

Wilfred Noyce - South Col gives a really good insight into the 53 expedition. Thought it was way better than the official account.

In reply to Everest Fan:

Kingdoms of Experience by Andrew Greig.

I haven't read The Crystal Horizon by Messner but from a historical perspective it is probably a must.

The Venables Kangshung suggestion is essential too.

In reply to Everest Fan:

Wade Davis: Into the Silence - The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest... a sweeping survey of the historical context of war and imperialism and a meticulous account of the 1920s expeditions. Full of fascinating detail.

In reply to Andy Clarke:

Undoubtably the best of all books about Everest.

In reply to Sean Kelly:

Agreed, it's superb.

In reply to GrahamD:

 

me too, I bought it way back when, with the book token biology school prize.  What’s sad is the team photograph.  We lost many in their prime, and way too soon.

In reply to kipper12:

Yes,  really sobering how few are still with us.

In reply to Everest Fan:

Another vote for Into the Slience

In reply to Everest Fan:

I have 'The epic of Mount Everest' by Sir Francis Younghusband, the account of the 1924 expedition. It's a gripping read. Well worth tracking down. Mine's the 1933 edition gifted to me by my Granddad. 

In reply to 65:

'The Second Death of George Mallory' gives an interesting perspective with Messner's 'voice of Mallory'..

In reply to Andy Clarke:

sounds great. I've read Hoyland's 'Last Hours on Everest' which is not bad..

In reply to GrahamD:

Yes - I agree about Everest The Hard Way.  Obviously the siege style of expedition, with the accompanying high-profile sponsor and subsequent book is a practice from another era.  The book is a delight to read though and if you are of a similar age to me (early 50s) then it is a great account of the activities of your boyhood heroes.

In reply to Everest Fan:

Thank you all for your info about the books.

I will go through them to see what I have already got and what I have not.

In reply to Andy Clarke:

+ 1 for this

In reply to Andy Clarke:

I remember going through the opening chapters and I haven't read another book that has been as evocative when it comes to capturing the horror of WW1. In a mountaineering book at that. 

Agreed, it's one of the best books I've ever read. Period. 

In reply to Andy Clarke: I found this an enlightening read, especially the First Wold War references and the magnitude of the appalling slaughter 

In reply to Everest Fan:

Four Against Everest by Woodrow Wilson Sayre is a great read, the ultimate amateur attempt with minimal preparation and equipment.

Don't forget the Ascent of Rum Doodle by William Ernest Bowman for an alternative perspective.

In reply to full stottie:

I will second that. I read it years ago. A good book, well worth reading 

In reply to VictorM:

Howard Somervell's first day working as a doctor in an AFA station on the opening day of the Somme battle. The true horror can hardly be imagined. A thoroughly unputdownable book. There is a video of Wade Davis talking about the book on utube which is also well worth watching.

In reply to Everest Fan:

Nobody seems to have mentioned "High Adventure" by Edmund Hillary. I came across a copy in the local Oxfam. It inspired me to take up climbing. A great read from the man himself. Wonderful description of his meeting Eric Shipton for the first time (summary cribbed from Wiki): 

Hillary was nervous about meeting Shipton, the most famous living Himalayan mountaineer, and was worried his own colonial upbringing might not be up to the standards expected by the English. He wrote later "As we came into the room, four figures rose to meet us. My first feeling was one of relief. I had rarely seen a more disreputable bunch, and my visions of changing for dinner faded away for ever"

Wonderful stuff!

In reply to Kean:

thanks, will give it a read- my 1956 edition has been sitting unread for many years.

another unread book on my shelf that may not have been mentioned is Ullman's 'Man of Everest'. maybe if i'd known it was about Tenzing Norgay i would have read it sooner..

In reply to Everest Fan:

I'll join in the recommendations for the Venables book and Walt Unsworth's Everest.

They may now be veering to the unfashionable, but don't overlook the Bonington books about Everest too.

T.

In reply to magma:

We had many Readers Digest condensed books when I was a child, I read this abridged version many times and decided to become a mountaineer*

Much later I came across Herzog's Annurpurna (not realising that the one word title indicated a climbing book)

*never did much mountaineering, two seasons in the Alps but soon got seduced by rock climbing.

In reply to Everest Fan:

I've started reading Wade Davis' book based on the recommendations here - bloody excellent so far. It's refreshing to read that mountaineering colonial history with no punches pulled. And his evident contempt for Haig matches my own. Thanks all. 

In reply to Everest Fan:

Everest South West face.

As a school boy in the early 80s I found this book fascinating. My english class was doing a pass paper mock exam question. "Write about a book you enjoyed reading recently explaining why" I wrote about Everest SW face while the rest of the class wrote about The Great Gatsby which we had been studying all year. Boy did she go to town on me in front of the whole class.

In reply to fmck:

Is that the one where Bonington accidentally shits in his down suit sleeve?  Wonderful stuff

In reply to Everest Fan:

Flying Off Everest a book about Babu and Lakpa, 2 mates who flew a tandem paraglider from the summit and to date the only Nepalis to do so. Interesting read, because it's a story about great adventure and a unique expedition that won them the Nat Geo Adventurers of the Year award, all without any sponsors. The flying part was only the beginning of the challenge as they then kayaked 400 miles to the ocean in a tandem boat. One of them couldn't swim and the other had never climbed a mountain before. Bonkers concept and a great tale told about Nepali adventurers makes a refreshing change.