Into Thin Air Memoir Blog #1

In my memoir book, Into Thin Air, the author explains the history and background information of this topic (Mt. Everest). I think this addition allows the reader to understand things more, including importance of Everest, the danger-level of Everest, and it also just adds interest to the book. For example, the author includes most of the early attempts of climbing Everest, such as when Hillary and Tenzing became the first men to reach the top in 1953. This makes the story interesting and also provides information for the reader.

Also, what I find interesting, is that the author includes a short quote from various people before every chapter. For example, the author adds the quote, " far from the mountains in the winter, I discovered the blurred photo of Everest and Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels. It was a miserable reproduction in which the jagged peaks rose white against a grotesquely blackened and scratched sky. Everest it's self, sitting back from the front ones, didn't even appear highest, but it didn't matter.  It was; the legend said so. Dreams where the key to the picture permitting a boy to enter it, to stand at the crest of the wind swept Ridge, to climb toward the summit, now no longer far above…  this was one of those uninhibited dreams that come free with growing up. I wish sure that mine about Everest was not mine alone; the highest point on earth, unattainable, foreign to all experience, was there for many boys and grown men to aspire toward." (By Thomas F. Hornbein: Everest: The West Ridge).  I think adding this quote helps support the author's idea they present. It also adds other perspectives about a topic, and helps entertain the reader in general.

Lastly, this author includes his own background information as well. For example, he says, " I was nine years old at the time and living in Corvallis, Oregon, where Unsoeld also made his  home. He was a close friend of my fathers and I sometimes played with the oldest Unsoeld children (Unsoeld  along with Hornbein were the first men to reach the summit of Everest by taking the West Ridge Route)...  Wow my friends idolize Jen Glenn, Sandy Koufax, and Johnny Unitas,, my own heroes were Hornbein and Unsoeld."  I feel like this background information of the author himself, helps allow the reader to more understand the author.