First up is an astounding nonfiction book called Into the Wild by Jon Krakaur (crack-hour).
The main character, Chris (or Alex depending on what time period he is in) McCandless comes from a well-to-do family in Washington DC, where he'd excelled academically and been an elite cross country runner (go XC!). After graduating from Emory with honors in 1990, he disappeared, donating his $24k savings account to a charity for feeding the poor, "abandoned his car and most of his possessions, [and] burned all the cash in his wallet" (Krakaur, Author's note). August of 1992, his corpse is found, decaying and frail, by a party of moose hunters north of Mt. McKindly, Alaska, a place commonly referred to as "the Brush". The author uncovers the impressive story of how the 20-something-year-old survived for nearly two years and three months with little more than 20 lbs of rice, a .22 caliber rifle, the clothes on his back, a yellow Datsun (the car he abandoned), and $300 (when he reached Alaska it was only 83¢)... and how he died after surviving that long. The author also draws parallels between Chris's travels throughout North America and his own near-death escapade in Alaska on the Devil's Thumb climb, for which he was severely under experienced.
Rating... TBA, I haven't finished reading it yet but so far it is a solid 7.5 out of 10 on the scale of House of the Scorpion (1) to Harry Potter (9).
Help me find a book to fill the rating of 10!
Email me your suggestion for a rating 10 book at Swimerpat@gmail.com
Rules:
No Twilight.
No documentaries.
No inherently audio books.
No books in the same category as How to Read Literature Like a Professor.
No spam, please.
Happy readings!
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