Welcome to Litsy!

In 1935, five men set off to follow in the ill-fated footsteps of the 1905 expedition up Kangchenjunga. Little do they know the mountain is hiding a dark secret. I like historical and psychological horror but this one was a soft pick. There was just so many opportunities to make this story truly horrifying, disturbing, and unsettling but Paver chose to take a safer route. I‘m hoping her other book Dark Matter will make me afraid of the dark.

A re-read for me, but perfectly timed for when it‘s cold and the wind is howling. This is the book that started my love affair with high altitude climbing stories and it still holds up almost 30 years after publication.

Which of my lovely gifted books should I read first? Decisions are hard.

A beautifully written book on the history of mountains and mountaineering. MacFarlane has invested a great amount of research and emotion in writing this book and it is a must-have in every mountain-lover‘s library. The book delves into how mountains were perceived 200-300 years ago and traces the evolution of mountaineering in the West‘s imagination to the present day. A must read with exquisite prose.

This was a very harrowing story that makes you doubt the sanity of anyone who summits Everest. The story was well written, but a little bit rambly at times switching between 1996 and previous expeditions, at times this was lightly annoying because I wanted to hear more about what happened in 1996, but I understand that a lot of context needed to be set so that the layman (like me) could understand mountaineering terms.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

📕Fire & Blood
📕Akechi Kogoro
📙The Witness for the Dead

Progress:

Almost forgot to post this week.

I Finished both of the Michelle Paver books. Dark Matter was far better than Thin Air but they were both enjoyable enough. Been making very good progress with F&B though I am trying to pace myself a bit to not finish it in a few days.

The setting was interesting, though this was a bit less character driver than Dark Matter was. I can't say the characters were completely flat but they felt a bit more trope-y than the other book.

My main gripe with it is that a lot of the plot was copy-pasted from Dark Matter and followed the exact same story structure. You can literally draw direct parallels from both, it's a bit too on the nose if you read both.

overall it was good, though.

I'm gonna finish this tomorrow. I'm really liking it so far but some plot elements feel directly copy-pasted from Dark Matter which is a bit disappointing.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

📕Fire & Blood
📕Akechi Kogoro
📙The Witness for the Dead
🎧 Thin Air & Dark Matter

Progress:

I didn't finish anything this week but I am sure that I will finish both of the Michelle Paver books as they are on the short end of things. Made good progress with F&B, I need to stop being tired in order to read the physical books.