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by: Jon Krakauer  List Price: $19.99 Amazon.com's Price: $13.59 You Save: $6.40 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: Audio CDDewey Decimal Number: 917.98045 EAN: 9780739358047 Edition: Unabridged Format: Audiobook, Unabridged ISBN: 0739358049 Label: Random House Audio Manufacturer: Random House Audio Number Of Items: 6 Publication Date: August 21, 2007 Publisher: Random House Audio Release Date: August 21, 2007 Studio: Random House Audio Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: "God, he was a smart kid..." So why did Christopher McCandless trade a bright future--a college education, material comfort, uncommon ability and charm--for death by starvation in an abandoned bus in the woods of Alaska? This is the question that Jon Krakauer's book tries to answer. While it doesn't—cannot—answer the question with certainty, Into the Wild does shed considerable light along the way. Not only about McCandless's "Alaskan odyssey," but also the forces that drive people to drop out of society and test themselves in other ways. Krakauer quotes Wallace Stegner's writing on a young man who similarly disappeared in the Utah desert in the 1930s: "At 18, in a dream, he saw himself ... wandering through the romantic waste places of the world. No man with any of the juices of boyhood in him has forgotten those dreams." Into the Wild shows that McCandless, while extreme, was hardly unique; the author makes the hermit into one of us, something McCandless himself could never pull off. By book's end, McCandless isn't merely a newspaper clipping, but a sympathetic, oddly magnetic personality. Whether he was "a courageous idealist, or a reckless idiot," you won't soon forget Christopher McCandless. Product Description: In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself... "Terrifying...Eloquent...A heart-rending drama wandering of human yearning."--The New York Times "A narrative of arresting force. Anyone who ever fancied wandering off to face nature on its own harsh terms should give a look. It's gripping stuff."--The Washington Post From the Audiobook Download edition. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Wonderful inspite of it's tragic endingThis is not normally the type of book I read,but I am so glad I did.It's moving, and amazing. The story being recounted is quite interesting. (Later I saw the movie which seems very true to the novel, but is far more boring and slow moving than the novel- although the casting seems perfect.) Kraukauer is a beautiful story teller and lets you see the full character (smart but stupid, selfish but loving) boy who only wants to "walk into the wild" You can tell he loves him, but also wants to tell the ... Read More Rating: - Poorly Equipped DreamerIt's ok to be a dreamer. It's ok to want to 'find yourself.' It's really ok to hike and backpack. I've done it myself, but I would never, never enter a wilderness area without, at least, a topographical map. Chris McCandless' story is nothing short of tragic. Jon Krakauer does a fine job of getting you into the mind of this doomed traveler while also taking you into the adventure and beauty of the wilderness. Rating: - Beauty, goodness and hope. . .I'm saddened to see so many people writing with little or no compassion for Chris McCandless, and such a limited effort to understand his quest. Most of us know what he was running from -- problems at home, a society struggling with issues of materialism and morality. But an understanding of what he was searching for -- inner peace, closeness with nature, a quiet and beautiful place in which to think -- eludes many of us, just as it eluded him. It could be lovely, ... Read More Rating:  - Crappy book about a wonderful humanJon Krakauer, typewriter jockey, decided that in order to justify his wasted life to himself, that he would smear the image of such a beautiful human as the subject of this book, by writing a mocking, superficial account of something that he could never understand. Instead of praising the kid's sense of adventure and compassion, he takes jabs at the kid for how "immature" and "thoughtless" he is ... well even though Krakauer's fat-a** is still sitting in cafes drinking lattes bought with ... Read More Rating: - DullWhy would I read a book that basically tells me the plot and resolution of the book on the cover? Way to keep readers engaged with the summary of the novel on the cover. I knew what happened without even opening the book, and when I was forced to read it, I found it quite dull and pointless. 
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