Into Thin Air

Sent by Outside magazine to cover the commercialization of Mount Everest, Jon Krakauer joined a guided expedition led by New Zealander Rob Hall in May 1996. Krakauer reached the summit without having slept for 57 hours, and as he turned to descend, other climbers were still pushing upward while clouds gathered. The storm that followed killed eight climbers, Hall among them, and Scott Fischer, who led another team on the mountain, also died. Krakauer concludes that competition between guiding agencies sometimes undermined safety practices on Everest. The account became a best seller, though its treatment of guide Anatoli Boukreev drew criticism from other mountaineers.

Richard Branson put it on his list of 65 books to read in a lifetime, and James Clear includes it among his best nonfiction books. Blinkist chief executive Holger Seim named it as an adventure story he loves.