Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Free "Into the Wild" audiobook

Saw this on FatWallert -- "Into the Wild" is free as an audiobook from Borders through July 19th. Here's the link: http://audiobooks.borders.com/3AF63441-B5FA-4F80-A998-541A1F10A69A/10/129/en/IntoTheWild?cmpid=SL_20080715_REW

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. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of INTO THE WILD.

Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interst that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the dries and desires that propelled McCandless. Digging deeply, he takes an inherently compelling mystery and unravels the larger riddles it holds: the profound pull of the American wilderness on our imagination; the allure of high-risk activities to young men of a certain cast of mind; the complex, charged bond between fathers and sons.

When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris. He is said to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity, and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding?and not an ounce of sentimentality. Mesmerizing, heartbreaking, INTO THE WILD is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.

3 comments:

  1. Have you read this book? Sam and I read it in college for class, it's pretty good.

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  2. Cool! Thanks, Lee!

    If you haven't heard of it, the Southern California Digital Library Consortium lets you "check out" audio books for free. You just have to have a library card with a local library (Rancho, Ontario, or one of a list of others).

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  3. I've not read it and this is my first audiobook.

    I've heard of digital libraries... but (see above) never tried one. If this works out for me, I'll probably do it more often. I prefer this to watching TV while working out.

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