Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert Macfarlane
Publisher: Granta Books
Category: Book
List Price: $18.60
Buy New: $9.98
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Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 2095257
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 1862076545
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9781862076549
ASIN: 1862076545
Publication Date: May 13, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"Mountains of the Mind" pursues an investigation into our emotional and imaginative responses to mountains, and how these have changed over the last few centuries. It is rich with literary and historical references, and punctuated by descriptions of the author's own climbing experiences. There are chapters on glaciers, geology, the pursuit of fear, the desire to explore the unknown and the desire to get to the summit, and the book ends with a gripping account of Mallory's attempt on Everest.
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| Customer Reviews:
Good trees, but a disappointing forest March 30, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
In this book, MacFarlane tries to trace the process by which humans - - well, European humans - - came to view mountains as places of beauty, glory, and adventure. He doesn't succeed in giving us an answer but he provides a lot of stories, and a little history, on these thems.
He builds the story around themes such as scientific research into geology, glaciers, and the nature of time; fear and adrenaline; fascination with altitude; and the joys of walking off the map into uncharted regions. The final substantive chapter is a narrative of George Mallory's attempts on Everest, written as a single coherent story that works very nicely.
In contrast to the Everest chapter, most of book is a collection of relatively short essays, bundled as chapters. Each essay one is about the length of a newspaper or magazine article, and they seem to have been recycled from MacFarlane's contributions to these kinds of outlets. This makes each chapter a collection of essays around a theme. When it works, it can be thought-provoking. Unfortunately, MacFarlane doesn't make major points or build an argument around these themes, leaving unanswered the great question of mountaineering (and of this book): why?
MacFarlane also mixes personal anecdotes with the other essays. As he confesses in the acknowledgments section at the end, his editor made him do this. I'm afraid that this is how they read, too, as inserted bits rather than as coherent parts of each chapter. They also unfold in a strange way, with MacFarlane hiking up a Scottish peak in one but helicoptering up a glacier in the Tian Shian later in the book - - only gradually does the reader realize that the author is a serious mountaineer. Late in the book I came to expect these anecdotes and was then surprised to read the Everest chapter, which doesn't have one. (Apparently, he hasn't been up Everest yet.) All in all, I don't think these anecdotes worked in their current form.
Though the book is weak on overall structure and coherence, the essays and vignettes are actually pretty enjoyable. MacFarlane writes well, and it's easy to see why he's been able to place a lot of articles in the papers. If that's what you're looking for, it's a good read.
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