[cgh]

Thanks for submitting this. I’ve read a few athletes’ autobiographies and was always let down by the banality of the prose and the lack of insight. A good example is Lynn Hill’s “Climbing Free: My Life In The Vertical World”. Even the title is dull. Lynn Hill is surely one of the most extraordinary athletes to ever live, and yet her book reads like ghost-written ad copy. DFW’s conclusion at the end of this piece offers some reasoning behind this. It’s kind of incredible and I’ll be thinking about it for a while.

[markdjacobsen]

If you're looking for good climbing autobiographies, try Tommy Caldwell's "Push" or Dierdre Wolownick's "The Sharp End of Life." Caldwell's book is well-written and shows deep insight, perhaps due to the severe hardship he experienced. If you liked "The Dawn Wall" (one of my favorite films), you'll like the book.

Wolownick's book might be my favorite climbing memoir. Wolownick is Alex Honnold's mother, but she's not cashing in on his success; this is her own story about finally embracing her own life after years of self-sacrifice in an unhappy marriage. She is a writer first and foremost, and she tells a beautiful story about life. The climbing scenes are gripping and relatable because she is such an ordinary person--which makes her accomplishments all the more extraordinary.

[songeater]

or Anatol Boukreev: "Above the Clouds: The Diaries of a High-Altitude Mountaineer"

[Slow_Hand]

Since you enjoyed this essay, DFW’s essay on Federer ‘Roger Federer as Religious Experience’ is a must-read. As someone with no interest whatsoever in tennis it managed to get me fired up and watching highlights for an hour afterwards. It’s spectacular.

[cgh]

This is a very late response, but thanks. I’ll give it a look.