Thank you @Netgalley and @NatGeo for the gifted book!
by: Nims Purja
rating: liked
To be honest, when I first wrote the review for this book, I said I liked it but pointed out some things it was lacking. Then I watched the documentary (14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible) and heavily revised my review because I think that you need to read the book and then watch the documentary to get this whole story.
When reading the book, I was frustrated that a book about how he climbed 14 of the world's 8k peaks in 7 months, little time is given in the book to celebrate each summit. I continually felt let down that the narrative just ran from peak to peak. But watching the documentary, I realized this is actually how it happened in real life. At times he was literally running up and down mountains. It was phenomenal to watch and at many times made my stomach drop seeing what he was facing.
He admits in the book he doesn't relish dealing with his emotions, and when I read that, I was like, ah, that's why this book feels disjointed at times, you won't let us in your head... And so much benefit to this story could have come with more reflection and giving certain plot points more time to breathe. And we got more of that reflection and personality and more climbing context in the documentary. It's mind boggling all he accomplished and literally seeing it made it more fathomable. On the page it's hard to comprehend the sheer magnitude of these climbs.
So I have given you reasons why I don't think the book alone gives you the full pictures, but I don't think the documentary can stand alone either. I was sharing constantly with my husband more of the backstory about certain events and Nims as we were watching. I definitely feel I got more from the documentary than my husband did. Therefore, I definitely recommend that everyone read this book and then watch the documentary. Reading the book will give you the foundation and outline of information and events and watching the documentary will flesh out the personalities and magnitude of all that they faced and accomplished.
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