Seven years in Tibet

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1. mjbJun 2024
   Good list! Some of my favorites:

   - The Shining Mountain by Pete Boardman (one of my favorite of all books, two pretty normal guys doing something absolutely epic)

   - Everest: The Cruel Way by Joe Tasker (maybe history's single greatest suffer-fest, incredible).

   - Touching The Void by Joe Simpson (I avoided reading this for such a long time, because it's something of a cliche, but it's actually great).

   - Seven Years in Tibet in Heinrich Harrer (It's hard to know how reliable this is, and it's a bit of a tall tale, but it's absolutely not the book I expected it to be going in).

   - Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer (Bite-sized bits of great outdoor writing). "Into Thin Air" is a good read too.

   The "classic" I disliked was Herzog's Annapurna. It just seemed so mechanical, and so missing the joy of exploration that makes the best of these books so fun to read.

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2. hutzlibuMar 2022
   Thats true, but you do not have to look long to see, that Tibet was a feudal theocracy, with no dissent allowed, either. But that is history. Modern Tibet deserves to make their own choices, I hope they get the chance to make them one day.

   And about old Tibet, I recommend "Seven Years in Tibet", real story of a Nazi who fled a british war prisoner camp in india and then spend 7 years in Tibet, also as a teacher for the young Dalai Lama, until the chinese came. I read and recommend the book, but they also made a Hollywood movie with Brad Pitt out of it (which I have not watched yet, it is supposed to be good, but likely not as deep).

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3. mr_gibbinsJul 2021
   We used to have the sum total of human knowledge, or at least a good facsimile of it. Unfortunately, with the Internet as we know it transformed into a handful of walled gardens, finding detailed knowledge is increasingly difficult.

   Wikipedia is excellent, as usual. But it is an encyclopaedia, not a definitive source of original knowledge, and it remains the case that I can browse my modest (physical) bookshelves and find a book on, say, Russian modern history that will give me far more in-depth information in the first ten pages than I can find online. Same applies for almost any genre, except perhaps fiction. Seven Years In Tibet taught me more about Tibetan geography and culture than any amount of Googling could do.

   The idea of an infinite knowledge bank is appealing and I think the Internet could have made it - imagine a suite of applications that complement Wikipedia - but commercialism has ruined the utopia, as it is designed to do.

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4. vram22Nov 2017
   Though not along the same lines as the other stories mentioned here, Seven Years in Tibet was an interesting book, also made into a film.
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5. germinalphraseFeb 2015
   If you liked "Into Thin Air" you should read "The White Spider" about Heinreich Harrer (who was the inspiration for Brat Pitt's character in "Seven Years in Tibet")
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6. hownottowriteSep 2014
   Sorry about that, it probably wasn't fair to tease. Here are a few books off the top of my head that you might enjoy:

   The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart

   House: A Memoir by Michael Ruhlman

   I'm also going to throw in a few other books, mainly because I see Crawford's primary argument in a different light. I do believe it is essential to work with your hands. I spent the last few months doing just that and it is has been very instructive. Practical skills are so very important. However, I also think there is an essential human spirit to be enjoyed as well, something that is very present in the moment when engaged in such work. For that reason, I'm going to recommend a few other books:

   Gentleman in the Parlour by W. Somerset Maugham

   Twilight in Italy by D.H. Lawrence

   Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

   Zen and the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel

   In the Land of Pain by Alphonse Daudet (Julian Barnes translation)

   Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer

   Crawford may well disagree with my thoughts here. He seems to be a pretty devout stoic, but I never met a stoic who didn't have the heart of the mystic beating deep inside. They just need a little push to bring it to the surface.

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