Dead Mountain / Donnie Eichar

   I don't remember where I heard about this book but if it was from you, THANK YOU, because it was really good and really nuts.

   SO, Donnie Eichar heard about and decided to investigate the infamous Dyatlov Pass Incident, where nine experienced mountaineers mysteriously fled from their tent in sub-zero temperatures in almost-Siberia and died in the snow. When the bodies were found they were mostly missing boots and any kind of substantial outerwear, and the tent had been cut open from the inside with a knife. There was no evidence of anyone other than the hikers being anywhere near the tent at the time, and no one has been able to figure out what happened to them since 1959, until now (maybe).

   At first I was all "I am NOT going to like this Donnie fellow," because he seemed like he was the type of person who is weirdly entitled to other people's stories. But, he spends a portion of the book saying that he felt like he was intruding, like it wasn't his business or his place to investigate this story, and so on, and I said, "okay, Donnie. I guess we're cool." I'm sorry I assumed you'd be a prick, Donnie Eichar. You don't seem like one.

   I read this book over Christmas/New Years at home and at a campy-retreaty thing, which maybe isn't the best time to read something that says DEAD MOUNTAIN on the front because people will say "cheery reading, eh?" and "festive" and ""what in the world are you reading?" and "are they dead yet?" NON-STOP while you do. But I do like to enthuse about stories like this, so whenever people asked I'd say "GET THIS, so imagine you're in Siberia, right?" and carry on with the bits of mystery and weird sequence of events that investigators figured out, and then say "CRAZY, right?" and get back to reading. My brother swiped it from me and read it in a day.

   The conclusion that Eichar eventually comes to is a somewhat anti-climactic when compared to some of the more alien-heavy theories that people have espoused over the years, but it makes sense. If you're looking for some investigative-journalism type reading then I highly recommend this one.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich / Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

what is this even a picture of

   Reading this book is like listening to a favorite song with high-quality headphones after only ever hearing it through a sub-par car stereo in a beater from the 90s. The song is already familiar, maybe even a bit tired, but the headphones reveal new things about it. Maybe I've read a zillion books about various work and concentration camps, but not any with this level of straightforward depth.

   Summarizing this book is very easy. Ivan Denisovish wakes up, eats, marches, builds a wall, eats, marches again, waits, gets frisked, stands in some lines, eats again, smokes, gets counted (a few times), and then goes to sleep. Together we agree, it was a great day. If I had bothered to keep track, which now I wish I had, I could tell you exactly how many grams of bread Ivan ate throughout the day, and when.

how many grams does that loaf weigh? Ivan would know

   Sometimes I forget what I ate for breakfast by the end of the day. For example, I know I ate 10% MF yoghurt with strawberries yesterday because it was especially delicious but what did I have the day before? I can never be sure. Not so Ivan Denisovich. How thick was his soup? How many grams of bread has he eaten? What kind of grain is this? Ivan knows, and Ivan can tell you. Ivan can tell you about tobacco, mittens, foot wraps, stoves, and cold, and Ivan can tell you in excellent detail. This book might make you feel cold, and while doing so will drop gems like "a man who is warm cannot understand a man who is freezing" which, let's be honest, is an amazing thing to say, especially in a book that is trying to make the reader understand, a little better, a freezing man's life.

Canadian winter garb.

   "Solzhenitsyn"? Omgosh my last name is boring. I started reading Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy right after finishing this book so maybe it's all related. Solzhenitsyn broke the Russian ice for me or something (causation? correlation? what?). I've tried to get through Crime and Punishment, but I think I was way too young to actually absorb and "get" it, and I gave up in desperation. BUT NOW: I know I can read and finish reading a book written by a Russian EVEN THOUGH One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovish is very, very short. I have confidence in sunshine, I have confidence in rain, I have confidence that one day I will finally finish reading both The Idiot and Crime & Punishment but not until after I've read Resurrection which, thank goodness, has three-page chapters that make me feel like I am accomplishing something.