Into the Wild | Paperback

Well, its an interesting read for anyone who is familiar with the travels of Chris McCandless.
Many people may have seen the film by Sean Penn which puts McCandless across as a brave adventurer going 'into the wild' alone to live outside of societies rules and structure. A story of a young adventurer throwing off the shackles of family life and normality to live off the land as a poetic transient. It makes for a good film but is bias and doesn't really put the whole truth about McCandless across to the audience.
This book however supplies the reader with the details of how McCandless travelled for months around the California area and making it into Mexico by canoe at one stage (and this period is important as it convinces McCandless that if he can survive in the Mexican wilderness with no food supplies etc. he can do it in Alaska).
The reader is then given examples of other such adventurers who met their untimely deaths searching for alternative ways of life - and from this you make up your own mind as to the intentions and thought processes that would have driven McCandless to think that he could survive in Alaska, alone, with no map of the area and no food supplies to speak of.
Its a fascinating read, some people may agree with Penn and the books auther Krakauer that McCandless was a brave adventurer who's demise was down to misfortune. I would be inclined to say that he underestimated the difference between living in Mexico and Alaska. A young man who had Thoreau and Tolstoyian ideas about how he should live his life, yet had no idea about how in practice he was going to achieve the nirvana of happy solitude in the Alaskan wilderness.
He starved to death, a very sad ending for a guy who had such a big effect on the people who he met and spent time with in the months before the ill fated Alaskan adventure.
I would recommend this to anyone wanting to explore the enigma of Alexander Supertramp.
A good read.

A great read and outstanding courage of the man Christopher McCandless AKA "Alexander Supertramp". I understand he went "Into The WIld" not properly prepared, however I feel he sort of knew this, however wanted to test his strength.
A great story... The DVD is awesome too!!!

A great book, extremely well written. Once you start reading you wont put the book down.
You feel as if you met Mccandless not just read about him. A great story about a great person who wasn't scared of living his dream. We all could learn from this person.

'Into The Wild' is a truly inspiring book, about a man who you either admire or loathe. Chris McCandless is now well known (mainly thanks to this book and the film) for been the boy who went un-prepared into the outback of Alaska to try and change his life. This book takes you on an intimate journey, with interviews with all of his friends he met along the way, and a more detailed look at just what makes a young man take on these kind of adventures (by also telling stories of other adventurers) this book should be top of your list