UKC

In reply to UKC Gear: Cheers Grimer - agree with all your points (will try harder with no.2).

Very funny picture as well (I'm sure Layton kor would also find it funny).

Cheers

Andy

In reply to andy kirkpatrick:

Although his stack does look horribly loose in parts, to my eye.

In reply to UKC Gear:

I liked it - pretty much agree with Grimes. Good to know that it's not only the rest of us mortal climbers who get shit-scared and f*ck-up occassionally.

In reply to andy kirkpatrick: I got very sweaty hands reading it. In fact when I realised we were getting to the crux of Reticent I chalked up.

In reply to Gasmerchant:

Spot on, made me feel a lot better about some of my less glorious escapades.

Put a lot of other things into perspective too.

Good one Andy, looking forward to hearing about your next adventures,as always.

In reply to UKC Gear: I got it for Christmas and read it in a couple of days. First climbing book I've read in years as I became a bit bored with them some time ago. But Psychovertical is gripping and it does have laugh out loud funny bits in it.

I was worried that having read Andy's work from his first magazine works, and owning Solid Air, I might find it repetitive but that is minimal. I like the lack of resolution - I don't climb particularly dangerous or hard routes, but there is some danger in all climbing, and I love my family - and I have no way of resolving the two. I noted in a recent blog entry Andy listed things he has to balance in life - and the list included a girlfriend and an ex-wife, so sadly perhaps there isn't a good resolution.

In reply to UKC Gear:

I thought Andy was originally Hull's fourth-best Mountaineer. Has one of them died?

In reply to UKC Gear:

Reading this at the moment and will confess to struggling a bit with the structure. It is an interesting ploy to split things up this way but I can't quite see the connections, perhaps there isn't one. I have been tempted to read every other chapter to get Reticent done and dusted then go back and read the rest of the story. I will try to stick with reading it as intended by AK, at least the first time.

The stories are excellent and quite evocative raising to the surface old memories of incompetence. I love the old school approach to climbing and maybe the book should be a standard reference to be quoted to anyone starting out.

Not read it yet, but I do like the review endorsement on the cover "Makes Ray Mears look like Paris Hilton" - could be interpreted rather negatively

In reply to Horse: I have to say I agree with Niall's 'melodramatic' comment. The episodes were gripping and well written in themselves, but the Reticent chapters all seemed to end on a cliffhanger sentence worthy of the end of an episode of the Archers. There was always something even more horrific than the episode just recounted to anticipate. The overall effect became monontonous, like the techno music that some climbing walls insist on playing.

In reply to UKC Gear: Probably one of the most enjoyable books i've read recently, although agree with some of the comments made in the review. I definitely missed some of the humour which makes the articles so entertaining on his website, but over all a great piece of work and a book im sure Andy is very proud of

In reply to andy kirkpatrick: Cheers Andy, and well done on it. You obviously know it's a fantastic book, and I only had to think up the negative stuff because I know what you're like.

In reply to UKC Gear:

Good review!

I enjoyed the book, gobbled it up in about 2 days flat! I thought the structure worked because it emphasised the being pulled between family and climbing. Fw(little)iw, it's given my mojo a nudge back in my direction (been absent a while), as it's reawoken a keenness to continue exploring my own relationship with climbing on my own punterish level.

Cheers for a good read, Andy!

I'm looking forward to reading Andy's review of Niall's book.

In reply to AlisonS: Re-wengay

In reply to UKC Gear: I think it's great and a couple of my non-climbing friends have now read it and enjoyed it as well. I think it has a wide appeal as it's not all about climbing. The best "climbing" books usually aren't all about climbing as there's alot more to it than that.

In reply to andy kirkpatrick:
Andy I saw your talk in st Albans on a snowy night last year bought your book and loved it so much i had to take the following day of work to finnish reading it, can't stop recomending it to my outdoory friends,

In reply to UKC Gear:

Saw Andy do one of his talks and wasnt that impressed. I didnt know who he was or what he had done and thought he just tryingto be funny, making out how much he suffered and how hard he was.

But then read the book and thought it superb (apart from the story jumping from one chapter to the next)One of those books I couldnt put down. I wish I had read the book before seeing him talk.

In reply to UKC Gear:

I must admit dissapointment. When I tried deconstructing the text all I got was alphabetti spaghetti swimming in what looked like tomato sauce. I then tried an interconnections map (it helped for Ulysses) and the resulting sketch looked decidedly like a lingam.