Kristina Ciari Tursi
Goosebumps. The Babysitter's Club. Anything by Lurlene McDaniel or Dr. Seuss. My childhood was shaped by the stories and images in books, but I could hardly anticipate how much the books I read in college would change the course of my life.
While in the middle of my business degree at UW, I tired of reading books about finance and economics and found myself at the library late one night looking for something different. Into Thin Air, John Krakauer’s account of the 1996 disaster on Mt. Everest, called to me from a table by the door, and I took it home.
I read the book in two days, and was hungry for more.
I read all I could about the 1996 disaster, then devoured anything and everything related to mountaineering. I picked up “inspirational titles” like Left for Dead by Beck Weathers, and On The Ridge Between Life and Death and Moments of Doubt by David Roberts. I demolished Into the Void and Forget Me Not and The White Spider and Ghosts of Everest. I savored everything written by Ed Viesturs and – of course – Jim Whittaker.
When all was said and done I had two bookshelves full of mountaineering literature. Mind you, at the time I was an overstressed, out of shape college student who didn’t even like to go hiking, let alone climb a mountain “because it’s there”.
After my feast of mountaineering books, I took a break from reading for a while. But the stories continued to swirl in my brain and the books stayed on my bookshelf as I moved from apartment to apartment. Only after I graduated from college and rediscovered the outdoors, eventually joining The Mountaineers staff in 2013, did I realize half of the books I’d savored in college were published by Mountaineers Books! Who knew that a chance library find would alter my life to land me in my dream job and a place that publishes so many influential stories?
Share your story
Books with powerful and evocative messages change lives, and in some cases, the direction of history. As the publisher of 30-35 books each year, we know this intimately. And, to celebrate turning the big 6-0 this year, we want to share your stories of transformations inspired by Mountaineers Books!
If one of the 700+ books in our publishing library have inspired you, we want to know! Please email your story and pictures to magazine@mountaineers.org for a chance to be featured in an upcoming magazine spread (stories should be between 100-500 words, and images should be no smaller than 1MB).
We know that books change lives. How has a book changed yours?
