Full of Myself

by Johnny Dawes

Full of Myself [Hardcover] Dawes, Johnny

Genres: Climbing, Biography, Mountaineering

298 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2011

Reviews

[Lucie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a struggle. Oh Johnny, did no one tell you that sentences should contain a verb and preferably not stretch over a whole paragraph? And punctuation, eh? To be fair these faults lie with the editor as the writing is generally good.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This most unconventional of climbers has produced a very unconventional book. Dawes bares more of himself than most autobiographers and deals with all aspects of his life, warts and all. Defintely worth a read, although if you're a keen climber and understand the scene that he played a pivotal role in you'll get more from it.

[Alanmoorenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written like I would write an autobiography - all over the place. What a guy!

[Owen Lister · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoy this enough to fill in some extra detail on his life but I should have expected it to be pretty detailed due to the man himself.

It did drag a bit as each hold is described on various climbs in immense detail which did get a little hard to keep reading through at times unfortunately but still interesting to hear about his childhood and racing days.

[Finlay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Johnny's way of writing makes this book an absolute pleasure to read, I imagine even for people who may not understand the technical talk involved in trad climbing. His essay, written not long after his ascent of 'The Indian Face', is an especially thrilling inclusion - being one of the most riveting retellings of a feat I've ever read.

[Ian Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inevitably some good stories in here, but reads like a child vomited a thesaurus all over it. With a good editor and/or ghostwriter that still lets Johnny’s unique personality shine through, this could be an incredible biography. Instead it’s a struggle.

[David Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A trip through the madcap mind of the original stone monkey. Between 1984 and 1987 he was at the cutting edge of trad climbing in the world.