Rules to Live By
Jimmy Chin asks ten people how they chose the lives they are known for.
Ten conversations, and almost no rules of the usual kind.
Jimmy Chin’s own site says the book began with a question he has kept since his first expedition: in the end, what really matters?
An editorial introduction to the book, its premise and the story surrounding it.
The title sounds like a list. Chin says the people in the book refused to give him one.
On his site he describes ten conversations with people who have lived public, exacting lives: photographer Lynsey Addario, actor Annette Bening, gymnast Simone Biles, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, climber Alex Honnold, Bill King, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, director Ridley Scott, surfer Kelly Slater, and conservationist Kristine Tompkins.
Mentors who answer with questions
Chin writes that the wisest mentors he has had rarely handed over a rule. They asked another question. The book is his attempt to put that kind of conversation on the page, around endurance, failure, and the choice of a life. In a television interview he said the through-line he found was connection: mentors, friends, and the feeling of being less alone.
Not a climb-by-climb memoir
Readers who know Chin from Free Solo will recognize the circle. Honnold is one of the ten. The book is not, on his own description, a retelling of expeditions. It is a record of what those lives suggest about attention and commitment.
Other author features are in Book Reviews.
About the book.
Chin lists ten conversations: Lynsey Addario, Annette Bening, Simone Biles, Yvon Chouinard, Alex Honnold, Bill King, Yo-Yo Ma, Ridley Scott, Kelly Slater, and Kristine Tompkins.
This article is presented as a MarketAnyBook Book Feature based on supplied materials and verified public information. It is not presented as a full-book review.
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