Up the Down Volcano by Sloane Crosley

Up the Down Volcano Reviews

• 
  Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile

  A surprisingly blah tale about the author's attempt to climb a mountain with no training or oxygen therapy. It ends just as bad as you would expect.
• 
  Marieke

  This is a good three not a bad three. It was funnish but not a perfect little essay. At 34 pages of attitude, you really can't go wrong confirming that mountain climbing will probably never be your thing. By you I mean me. My poor ears can barely handle weather systems coming through at a "normal" altitude and I get vertigo climbing two flights of open stairs. As much as I chuckled at the writer's responses to what she got herself into, this (me and mountain climbing = bad idea) was a sad realization for me to make.
• 
  Morgan

  Can't get more accurate than "it was okay".
  
  If you're interested in her work, check out 'I was told there'd be cake'. I gave it 5 stars and I'm pretty sure I almost peed my pants.
  
  'How did you get this number?' was 4 stars for me.
  
  This is a quick read and has its moments though.
• 
  Stobby

  Sloane Crosley, writer on assignment in Quito, Ecuador, decides to scale Cotopaxi two days after she arrives with no equipment, experience or acclimatization. Sounds like something my step mother would do.
  
  I enjoyed this novella. It's witty, observant and fast paced. I gave it three stars simply because I can't remember much of it a week after I read it. Perhaps it's my jet-lag or maybe it's more like a good joke that leaves your brain as soon as you finish laughing. There were some typos which made me wonder if it was self-published.
  
  If I'm looking for a good time, I'll look her up again. In the meantime I have 56 other books waiting on my self.
• 
  Danielle

  The first thing I bought on my Kindle. It is a good introduction to Crosley's wit and writing style. This is an honest account of her trip to South America to climb the second highest volcano in the world armed only with a bikini, malaria pills, a fleece vest, and a few tampons. Traveling with a guide who speaks little English, she narrowly escapes death while climbing the second highest volcano. She redifines the term unprepapred.
• 
  Calista

  I can imagine that if no one had asked me how long I had been in the country, I might not have remembered reading somewhere that you can altitude sickness, and it's a really scary thing. But how do you figure that you need to start taking malaria pills on the side of a mountain that is covered in snow? Mosquitoes were definitely the least of her problems.
  
  Funny essay, well written, would definitely consider reading more of Crosley's stuff.
• 
  Nicole

  Not funny.
• 
  Amy Hoffman

  enjoyable but nothing life changing.
• 
  Sam Olvey

  Underpacker representation love to see
• 
  Kerri

  When I read the news that Sloane Crosley was releasing a new essay as a Kindle Single, I was so bummed out. She has quickly become one of my favorite authors after reading her two full length essay collections I Was Told There'd Be Cake and How'd You Get This Number this year. My mom tried unsuccessfully to convert me to an e-reader after holding the fact that I had no way to read Up the Down Volcano without one I finally realized that I can easily download the Kindle App to my Android phone ... a good compromised despite the fact that reading anything past one or two pages on a phone is terribly uncomfortable. Anyway, I was so excited to finally be able to read this essay and I was not at all disappointed. Crosley's journey to Quito to climb its tallest mountain delivered everything I've come to expect from her writing -- a biting wit, heartfelt examinations of life, hilarious observations of less than hilarious people and situations, all culminating in, simply, a little nugget of great writing.
  If I didn't already have a ton of reasons to love Sloane's work, this quote near the beginning of the piece would have won me over: "I am a profoundly lazy person in real life. I won’t meet a friend at a location more than five blocks from my apartment if it’s too windy and the sidewalk looks especially hard today. I will walk past a restaurant and have the thought: I should order out from there later." Perhaps no quote in the history of people being quoted saying things more accurately describes me. Things just get better from there as Sloane gets into more of her classic antics, traveling to Quito on assignment and deciding to do absolutely no research before she gets there, causing her to pack inappropriately, and more importantly, decide to climb a mountain she has never seen before ...which also happens to be one of the tallest on earth at 19,347 feet above sea level.
  After a treacherous journey through mud, rain and snow up to a mountainside shelter with her less than personable guides, Crosley begins to feel the real effects of her unpreparedness as she suffers through acute altitude sickness -- all while on her period. Let's just the say the early morning journey up the mountain does not turn out as planned. One gets the impression that Crosley would almost rather not share her short relationship with Quito and Mount Cotopaxi at all ... this story is so, well, embarrassing that it seems gleaned from the pages of a journal where she keeps all of the stories she won't put into print. Really, the only negative thing I can say about this essay is that I spotted about 6 glaring typos/grammatical errors while I was reading ... I've read 500 page books with less typos. For my first Kindle App usage, it makes me wonder if everything written simply for electronics is edited as poorly. As a Kindle Single, this one is obviously short but it's the perfect little read to hold over fans until her next full-length release ... and the perfect way for new readers to get acquainted with the wonderfully offbeat world Crosley inhabits.
  
  
• 
  Preethi

  After having read her other two books, and having just about liked them (Yes, I still don't think she is God's gift to book-world), there was no way I would've paid for this Kindle Single (is there a way I can publish them too, since that's what bloggers seem to be doing these days?), had it not been for the extreme love the husband carries for anything that has Crosley's name. I am in half a mind to think its her looks he likes and not her writing style, but I cannot totally strike off her writing also, she is not that bad. In fact , she is pretty good.
  Very funny. LOng sentences with more than 20 words in each, but nonetheless, funny. Her usage at funny analogies always made me think of her as a new I-dont-know-what (coz, I obviously suck at analogies). There is also this self-deprecating humor she shows when she is talking about the situations she is involved in, my favourite being the one in which she talks about her liking for ponies (May be the fact that its her first essay in her first book could be a reason for me remembering it still)
  
  To summarize what I feel about Crosley and all of her books, this one included - pick it up when you want to do some brain-dead reading and also laugh at the same time. And yes, if you like it, learn how she does those cool analogies and metaphors. That's all.
• 
  Ally

  This is the antidote to those sprawling adventure novels about harrowing stoicism and bravery in the face of almost certain death. When the writer, a NYC-er, decides to climb one of Ecuador's highest peaks on a whim, and without a shred of mountain climbing experience, you know you're in for an adventure. She retells the experience in such a way that it's not only perilous, but hilarious. She finds the funny, even in the midst of severe altitude sickness.
  
  Her guide speaks little English, and makes few serious preparations for their ascent. He's more concerned about his gear getting stolen than with making sure his client is safe and healthy and, most important, physically ready to climb a mountain. As she realizes that maybe this wasn't such a good idea, he assures her that everything will be fine if she'd just be "tranquillo".
  
  Ultimately, this is an essay not just about traveling to a foreign country and climbing a mountain, but about the way we approach living and life, and the consequences of such. It's full of honesty and heart, and a healthy dose of anti-malaria medicine.
• 
  Tina Hsu

  I expected more of this humorous travel story and was disappointed. There's been a lot of good humor/travel writing in the last few years like Eat Pray Love, An Idiot Abroad, Italian for Beginners, and Undress Me In the Temple of Heaven. It's not as funny or exciting as any of those titles. If you're looking for something similar, you will be disappointed. It was just OK. No big laughs, although the situation is humorous. I would also have welcomed a couple of more pages at the end of reflection and summary about the adventure.
• 
  Sharanya

  Well , this is very Crosley , very funny . Am also sure in 20 years she will definitely be known as someone who made a lot of money from writing kindle singles , that's a new name for blog posts these days ?
  As with each of her essays , this also gets to a point where you really start enjoying it and it finishes off , though not comparable to some of her other best essays , this one was a good read
• 
  Lucy Furr

  I thought this was a funny, enjoyable little read. For me, Sloane's writing is easy to digest and she always seems to find the humor in everything, even in her own bout with attempting to climb a mountain unprepared and her case of altitude sickness. A quick read, as Kindle singles usually are, and a nice look at how things go for those who are nowhere near the level of expert as far as climbing mountains go.
• 
  Aja

  My first Kindle Single. Very funny.
  Sloane Crosley captures the feeling of traveling when not everything is going as planned quite well. She has a great voice in all her essays, but this one in particular made me laugh out loud!
• 
  Jason

  I came across Crosley on an episode of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson as she spoke about her work. Up The Down Volcano is a quick read and she pulls no punches. She lays her shortfalls on this adventure right out there for all to see. You have to like that kind of honesty even if you want to shake your head at her at times.
• 
  Pamela Ribon

  Once again I had the fun of reading a Sloane Crosley story immediately after I'd just experienced almost the exact same thing. From getting lost in Paris to altitude sickness in South America... I sometimes have to wonder if we are living the same life, one year apart.
• 
  Jeff Raymond

  I've enjoyed Sloane Crosley's two essay compilations, so I was happy to put up a few bucks for the quick Kindle single about her trip mountain climbing. Not much to say, honestly - if you like Crosley, you'll like this.
• 
  Sean

  I've been trying to read some of the Amazon Kindle singles to support up and coming writers, and this was a decent short story. Crosley creates some vivid imagery but I found her humor to be a bit off -- and the overall story seemed a bit too close to a Rough Guide entry.
• 
  Josh

  This was a kindle single, and really short. I like crosley, and it was kind of fun to read her writing style applied to something other than early 30s girl in manhattan, but overall it was a little too lean to be satisfying.
• 
  Karen

  Hilarious!!! Echoed many experiences that I had while in Peru although I did not make the mistake of trying to climb a mountain as I knew it would end similarly to the way it ended for Sloane.....absolutely loved reading this!!!
• 
  Marnie

  Sloane never fails to amuse me. I have been a fan of her work for years, having just devoured her first novel, The Clasp. Up the Down Volcano is a road trip well worth the ride. It is a rollicking Ecuadoran adventure complete with a surly guide and a string of "What was I thinking?" moments.
• 
  Alison

  kindle single
• 
  Elizabeth

  I really enjoyed the style of Crosley's writing. I am putting her full lenght works on my to read list.
• 
  Lisa

  Not my favorite of hers, but funny and enjoyable nonetheless.
• 
  Kandi

  Ok book.
• 
  Kortny Williamson

  Hilarious! I love Crosley's sense of humor in this travel essay.