Jimmy Chin has spent two decades turning adventure into award-winning films — Meru, Free Solo, Nyad — and now he's distilled what he's learned into a book. Rules to Live By, released at $30, is a collection of conversations with the people who shaped him, and it reads less like a celebrity coffee-table piece and more like a prompt to audit how you're actually spending your time.
The lineup alone sells it: Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, war photographer Lynsey Addario, free-soloist Alex Honnold, gymnast Simone Biles, Navy SEAL Bill King, actress Annette Bening, surfer Kelly Slater, director Ridley Scott and conservationist Kristine Tompkins. Each chapter mixes Chin's own experiences with theirs, circling recurring themes: life is short, mentorship matters, and the tension between raising kids and chasing pursuits that eat up time and carry real risk.
One reviewer at Alpinist read the whole thing on the road — on alpine routes in the Aosta Valley and Dolomites, over beers and cheese in Courmayeur and Cortina d'Ampezzo, in Antalya coffee houses, and on the flight home to Boulder. That's arguably the best way to consume it. The book pairs naturally with a viewing list too: Chin recommends Haydn's Cello Concerto in C Major, the Chouinard-Tompkins film Mountain of Storms, 180 Degrees South, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, and his own documentaries with Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, including the Oscar-winning Love+War about Addario. A new Chin-Vasarhelyi film about skier Jim Morrison's Everest couloir link-up is also on the way.
Why should a traveller care? Because the book's most useful idea is its most practical one: adventure doesn't require Chin-level exploits or a life of freedom from obligations. The reviewer, a former mountain guide turned psychotherapist in Boulder, describes clients who moved to Colorado for the mountains and never get out — then contrasts them with families he watched everywhere in the Dolomites this summer, thirty-something parents hauling toddlers up high trails in kiddy-packs. His takeaway, which the book reinforces: it comes down to priorities, plus some planning, some honest family conversations and a bit of creativity.
Honning's line in the book lands hardest for anyone stuck in the errands loop: a dream that gets you out of bed and training every day for years is enormously valuable, and if you find one, cherish it. Whether your version is a first multi-day trek or just finally booking the trip you keep deferring, Rules to Live By is the kind of read that makes the excuse list look thinner. Take it slow, the reviewer suggests — and maybe bring it along somewhere with a view.
Credit: Alpinist
