I’ve now read all of Jon Krakauer’s books — all three: Into the Wild, Into Thin Air and (the one I just finished), Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, an in-depth examination of the Mormonism. If you haven’t read Krakauer, you must start. Immediately. He’s among the best long-form non-fiction writers out there.

Krakauer fans, his next book, titled The Hero, is about Pat Tillman, the NFL football player who walked away from the game, joined the Army and was killed under suspicious circumstances in Afghanistan. It’s due out in October. Can’t wait.

This article appears in May 21-27, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...