To Reach The Clouds (AKA Man on Wire) by Philippe Petit.

Philippe Petit’s nearly hour long tightrope walk between the newly completed twin towers on August 7th, 1974 was nothing short of incredible and fantastic and inspired and completely fucking insane. New York was bursting at the seams at the time and needed something well, out of the ordinary. This act is the sort of thing that makes living in New York worthwhile, you know it’s totally unique and you know it will never happen again anywhere ever.

The book is Petit’s personal account of the act and the immense amount of planning and obstacles leading up to that day in early August of 1974. Man on Wire, the documentary that won so many awards in 2008 is based on this book.

Petit is a rare combination of person, at once playful and yet arrogant and selfish at times, something of the perfect French storm. Petit actually appears to despise stereotypical French arrogance but can’t escape it in himself, it’s not unusual that a guy who would do something like walk between the two World Trade Center buildings would have some contradictions. For all his arrogance you can’t help but love the way this man looks at the world with a wild sense of possibility and wonder.

Just like the documentary, once Philippe gets on his wire and does his dance, you will probably cry. And it’s a good cry, like when your insides start to tingle when you hear the perfect part of a really good song or view a piece of art that you can’t believe actually originated from human hands.

The act of a man walking on a rope with no safety net 1,400 feet in the air above a Manhattan morning is just too divine and crazy to believe, and the fact that someone actually did it is what makes it so special; I suspect, that’s why Petit did do it.