Edmund Hillary 100th Birth Anniversary: 5 Books Written by the Mountaineer You Must Read

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist, who, on 29 May 1953, along with Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to conquer the world's highest peak, Mount Everest. The noted explorer who climbed ten other peaks in the Himalayas on further visits in 1956, 1960–1961, and 1963–1965 and also reached the South Pole as part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, was born on July 20, 1919.

As the world celebrates the hundredth birth anniversary of the celebrated philanthropist, here's looking at 5 books by Sir Edmund Hillary one must-read.

High Adventure: The True Story of the First Ascent of Everest (1955): The New Zealand mountaineering legend Hillary recollects the bravery, agony and glory that marked his Everest odyssey in this riveting book. High Adventure traces his journey from the 1951 expedition that led to the discovery of the Southern Route, to the difficult Himalayan training of 1952, and on to the successful 1953 expedition led by Colonel John Hunt. The language of the book is precise and fluent and perfectly captures the beauty of the unforgiving Mount Everest.

High In the Thin Cold Air (1962): Co-written by Edmund Hillary and Desmond Doig, the book sees the expeditions' press correspondent and expert linguist Doig, narrate the search for the elusive Yeti - the Abominable Snowman of Sherpa legend - and of all that was learned if the lives, customs, and mythology of the Sherpa people. Sir Edmund Hillary, on his part, reveals a host of other details from building a laboratory at 19,000 feet and reaching the summit.

Nothing Venture, Nothing Win (1975): "If my life finished tomorrow I would have little cause for complaint - I have gathered a few successes, a handful of honours and more love and laughter than I probably deserve." The 300 pager book is an autobiography that follows his life through childhood hardships, military career or the lack of it, near-death experiences and adventures.

View from the Summit: The Remarkable Memoir by the First Person to Conquer Everest (2000): This book sees Hillary looking back on that 1953 landmark expedition, as well as his remarkable explorations in other exotic locales, from the South Pole to the Ganges. View From The Summit is the compelling life story of the mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist.

From the Ocean to the Sky: Jet boating up the Ganges (1958): Hillary's own dramatic record of a journey that took him and a group of friends "from the mouth of the Ganges River upstream against the current as far as we could go ... up into the mountains where the river had its beginnings." The book traces intimate encounter with the tigers of the Sunderbans, with Hindu holy men and Sikh pilgrims, with rural Bengali villagers and hysterical Calcutta crowds, a far cry from his expedition books to the Himalayas.