Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Date Started: November 39, 2015 9:43 pm

Date Finished: November 10, 2015 1:51 am

Book Acquisition: Borrowed from Mother

Overall Rating: 4/5

A letter to my mother.

Wums,

First of all, how dare you? Secondly, HOW DARE YOU.

Love,

Daughter

EDIT 12/28

This book wrecked me emotionally. Her mother dies at about the age I am now and she's lost so she wanders the Pacific Crest Trail. I spent the whole book leaking sad tears because the author kept saying how unfair it was that her mother died of lung cancer, that her mother had never even smoked a cigarette. WILL MY MOTHER DIE?? WILL I DIE BECAUSE I AM A DIRTY SMOKER?? 

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance

Date Started: October 22, 2015

Date Finished: October 25, 2015

Book Acquisition: Borrowed from Topher

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

I borrowed this book from Chris was I was visiting just after my birthday in June and then it literally sat on the same bookshelf, collecting dust, until the day I flew back out to California in October. I wanted to return it but I didn't want to give it back without reading it because I'd flown that motherfucker across the country twice and I WAS NOT ABOUT TO BE DEFEATED. I honestly wasn't that interested in it the book or Elon Musk when I started but I quickly became riveted. The man is a genius, obviously. I don't have a whole lot to say about the book, so I'm going to whittle this post down into three thoughts.

1. Dating/marrying a billionaire genius has always been a goal of mine...until I read this book. I would hate to be attached to some one that obsessed with work and perfection (as I think most self-made billionaire geniuses probably are). I may have to scale back to having my ideal man as a very smart millionare, just to be realistic.

2. Space is FUCKING AWESOME. Reading this book, right after the Martian has really made my spend a surprisingly large amount of time thinking about space. My new favorite question to ask people is whether they like to go to Mars, the moon, or just orbit Earth. My answer is orbit Earth. I don't think I'd actually enjoy the years long mission to Mars (and it's many risks) and I don't think that a moon missions is necessary to me to get everything that I want out of a visit to space. Orbiting Earth would allow me to fulfill most of my criteria for "ideal space mission". 

1. be in space 
2. see Earth from space
3. be weightless

Mom pointed out that the moon has the added bonus of being able to bound around in weightlessness and while she does make a GREAT point, I think I'd still take the orbiting. Statistically, you're most likely to come back from orbiting than you are from the either two. Additionally, I feel like the the training to go to the Moon (or Mars) even as a nonscientist/tourist would be RIDICULOUS. I don't want to make space exploration my whole life (mostly because of my fear of heights and being untethered) so I'd be miserable training after the first couple exciting days of training.

3. Somewhere in the last fifty or so pages of the book, the author mentions a study where some expert says he believes that the last forty years of our history have represented a "technological plateau" and all the cool things we've done (smartphones, medical advances) have been the technology equivalent of "low-hanging fruit." That thought has REALLY been fucking me up because it kind of makes sense. Medically we haven't done anything as cool as antibiotics literally since antibiotics. We haven't cured cancer, or even made that many super awesome vaccines (like the polio vaccine). We sent men to the goddamn moon in a spaceship who's whole computing power is less than my $10 Star Wars watch. Like, what the fuck guys? Let's get out science on! Let's fund some more cool shit! Or, even, let's stop getting in the way of people like Elon Musk who are doing cool shit!

In summary...science! Fuck yeah! 

The Martian by Andy Weir

Date Started: October 3, 2015

Date Finished: October 6, 2015

Book Acquisition: Borrowed from Daniel

Overall Rating: 4/5

So  I actually forgot that I read the Martian until after I'd posted about Little Women so that's why this is out of order (whoops). 

I watched The Martian movie with Daniel and about five minutes in I decided that I needed to read the book immediately. Like nearly walked out of the theater to find the book instead. Blessedly, Daniel had previously purchased the book so I was patient and started it the next day. I really loved it. Really, really, loved it. It was funny and clever and the science was actually super interesting. But the thing that I liked best about the book was the fact that Mark Watney wasn't a some tragic character, defined by the people he left behind. He was strong and inventive for his own sake, not because he needed to get home to wife/kids. 

I really feel like in these "left behind" sort of books it sometimes feels like the lesson is that people's value (and worthiness of rescue) is truly based on their relationships (who they leave behind) and I hate that. Mother thinks that's ridiculous but I've been feeling like every damn book and movie and television show in my life is inundated with romantic nonsense. (I won't say drivel because my god do those books/movies/shows wreck me in very non-drivel-ish ways.) 

I think I like Mark Watney as single unit because I've been feeling like I'm defined by my relationships. I wish people (specifically my father and his family) would ask me about my job or my interests, not just my fucking boyfriend. And I don't count the passe "oh how's work?" I want the "how do you feel about the new ridiculous level of responsibility you've been handed?" or "what new books are you reading?"

Life's not good because I have a boyfriend. Life is good because I kick ass at my job. Life is good because I'm excited about it.