Tag Archives: travel

Read two books recently

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They were:

  1. Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, 2003, by Ben Mezrich
  2. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

In Bringing Down the House, it supposed to be a non-fiction book, but I read that some of the stories are embellished a bit. In any case, it is probably more accurate than the movie that was based on the book several years later – whitewashed.

In Project Hail Mary, I’m sure it has been written about a ton, especially since the movie came out with the same title. I was interested to see how the movie differed from the book, and the movie was pretty close to the book. Of course, the book was able to delve in to a bit more detail. I was glad to read a biological explanation of how the body of Rocky worked. That was not explained very well in the movie.

There was one line that really struck me. Page 360. “The hardest part about working with aliens and saving humanity from extinction is constantly having to come up with names for stuff.” This has a biblical ring to it. Was that on purpose or accidental?

The book was a quick and interesting read, but I did find many of the characters flat and stereotypical. The Russian liked to drink vodka, the Asian astronaut talked in short curt sentences. When some of the scientists had sex, they talked about it roboticly. Ryland Grace would talk science all the time, and with the help of a computer, he somehow managed to communicate with the alien creature in a matter of days or weeks. (I find that very unlikely.) Andy Weir seems to think that middle school science teachers spout out numbers and facts on a daily basis, and they want their students to do the same thing. That is not the case. Overall, 3 of 5 stars.

The New Tourist by Paige McClanahan

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The full title is The New Tourist: Waking Up to the Power and Perils of Travel. I think I learned about this book in a segment on Sunday Morning. I try to be a good tourist by not being an “old tourist” – one who simply wants to check a box on some list or to visit a place for bragging rights.

Other places have done a good job of reviewing or talking about the book, so I don’t think I need to be verbose here.

I like that she covered Hawaii and Iceland as travel destinations, but I was surprised that she really didn’t talk about the “Disney effect” on travel very much. While she did have a segment about Disneyland in Paris, she didn’t discuss Disneyland in CA, nor Disney World in FL at all.

I learned that Thomas Cook was one of the first people to set up a business arranging for tours of places. Some other things to consider reading include:

There are plenty of other resources mentioned (such as Fodor’s and Frommer’s), the ones above are items I might like to explore a little more.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

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Since I am going to South Africa in about two weeks, someone recommend that I read the book, Born a Crime. This helped me learn a little bit about how the people of South Africa have dealt with Apartheid, and the transition away from that policy. I thought the United States was a racist nation, but man, that country has had to deal with some real bullshit.

There are plenty of other places to find reviews. While this isn’t a science book, I figured I might as well put it here since I have other book-based blog posts.