An Astronaut’s Guide to Life On Earth

By Chris Hadfield |

Chris Hadfield decided to become an astronaut after watching the Apollo moon landing with his family on Stag Island, Ontario, when he was nine years old, and it was impossible for Canadians to be astronauts. In 2013, he served as Commander of the International Space Station orbiting the Earth during a five-month mission. Fulfilling this lifelong dream required intense focus, natural ability and a singular commitment to “thinking like an astronaut.” In An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Chris gives us a rare insider’s perspective on just what that kind of thinking involves, and how earthbound humans can use it to achieve success and happiness in their lives.

Astronaut training turns popular wisdom about how to be successful on its head. Instead of visualizing victory, astronauts prepare for the worst; always sweat the small stuff; and do care what others think. Chris shows how this unique education comes into play with dramatic anecdotes about going blind during a spacewalk, getting rid of a live snake while piloting a plane, and docking with space station Mir when laser tracking systems fail at the critical moment. Along the way, he shares exhilarating experiences, and challenges, from his 144 days on the ISS, and provides an unforgettable answer to his most-asked question: What’s it really like in outer space?

Written with humour, humility and a profound optimism for the future of space exploration, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth offers readers not just the inspiring story of one man’s journey to the ISS, but the opportunity to step into his space-boots and think like an astronaut—and renew their commitment to pursuing their own dreams, big or small. ~ Summary by Amazon.ca

Here’s what happened at Book Club…

This month’s book club meeting was out of this world… sorry couldn’t resist a little space humour.

Our host Liz went where no (wo)man has gone before (last one, I promise) and prepared a feast of astronaut food – add a little water and Voila!

We had beans, pasta, couscous and for dessert SMORES! It was amazingly delicious. Some of us may even start doing our grocery shopping at the backpackers store.  To top of the theme and to maintain solidarity with Chris Hadfield we even had Tang – well Gatorade disguised as Tang since it is now illegal to sell that s^%t.

Over supper we had a wonderful discussion about An Astronaut’s Guide to Life. Most really enjoyed it and were very enthusiastic about it. Some were very put off by the narcissistic and egotistical vibe they got from the author, Chris Hadfield.

We all agreed that there were elements of this but most of us felt the extreme self confidence & ego were necessary for Chris to overcome the competition and the hurdles to achieve his goal of going to space.

This was a book of incredible inspiration for a few of us – the importance of goals, understanding when to be  a 0 rather than a -1 or +1, the value of preparation, etc. –    while other others struggled to get to the end of the book.

We all agreed that the true hero of this story was Helene – we’d love to have a chat with her. There’s little doubt that in this case the woman made the man. Had she not been in Chris’ life we wonder if he would have achieved his dream.

This story is ongoing – we wonder what life will look like for Chris as time goes on. His gift has been to bringing the experience of being in space to the rest us through his images and videos. The book gave us further insight into the space program and it’s value. Aside from Peggy, a self proclaimed space geek,  none of us knew much about it.

We’re all very glad that Liz selected this book. Had she not it’s highly unlikely most of us would have read it on our own. And let’s face it, since we’ve determined she must be at least 500 years old, it’s no wonder she’s wise! 🙂

This was a great way to finish up Book Club for the summer. Thank you Liz for a truly wonderful evening.

See you in the fall Wormies!