The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

I've always wanted to be an astronaut.  It goes back to my evenings alone when I was growing up watching reruns of Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage on PBS. I've wanted to be weightless and view the void of space from the window of a NASA shuttle. Wolfe's book gives a brief glimpse into what it took to be one of the first astronauts. His manic writing style is so breathless and so absorbing that it's almost impossible not to get sucked in. He seems so excited about the subject that the book zips along at an astonishing pace. I was introduced to men like John Glenn when he was simply a fighter pilot. The book, seemingly having a mind of it's own, then took me  though the ziggurat of what it took to be one of the first men in space. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't pretty.

Adding to Wolfe's book, a great companion to it is Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. Wolfe's book took me though the early days of NASA, Roach's took me though how astronauts are today. As breathless as Wolfe's book is Roach takes a more measured approach. She disarmed me with humor and scientific fact, wherein Wolfe would overwhelm me with pure joy. Both books could be read back to back for an overall picture of the space program.

My next book is A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin. I read A Game of Thrones a few months ago, and enjoyed it, but, and this is a BIG but, reading a fantasy series like this one is a lot like getting married. You'd better like it, or you are stuck with it for a LONG time. I've also had problems with authors dying before the series is finished. (Yes, Robert Jordan, I'm looking at YOU.) I approach this series with caution, I may end up abandoning it just so I don't get hurt in the end.

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