An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield

Another wonderful book given to me by my daughter. There is a theme here. They give me books related to airplanes and space, which is perfectly fine by me. This one, as the title makes clear, is by an astronaut. Hadfield grew up on a farm in Canada and it is about how he always wanted to be an astronaut and about his life after he became one. So, this book is about flying a lot higher than the author of another book, Skyfaring by Marc Vanhoenackerr, that I have blogged about.

Hadfield grew up on a farm in Canada. Canada does not have its own astronaut program. So, Chris knew that it would be hard for him to apply to become an astronaut at NASA. But, against all odds he became an astronaut anyway. He writes about his journey to becoming and then being an astronaut in a very engaging way, often humorous and always holding the reader to his story. It never gets boring or too much of "me".  There are always interesting anecdotes or just events described interestingly. 

Hadfield has recorded a number of videos in space. Chris's personal rendition of David Bowie's classic Space Oddity"Space Oddity" has received almost 100,000 views.