An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me about Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything

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Far from it as his mantra is Sweat the Small Stuff and we can't do that in real life unless we have OCD. Because it started to feel a bit like an episode of Horizon with a little too much repetition and a fair bit of 'I'm going to tell you something really interesting later on'.

And, predictably, the few of us who were stuck working last week, did what we always do: we griped bitterly, stirring ourselves up in the same old fit of resentment and anger. 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. The word “guide” in the title of this book was a bit misleading, because it was actually almost a story of Chris’s journey to outer space and back.he's just super annoying in the way he talks about it, I don't find him humble which I think is why. I think perhaps the book and the Colonel himself would have been better served if he had an editor sit down with him and encourage him to tease out more meat to the story. It's about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter.

A certain personality type that was perfectly acceptable, even stereotypical, in the past - the real hard-ass, say - is not wanted on the voyage when it is going to be a long one. Just writing about it now makes me feel especially grateful to be a terrestrial animal, feet on the ground! This book perfectly captures the grandeur of being in space—a place where so few people have been—but then being able to relate the experience to things the readers may understand. This would have done his story far more justice, rather than deliver what feels like a rush job to simply capitalize on his Rock Star status.When there’s no force pulling sweat downward, it just accumulates on your body like a slowly expanding liquid shield.

I alternated between reading the book, and listening to the audiobook which was self-narrated by Hadfield himself. What it is, is the extremely detailed memoir of a very genial man who loves to educate people as much as he likes to do things himself. In his book, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Chris Hadfield takes readers deep into his years of training and space exploration to show how to make the impossible possible. Not really - it would have taken too long, but I liistened to it twice a day for a week and loved it.Update There is a PBS documentary, premiered March 2nd, A Year in Space about Scott Kelly's marathon space adventure which just ended. I think it will be most applicable to the engineering/scientist type mindset, just like Chris himself. I was completely captured by his photos from space on Twitter, his videos about life on the International Space Station, and his uncanny ability to make space travel cool again. Even the simplest quotidian activities like eating and drinking, going to the toilet, brushing your teeth, exercising and sleeping needed to be considered carefully. But most of the book is about his life on Earth, and the lessons that we can all draw from his experiences.

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. He constantly reminds us of the phrase 'sweat the small stuff' - make sure you have every last detail covered.

The anecdotes were laid out in a dizzying manner (perhaps reminiscent of the De-orbit in the Soyuz capsule? Bullying, bickering and competing for dominance are, even in a low-risk situation, excellent ways to destroy morale and diminish productivity.