Travels by Michael Crichton
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Book Reviews of Travels
Book Review: Dive into the real life of Dr. MC and find out what type of person he really is
Summary: 5 Stars
At the time that I picked up my copy of Travels I had read just about all of Crichton's novels with the exception of The Terminal Man and Eaters of the Dead (I'll read them someday). So, I had formed quite a liking for Dr. MC and his writings and thought Travels would be a perfect way to get to see more about the real life of my favorite author.
Travels takes you as the reader back in time during his med school years at Harvard and the troubles he experienced throughout the way. Many of his stories dramatically shock you, or make you laugh...they're all so readable. After his med school years, we are taken to the years of his being a writer, and his amazing journeys he took around the globe.
The best thing about this book is just reading the raw text of MC. Many people may not know how witty, clever, and sarcastic he really is. I see some comparisons to the No Reservations star Anthony Bourdain...as they are both very tall, lanky, and witty people. Anthony is far more bitter and sarcastic than MC however.
His detailed descriptions of his travels really pull you in...like one of his adventure novels. Some of the highlights are the diving adventure with his sister where they nearly run out of air and die, or the climb up Mount Kilimanjaro.
I couldn't put this book down - it was that enjoyable. It was amazing to see how such a great writer had such amazing adventures. I know now that he has first handedly been to most of the settings of each of his novels.
I was so pleased with Travels and will probably read it again someday soon. Getting to look inside the life and times of one of the best novelists of our time really is a special opportunity that no one should pass up. It shows how detailed and how much time he puts into his work.
Read this book and you won't be let down.
Book Review: You may not agree with all but gets you thinking
Summary: 5 Stars
Michael Crichton's deeply autobiographical work, Travels is as an exploration into a person's quest for understanding the world around him and within him. The reader is entertained with snippets of stories that begin in Mr. Crichton's days in medical school and end with a treatise on understanding reality that was to be delivered to a debunking society. Between these bookmarks, Crichton has visited many exotic locals (including northern Pakistan) in addition to quasi summer camps for spiritual growth, charkas, and other New Age topics.Crichton succeeds in writing about these inner travels as clinically as possible. He is not trying to "sell" you on his experience but rather just trying to get the reader to listen to him. He allows you to make up your mind and even towards the end of the book, he outright states, "Don't take my word for it. Go out and see for yourself."
Travels is my favorite Crichton work because it covers most of his life as he transforms from a purely scientific individual to one who learns to accept that maybe science doesn't have all of the answers. We see how he challenges himself to look at things in a different way or have a new experience which he claims ultimately makes him a more well-rounded person.
While Crichton is supporting the non-scientific world (i.e. psychics, metaphysicists etc.), he is quick to point out that that realm doesn't have all the answers either but that world cannot be discounted. You may not agree with some of the ideas presented in the book but Crichton doesn't necessarily want you to change your thinking. Rather he wants to get you thinking about ideas in a different way and that is the book's greatest value.
Book Review: A simple, insightful book
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read Travels as a teenager at the suggestion of a boy I was trying to impress. I ended up loving the book and hating the boy, who never read the whole thing to begin with! & years later, I picked it up in a used bookstore.
I am of the school of thought that there are too many good books I haven't yet read, so why re-read something I already have? This is only the second book I have re-read in my whole life and I plan on doing it over and over again.
For all of those readers who feel that Crichton comes across as arrogant and self-absorbed, well, you got it about half right. Crichton points out over and over his mistakes, his shortcomings, his arrogance. He sees admits to his flaws, puts them out there for everyone to see, and tries to learn from them. I feel it would be much more arrogant for him to gloss over his flaws and have us all think him perfect.
This is an intimate book and, even though it reads much like a journal, I have gotten so much out of it by example. I do not aspire to BE Michael Crichton, but he is one insightful guy and has had an interesting life. AS he says about tarot cards at one point- the value of the cards is not in their ability to show you aspects of yourself, but in serving as something for you to project on. This book is not a guide or a success story or an adventure; treat it like a lovely conversation with an interesting dinner guest: informative, impressive, sometimes funny, and, above all, HUMAN.
Book Review: Different but just as readable
Summary: 5 Stars
There's a lot to read in "Travels." It's the story of Crichton's time in medical school, his travels to exotic places around the world, and a lot of insight into who Michael Crichton is. Harvard Medical School was fascinating reading, and Crichton's opinions of medicine and medical training gave me a very different perspective on the subject than I was used to. I don't think he would have been happy as a doctor, but in any case, he learned that his real calling was as a writer, and a very good one.
The travel stories were fascinating and very descriptive, with the author going to some places that I have never heard of. I especially enjoyed the stories that involved scuba diving, since I'm an avid diver. Each story reveals a bit more about Crichton and who he is. I was not aware that Crichton was into so-called "paranormal" phenomena, but he has spent a good bit of his life investigating these activities. Frankly, some of the paranormal results that he writes about would have been less credible from other writers, but Crichton manages to make these things more credible with his scientific approach and willingness to challenge traditional scientific views. The last chapter, "Postscript," is a classic challenge to scientists to be more open-minded about things that can not always be reproduced on demand in a laboratory.
Summary: great writing by a great writer, and a nice look at who Michael Crichton is.
Book Review: More Fascinating than His Characters
Summary: 5 Stars
Not many people can take an outrageous idea and run with it, so convincingly that there are people walking around in the world right now that actually believe dinosaurs have been brought back from extinction to act in big-budget movies! But Crichton is THAT good. In this non-fiction "Travels" you actually get the chance to ride around on Michael Crichton's 6-foot-above-the-ground shoulders (and STILL not see over his gigantic head!), peer out the windows of his eyes, and along the journey(s) discover the author to be a very authentic, introspective, one-part cowardly and six parts courageous, confused, flawed, highly intelligent, sometimes silly, sometimes blundering and yet always a tragically deep HUMAN every bit as fascinating as his best characters, kind of a Quantum Theory mentality in tour de force action. His early days as a doctor supporting himself as a fiction writer (fainting at the sight of his own blood) are just as engrossing as his soul-seeking travels about the globe, whether he's being swept unstoppably through a cloud of sharks, dealing with the frustrating anger of his father's untimely death, nearly fainting at a 300-pound gorilla's charge, or riding on the top of a train with Sean Connery, it's very difficult to put this book down. I strongly like most of Crichton's novels, but I strongly loved this non-fiction memoir.