So,

AWESOME book. Especially the first two thirds.

#1: he travels around the world
#2: he gets all new-agey, progressively more and more.

As always, and as the ultimate critic I like to try to focus my reviews on my own personal experiences with a book. So here goes:

Pros: How amazing are some of the experiences he has and what he's willing to put his mind and physical self through. His writing is so solid and killer. Good ole MC is genius and great writer and personable, so that he makes you feel like you are walking alongside with a very smart friend who is really talking to you one on one.

Cons (remember this is the ultimate critic spewing forth): When he gets all new-agey, meditating, auras, etc, it does not reveal any lasting depth to these experiences and the quality of his life... I end the book with the feeling that he is sort of leading an empty life, even with all of the intelligence, money, and fame, he isn't grounded the way experiences you might hope experiences with the mystic should guide you. Travels dealing with relationships usually end with him and a girlfriend or wife drifting apart... sad! Pull it together, you poor, scarred in childhood Michael! Focus on what will make you happy in life!

He reminds me of those people who are all sharp when young, and then sort of turn into a person who, as they get older, starts to get more and more facts wrong, and a more wonky perception of reality. For example, in the postscript, his argument to skeptics at Cal Tech, I found, as a physics major and student of said topics myself, he had some critical flaws in the logic of his argument. How he becomes convinced, beyond a doubt, that people can tell his fortune for example, is not well guarded and explained. It is as if we non-believers should just as easily just accept it as fact without some real explanation. He uses the argumentative style that 1.) he begins each surreal story as a skeptic, and 2.) too quickly turns into a believer, without 3.) a fully convincing explanation. But, like I said, this is a great book, described on the cover as "unsettling", and good for him for putting himself out there and laying out all his differences and shortcomings!

A really interesting and slightly unconventional book from a rather intelligent man. A mixture of anecdotes from medical school, overseas travels and paranormal investigations, all of which add up to his own quest for meaning in life.

One of my favorite books of all time

This is the second time that I've read this book. It was much better the first time. This is one of Crichton's early books and it focuses on his years in medical school and his search for "fulfillment". He travels the world and also takes trips into the paranormal, hoping to find meaning in his life.

I first encountered Michael Crichton as a freshman at the University of Missouri (in Columbia) while visiting my dorm mate’s parents’ home in St. Louis during the fall semester of 1994. We all went to see this crazy new CGI-infused film, “Jurassic Park”, in the theatre. It was an unforgettable cinematic event for an 18 year old kid raised smack in between the analog and digital age. This film blew me away—not least of all because of John Williams’ score, but that’s another topic.

Well, I’m in my forties now, and with a rekindled appetite for reading, I have taken interest in previously unknown (to me) books by writers I’ve encountered in my life. Crichton’s “Travels” is a series of self-contained essays about his young life, and what his experiences traveling taught him not just about the broader world, but about his inner world as well.

His writing style is unadorned—simple and direct, with few literary flourishes, which makes it perfectly digestible, even compelling. What’s more, Crichton conveys an unusual self-awareness about his strengths and weaknesses, and isn’t afraid to share his evolving perceptions about his experiences, even at the risk of sounding temporarily foolish to the reader. This brings a certain humor to his tales, but also a credibility and admiration. It’s this openness to new experiences and what they teach him about himself that kept me reading this book.

He starts with his time at Harvard Medical School, and how much he hated studying medicine when he realized that there was virtually no focus on empathy towards the patient. So, to pass the time and pay his bills, he secretly wrote and published three thriller novels under a pen name. He won an award for one of them. He was reluctant to accept it for fear he would be exposed to the medical school community for his accurate depictions of life there--an incognito insider. He accepted the award anyway, sold the movie rights, and after medical school he moved to Hollywood to turn this and other screenplays into films.

After this heady early writing and directing success, Crichton felt intoxicated and disillusioned by Hollywood, and found himself at 30 years old adrift and wondering what really mattered to him. So he started traveling again. Rwanda. Pakistan. Malaysia. Mexico. French Polynesia. He did hard things. He did dangerous things. Climbed Kilimanjaro. Swam with sharks. Explored deep water shipwrecks. He moved in and out of relationships and a marriage. He experimented with his views, and when they ran up against conflicting experiences, he reassessed and recalibrated, but also sometimes returned to his old ways.

Of all the things I enjoyed about this book, I most enjoyed his acute awareness of his environment and his ability to distill lessons for his life from those experiences.

I’ve had my own version of many of the experiences he’s had, in many of the same places. I would love to have a collection of my own stories to reflect on the ways those trips and the people I went with and met along the way influenced my thinking and perspective on life. Maybe it’s time to try.

I am a fan of memoirs/biographies. I haven't read any of the other Michael Crichton books. Of course, I have watched the entire Jurassic Park series. Fell in love with Westworld TV series (which was based on his movie). So, I picked this book without a second thought when I spotted in a Friends of Library sale being a wanderlust seeking soul. And, I am pleased with my choice, to say the least.

This book is about his various adventures, not just through travel (as is used in a conventional meaning) but also in his life in general; his exploration - of his inner self, the world, and his reflections. The book is filled with light-hearted self-deprecating comments, self-reflection, eureka moments, too many experiences to be added to the bucket-list, commentary on the general state of affairs.

I will just quote Lao-tzu that he quotes in the book,

The sanest man
Sets up no deed
Lays down no law,
Takes everything that happens as it comes...

Instead of just rushing through the pages (which I tend to do for biographies in general), I took my time reading this book, a few pages at a time. Because I wanted to take in the experiences the author shared and internalize it. His writing was vivid in the way he shared the thoughts that ran through his mind at various times.

If nothing else (if you are not interested in his early career stories, relationships, travel stories), I recommend just reading the postscript of the book. It leaves a lot to ponder upon.

I have just moved 'The Lost World' to the top of my to-read list to read the conversations, the discussions, the debate on the moral dilemma about the creation of Jurassic Park alongside a great thriller.

Not a popular title and I can see why.

It's not just his travels, but he talks about moments from his medical school, travelling adventures and also a big part from his spiritual experiences and discoveries.

I enjoyed listening to his experiences from med school, and hearing about the adventures was quite thrilling. The way he has wrote these stories is also very engaging, exciting and leaves you with an afterthought sometimes.

However the spiritual journeys part was where I lost interest. For some reason, I didn't relate and didn't find it worth listening.

I read another review and I’m paraphrasing the same thought which was mentioned there, that the last chapter where he talks about human perceptions & understanding being limited and always evolving, and discarding a phenomenon (often a spiritual/paranormal/psychic) one just because it can’t be quantified, understood or explained in mathematical terms may be the wrong attitude to have to further the understandings of the unexplained.

I'm glad to be introduced to some of these thoughts pocketed under the title of Travels, which I may not have otherwise voluntarily picked up if they were named literally.

Ardent Michael Crichton fan, so the review would be a bit biased.

I loved it!

It was a knowledgeable treat along with very powerful writing. For instance, I came to know about how unfair and cruel the US was (and probably still is) to unwed mothers.

It was also nice to know how Michael transformed his career from a medical field to becoming a full-time author and then experimenting with being a director.

All in all, a great read. Highly recommended!

Before reading this my impression of Crichton was that he seemed incredibly smart, was scientific in his thinking, and was very straight-laced. However, after reading this book, which is part travelogue and part autobiography, almost everything I guessed about him (except being incredibly smart) turned out to be wrong. Crichton discusses his fascination with seeing people's auras, channeling other energies, psychics, etc and spends a lot of his time learning how to do these things. You get the impression of a man who carries deeply rooted dysfunctions and doesn't feel like he fits in with the world. The entire book comes off as painfully honest and that makes it even more interesting.

Host: Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the best selling author that brought you The Andromeda Strain, please welcome, Michael Crichton!

Michael: Hello! Thank you for having me.

Host: Mr. Crichton, we have brought you here to discuss your new novel, Travels! Can you tell us a little about it?

Michael: My most recent book, Travels, is about my experiences and how they changed me in various ways throughout my life.

Host: In your first few chapters of your book, you talk about Harvard writing school and you talk about dropping out. Years later, you now have a career as an author. Do you think you benefited from going there?

Michael: I found that the teachers at Harvard graded papers unfairly. I would bring home poor grades, and it was hard for me to improve. I found it very difficult in school to be a writer. Once, as a test, I submitted a paper written by a well-known writer. The paper got a C-. Despite my passion for writing that I had since a kid, I found that I was not learning enough from the class to justify me attending it, so I quit.

Host: After you quit the Harvard writing program, you joined Harvard medical school, but this was not the end of your writing career.

Michael: Correct.

Host: Can you explain to us how you continued your writing and what role it played for you in college?

Michael: During my studies at Harvard Medical School, I was writing mysteries under the name of John Lange. John is my real first name. I would sell these books, and they helped pay for my college tuition. I wrote under a pseudonym, or pen name because I thought that my professors would not approve of me writing books while I was studying medicine.

Host: What was your first mainstream novel, or what was your first big hit?

Michael: That would be The Andromeda Strain. I was in Medical school when I wrote the book, and I remember that I had to go on a tour for the novel. I had to go to my Dean to let me go from school. I said that I had a family business, which is what every student said at the time as an excuse to leave school for a few days.

Host: Turning away from your school days, what was the scariest moment of your life?

Michael: I have had my fair share of them! They . . . . They are not so fun. I remember the time that I was in Jamaica with my girlfriend, Maria. We were not very happy together and were going to split up soon. Continuing with the story, I had heard about a museum on Jamaican history and I wanted to go see it. It was somewhere in town, so Maria and I went into town to see the museum after a fight. We kept on going around the town in circles searching for it for a good half hour. Finally, I stopped to ask directions and got out of the car. Nearby, the police were transporting criminals from court. When I returned to the car with directions, a man was sitting in the back seat. Maria said that he was a guide and could show us the museum. I was skeptical of this due to his rough appearance and scars. We argued and somehow I agreed to take him. He showed us the museum and shadowed us the entire time, insisting that he stick with us. Finally, we were at the liquor store, at this point he was threatening us. He took my watch as insurance that we would not leave him while he went inside. As soon as he stepped out of the car, I hit the gas as hard as I could and just drove, without even shutting the back door.

Host: Wow! He could have been a criminal.

Michael: He was! He described to us how he once stabbed a man with a knife.

Host: You must have been petrified! How did Maria react to all this when it ended?

Michael: She blamed it on me and tried to blame my temper on losing the watch.

Host: Wow! That is an impressive story. So on the topic of death, you’re father dies in the book correct?

Micheal: Correct.

Host: You were never on good terms with your father, but after he died, you felt like you had something to settle. If you could talk to your father one more time, what would you say?

Michael: I met a psychic named George, and he was the one that helped me see my father again. He was teaching me how to reach the astral plane. I was in deep meditation, and I saw him standing in front of me, on the astral plane. We just looked at each other for a while, and then I hugged him and he hugged me back. My father was tough on me as a kid, and up until then, I had never forgiven him, but after that moment, I felt as if I had fixed everything.

Host: That must have been a pretty powerful moment for you.

Michael: Yes, yes it was

Host: You had another encounter on the astral plane, did you not?
Michael: Yes, I did. I was again with George, my instructor in meditation. We had decided that I was going to try and see my past life. I, again, went into a deep meditation. I saw myself as a gladiator, waiting for my turn to fight. My instructor was asking me questions such as, who was I, where was I, and how I was feeling. I was, oddly enough, not scared. I was a closed-off person, not wanting to know my opponents that I would have to kill. I connected it to how I was a closely guarded person I am now. I woke out of my meditation and never tried to see my past life again and ever since.

Host: You seem to have a lot of experience with meditation and energy. Did you ever get to share this with your friends and let them experience it themselves?

Michael: I did actually. Once I did psychic readings in my office, but the moment that comes to mind is not me sharing with my friends, but the aerospace engineer, Jack Houck. We were told to bring cutlery we no longer cared about to his house. When I arrived with some friends, there were already a lot of people there, including kids. We all dumped our cutlery in a big pile in the middle. Jack then told us to make an atmosphere of fun and excitement. Then we all chose a spoon we felt was right and yelled at it to bend. Everyone’s spoon began to bend! It was amazing! I was having no such luck and was about to give up when it turned to a rubber-like consistency. I tied the spoon into knots. I still have it to this day.

Host: I hope that I can have that type of experience someday. You seem to have experienced a variety of adventures in your lifetime. I know you traveled the world and you talk about it in your book. What was the most strenuous activity you performed in your life?

Michael: I am not sure, but one of them would have to be climbing Kilimanjaro. I got a bad blister on my foot on the climb up, but I refused to go down because I had bet a guide back at our camp on the savanna that I would climb it to the top. The higher you get, the harder it was to catch your breath, due to the thinning oxygen. I eventually made it to the peak, but it was a struggle.

Host: That must have been excruciatingly painful.

Michael: It was.

Host: Have you had any other experiences like that one?

Michael: None.

Host: Moving on to the next question, where was the most remote place you have been?

Micheal: I went on a hike with some friends out in Eastern Asia. We were hiking from village to village, and the interesting thing was that none of them were the same. Each village had its own unique culture. When we passed through the towns, all the children would run up to meet us and inspect us because they rarely ever get visitors.

Host: To tie it all together, you said that this book that you wrote explains how you changed as a person. Can you elaborate on this a little more?

Michael: Not only have the travels changed me but also writing the book itself. I had to reflect back on my own life and pick out the parts that were the most important to me. Visiting all these different cultures really opened my eyes to the world. I used to only travel to Europe with my family, and never went to these exotic places. Theses travels help me with inspiration for my writing in every one of my books.

Host: That’s all the time we have. Thank you, Mr. Crichton, for coming on the show.

Michael: My pleasure.

‘the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’ ~ T.S. Eliot

I believe that if you have truly travelled, you will no longer be the same person you started out as. So for me, travel automatically also includes inner change, be it intellectual, emotional, spiritual, social or personal. I'm also slowly learning the significance of events that change you as a person; things that may not necessarily be immediately significant but add up to make you the person you are. To that end, I loved this book because Crichton talks about his experiences and observations, how he looks at them retrospectively, how they have affected him over a period of time, what he learnt, his self-discoveries, his self-explorations, his open-minded trysts with psychic phenomena and his clinical attempts at understanding them scientifically.

Most critiques about the book seem to have had the wrong expectations from it. It's not a travelogue, in spite of what the title may convey. It's rather a memoir of sorts, with the first third of the book about his time as a medical student at Harvard from 1965-69 (where he offers an astonishingly honest view of life as a medical student, and where he also starts thinking and questioning his philosophies and breadth of knowledge), a second third of the book about his travel experiences (climbing Kilimanjaro, visiting Baltistan and Shangri-La, scuba diving with sharks, visiting mountain gorillas, etc), and another third of the book about his experiences with the metaphysical (meditations, talking to a cactus, bending spoons, spending time with psychics and healers, salt baths, auras, etc). You can actually see Crichton's discerning and open-minded approach to life further develop, as he questions, analyzes and deeply introspects along with you.

Somewhere, especially in the parts on psychic phenomena, I felt it was actually me who was in there, and for a non-fiction book, that is startlingly good. If nothing else, I have to confess rethinking my outright dismissive attitudes to a few and their effects, because Crichton has already asked most of the questions I would have if I was personally attempting to verify those phenomena. Crichton would, like any of us, have an opinion about a subject (such as, say, auras), until someone suggests otherwise, which, through long analytical monologues, disturbs him to the point that he wants to confirm it either way. His doubtful, analytical mind would then grapple with his personal experiences which seem to be proving otherwise, and his attempts at scientifically dissecting them, in order to understand, are a treat to read. In the end, I was vigorously nodding my head at his thoughts on whether in science we are forming theories based upon data or are actually letting our pre-conceived notions determine which data we let ourselves see.

A fantastic book, it informed, entertained, challenged, and engaged me as a reader and as a person.

Michael Crichton books were always must reads for me but, since his death, I've only read two--The Great Train Robbery & this one. I was very disappointed in The Great Train Robbery when I found that much of his story was not based on facts, but changed to be more "interesting" to readers. So I wasn't sure what to expect with this book which is a memoir based on his early life as a medical student & on his world travels. It was definitely more enjoyable than the train robbery. The stories of what medical school was like, the patients, the procedures, was sometimes shocking, sometimes sad, sometimes funny. When he finally decided he wasn't cut out to be a doctor--just short of completing his certification--he decided to focus on his writing career & to travel to all the places in the world he longed to see. Many are remote, uncivilized, dangerous. His perceptions are honest, he has no problem showing himself in a bad light when he is feeling scared, impatient, or frustrated. He also includes many experiences with exploring psychic phenomena & has a great curiosity & wish to be able to learn about himself & his abilities. He visits psychics, learns to channel, to see auras & energy, to meditate, to bend spoons, to experience astral projection, & to undergo an exorcism to rid himself of an entity. All this is done as a result of curiosity about the people & world around him & to learn who he is & why. It was a good book & the only difficulty I had was wondering when he found time to write all his thrilling & popular books & equating him with the famous author side of his life. He seemed very different in writing as himself as opposed to writing his fiction, but, once I got past that, I enjoyed it very much.