So, so much I enjoyed about this book. I especially enjoyed reading about Crichton’s opinion of his medical school experiences.

“Much of medicine, as it was practiced in those days, I simply didn't agree with. I didn't agree that abortion on demand should be illegal. I didn't agree that patients had no rights and should shut up and do whatever the doctors told them to do. I didn't agree that, if a procedure presented a hazard, the patient shouldn't be worried with the facts. I didn't agree that terminally ill people should have treatment forced upon them, even if they wished to die in peace. I didn't agree that, when malpractice occurred, doctors should cover it up.

Beyond these broad issues of ethics, I didn't agree with the style of the new physician-scientist, so popular at that time. I didn't think of people as a sack of biochemical reactions that had somehow gone awry. I thought people were complex creatures who sometimes manifested their problems in biochemical terms. But I thought it wiser to deal primarily with the people, not to deal primarily with the biochemistry. And while there was much lip service given to my view, in practice nobody did anything but treat the enzyme levels. Again and again, I met patients who had been in the hospital for weeks and who had obvious problems that nobody had ever noticed— because they didn't show up in the lab tests. It made you suspect that the doctors weren't really looking at their patients. Not as people.

And the trend toward the physician-scientist had brought to the medical school a kind of student with whom I had little in common.”

The other thing I enjoyed reading was his experiences during writing and working on movies. Especially, his friendship with Sean Connery.

“Connery says, "You should always tell the truth, because if you tell the truth you make it the other person's problem. He follows his own dictum; he always tells the truth. Sean seems to live in a kind of present moment, responding to events with an unaffected immediacy that disregards the past and future. He is always genuine.

Sometimes he compliments people I know he doesn't like. Sometimes he blows up angrily at his close friends.“

Crichton was an open, honest writer. Always open to new ideas, even when he didn’t believe or agree with them.

This book is not just about physical places he traveled to but about his life, his experiences in life and his deepest thoughts and desires.

Great read indeed

"If you're a writer, the assimilation of important experiences almost obliges you to write about them. Writing is how you make the experience your own, how you explore what it means to you, how you come to possess it, and ultimately release it."

This hook at the beginning of this book (for me) was undeniable. This notion of a guy pushing himself through medical school but ultimately deciding that the cold, calculated world of science, however necessary science is, wasn't enough for him, that he needed more, sets the stage for his abrupt shift from the world of science to the world of writing. In this book, Crichton documents his journey into writing from the lens of his travel, the journey he went on to different spaces of the world to broaden his perspective on life, meaning, the spiritual, and in some sense God. This book would make an ideal read alongside McCaughnahey's recent book Greenlights, as he shares much in common with that journey from doing one thing to wanting to find meaning (which led him not to writing but acting), and thus travelling to find himself (and the spiritual and God). Both are uncoventional stories with a lot of bizarre and a whole lot of stuff to say about the spiritual side of life that likely will come across to many as being a bit off the wall and crazy. Exhange McCaughnahey's love for Merton with Crichton's embrace of Eastern mysticism and you have a sense of where this falls.

But for as unconventional as this journey is, the inisght he brings to this intersection of faith and science starts with this dynamic quote and culminates in a powerful treaties in the final chapter about the limitations of science and the importance of faith. Even if your own religious disposition doesn't quite get on board with Crichton's own system of belief and faith, what he has to say about making room for mystery and faith and belief is relevant and indispensable for any faith tradition. As he says,

"There is nothing wrong with a mathematical perception of reality as long as that perception is not allowed to predominate. Because, as human beings, living our lives, making decisions for ourselves and our society, we must find meaning. And that meaning must be broadly based."

O carte personala in care se vorbeste despre omul Michael Crichton.Excelenta, la fel ca el.
N-are rost sa precizez ca a fost scriitorul cu cel mai mare succes din generatia sa (nici Stephen King nu l-a intrecut).
Cartile lui ar trebui sa fie referinta obligatorie pentru cititorii romani.

Very much enjoyed this. Crichton is a good writer, although I couldn’t decide if I liked him or not. He is obviously very intelligent and had some wonderful insights. But in other ways he seemed immature, neurotic and a bit of a jerk. (He was married five times, and the longest marriage lasted 6 years.)

The title of this book is somewhat misleading. I was expecting a travelogue. While he does talk about exotic trips he took, much of the book has nothing to do with traveling. The first several chapters of the book are about some of his experiences in medical school. There are also chapters about his father’s death, dating and the filming of a movie. And there are several chapters, especially as the book progresses, about his exploration into the paranormal. He visits with psychics, goes on meditative retreats, attends a spoon-bending party, learns to see auras and more. This was all pretty interesting, especially coming from someone as sharp and as scientifically oriented as Crichton. It made me at least want to try that spoon bending thing. :-)

My biggest complaint about this book was its odd structure. Jumping from medical school to traveling to paranormal phenomena with other topics thrown in here and there made for interesting reading, but the whole thing felt very disjointed.