An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth is both inspirational and awe-inspiring. The way Col. Hadfield threads exciting stories of space travels and flying fighter pilots with tips on how to find happiness in the everyday makes it feel like the world’s coolest self-help book. I enjoyed it a lot. ( )

Life on this earth is too short to read something not enjoyed.
This book starts out with a bang then goes on and on and on after that. The stories are very redundant and not well organized. I felt like I was sitting at the knee of an old man who kept telling me stories over and over again with only slightly different twists, but with all the same "life lessons" of work hard, be a team player, learn from your mistakes while not being too hard on your self, and be competitive.
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What an extremely good outreach everyman the space program got in Chris Hadfield!

His affability belies the single-mindedness required of his job. Yet it's clear that the job also requires a lot of open-mindedness on his part to remain (or seem to) so accepting of how he could've "failed" his boyhood dream. This is the epitome of that proverb of reaching for the stars because even if you don't get there, you might get to go to the ISS anyway.

I appreciated that Hadfield acknowledged the sacrifices and support of his family in pursuit of his high pressure dream. And him realising that him being away so often is no excuse for not making an effort in everyday life and other people's special events. And really also his wife for being so sensible and independent. It really takes an entire village in this instance for one man to to achieve the dream of millions.

One more thing I appreciated is Hadfield outlining how he had to meet some space-affiliated person in a hotel lobby but they decided that it'd be better to go to their hotel room and Hadfield acquiesced, but also recognising how potentially uncomfortable it would have been if he were a woman.

Hadfield writes simply and engagingly, and does not waste the valuable currency that is everyone's interest in living in zero gravity. At once glamorising but also down-to-earth, the occupation of astronaut is laid out for an everyperson to judge, and perhaps for an everychild to aspire to. A great addition to outreach in science and space exploration in particular. ( )

The title of this book makes it sound – in part – like a kind-of self-help book: “...guide to life on Earth”. But it’s really not. It is primarily a memoir about Chris Hadfield’s life as an astronaut and his three trips into space.

I really liked that it was more about his life and his trips to space (and the huge amount – years! - of preparation for it. Oh, the amount of planning is incredible – particularly focusing on (all) the worst case scenario(s). There were bits of “advice” here and there that can be taken for life in general. I just found the planning and the trips to space so interesting. (I hadn’t realized he’d also done some youtube videos, so I’ve had to take a look – very entertaining!) ( )

Usually, I’m not really into space and astronaut stuff but this is a highly enjoyable book. It’s as interesting and funny as Colonel Hadfield’s Twitter and Facebook updates, and YouTube videos. It is also very personal. After all, we follow his life from him watching the first men (Buzz Aldrin is the name of the second one, please remember that) step on the Moon to his retirement after being commander of the International Space Station. However, at times it seemed to be a bit repetitive. Maybe that is why I couldn’t read more than one chapter at a time, despite all the interesting stories being told.

He described launch so vividly, I actually felt like I experienced it myself. Which makes me think about the repetitions. Maybe it was deliberate, to show the reader how uninteresting (and repetitive) the mundane reality of being an astronaut is. We are told, over and over again that an astronaut spends most of his time on Earth, and it is good, and important. Maybe he never leaves the planet which is okay. Of course, going to space is what everyone wishes for but even that is not heroic, and life after it is not boring at all. They are preparing for years, practicing every movement they will be making, they plan for the worst, study long and hard, and are humble servants of a greater purpose only. Towards the end, I started to wonder who he was trying to convince. Me or himself? For most of the book, I believed him but by the last chapter, I felt he was really labouring the point.

Anyway, I think this is a wonderful path; from watching the first Moon landing on TV as a kid, through highly conscious career choices and hard work, taking part in the installation of a robotic arm that helped build the International Space Station (ISS) which he becomes the commander of in the end.

It is full of great life lessons (they would make superb memes) and really interesting details, all told with a brilliant sense of humour. I was especially fascinated by the effects of being in space on the human body. From the fact they are wearing diapers at launch because it may take much longer than expected, through the nausea everyone experiences at first, to the results of living in zero gravity for months. Without the pull of gravitational force, their muscles weaken, of course. But also their hearts! Their hearts even shrink. Their spines, on the other hand, elongate. Coming back to Earth, then, after spending months floating in a peaceful, quiet environment with only a couple of other humans is like being a newborn, he says. After a rather tough ride, they are faced with all the noise, the people, the rush, and merciless gravity. “No wonder babies cry in protest when they’re born.” – says Hadfield.

Oh, and he’s afraid of heights. The ex-commander of the ISS. Would you believe that? ( )