ok so this last weekend josh, brittanie and i went to minnesota for my brother justin and his girl ashley’s wedding – we get to the airport and talking to my sister brittanie, she had a sexy vampire book while i had nothin’ to read at all and this aggression will not stand!

while josh usually sleeps through flights or listens to tunes and movies on his ipod, i like takin those big long chunks o time as an opportunity to do some reading, cuz honestly there’s just not enough time for stuff like that. so off to the airport bookstore i go – and i saw into the wild on one of the tables. i always wanted to see the movie, but never quite got around to it. and i like readin’ the books before i see the movie of the book, cuz i like seeing the contrast between what i play in my head while i’m reading and then what they actually do with the film when it’s brought to life. so there you go! read on to the end (or just scroll down to the bottom of this post if you’re in a hurry) and find out how to get your hands on my copy of into the wild, complete with a little note from me to you and a hearts and laserbeams doodle on the inside cover!

hearts and laserbeams book report: into the wild by jon krakauer

ok lemme share with you the premise of this true story is really super appealing to me.

if you didn’t know and haven’t seen the movie, this book is a journalist’s telling of how a kid named chris mccandless graduated from college, then gave away all his money, packed up a few possessions, and ran off to see america for 2 years. his adventure culminated in one final big hurrah when he went to alaska for a few months to live completely off the land, and he died after like 112 days or something in the alaskan wilderness.

the part i love about this idea is just picking up and going. camping, livin’ off the land, gettin the heck outta southern california and seeing real places that don’t kinda kill my soul. i can’t wait to move to georgia someday where we’re in a more rural setting and have the option to grow most of our food and fish at our own place and just be left the heck alone.

that being said, i should wanna hang out with this chris mccandless dude. but i totally don’t.

number one, he died over 10 years ago and i’m sure he’s pretty smelly by now.

number b, with all due respect to all the cool things he did do and see over his 2plus years of adventuring across the u.s., he really comes across as a bit of an arrogant idiot. just the way he changes his name to alexander supertramp, for example… love the name supertramp, but if you’re actually a for reals hobo, and you give yourself the name supertramp, that pretty much means you’re king of the tramps and you should probably be smarter than thinking you can just prance off into the alaskan wilderness with not enough gear and not enough experience to actually make that happen successfully.

there’s lots of letters and excerpts from postcards chris wrote in this book, along with highlighted passages from books that he had with him when his body was found, and all of those just kind of add to the man this kid was kinda a jerk feeling i got while reading it. ok awesome you like reading old books about nature, but don’t get all i’m better than you about it and don’t demand that other people live your hobo life or else they’re stupid. i’m a very live and let live type, and when people shove their own beliefs or way of life down my throat it’s a huge turnoff.

the end of one letter to a friend of his was written juuuust before he went up to alaska. it ended with a sentence that was something to the effect of “i now walk into the wild”. and at this point, i put down my book and told brittanie and josh that this dude annoys me just as much, if not more, than emo kids.

so yeah… i don’t know if we would’ve been friends if we met.

but his personality aside, wow. WOW. who wouldn’t want to just walk away from the 9 to 5 and just drive away, and hike everywhere and canoe at the beach and just live life every day without worrying about when the next rent payment’s due? i kinda can’t wait to rent the movie and see how this all plays out. did they use the actual bus that supertramp was found in? that would creep my crap out.

i was totally into how well this book was written – even though i wanted to punch the hobo in the face i was still totally riveted to the story and i honestly can’t say that about many nonfiction books. total page-turner. until you get to the end. then you pretty much stop turning pages.

ratings

hearts: 4 hearts – really solid good book, would definitely recommend it to my friends even though i generally hate non-fiction.

farts: 1 fart – i really spent most of that book wanting to punch the kid in the face. and also, probably he should’ve taken something a little stronger than a .22 into the wild for the purposes of obtaining dinner.

so on to the giveaway! What would your hobo name be if you were to pull a chris mccandless and leave town to live a hobo life on the road exploring? mine would be The Venerable Hobo McTootPants.

leave a comment tellin me your chosen hobo name, and i’ll pick a name at random from all entries received before midnight friday june 19th. the winner gets my copy of this book!