Packing for Mars

I am a former reader. Before we got assigned books to read in school, we were able to pick our own books, and do things like this. I am a very picky reader and it usually takes me a while to find a book that I actually want to read.

For the person choice reading project, I picked the book Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. I made my decision to read this book when Ms. Maza said that the book was full of gross and exciting facts that someone may be curious about. When I first started reading the book, there was nothing like what Ms. Maza said. The woman who wrote the book, Mary Roach, is on in Japan to learn more about Astronauts ways. She starts off the book in the first chapter by talking about the proper slipper etiquette in Japan, and how it is confusing to flush a toilet because there are so many levers in a stall in the bathroom. She tells the reader what life is like in Japan, and really not very many facts about Space travel itself. But as the first chapter ends, she asks a very interesting question, which goes along the lines of, “would a human be able to fly all the way to mars? Would they be able to last the very long time in a very condensed space without personal crawled up in a ball, unable to join the natural pleasures of life, and looking out of the window only to see void nothingness and maybe some orange dirt, all without personal hygiene.” And that made me ask myself if there was anyone even willing to do this, and if they would be able to survive. It made me want to flip the pages and read more about how and why they would do something like this. The book is not very challenging, and I like the way it is formatted because usually when I see a page full of so00oo0o0oooo many words, I push my way through the page only to find another page full of words. But for this book, Packing for Mars, there is a picture before every chapter to get a visual in your head of what is to come and to keep you entertained, and it doesn’t feel like I’m reading the whole bible when I’m making my way through a page. The best part of this book is that there are no dull parts of it. It always is intense, and keeps asking you questions to keep you involved in the reading. It is overall a very fun read and I recommend it to people who want to know more about space and astronomy or just want to know random facts.