An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

Normally I don’t read self help books. They’re just not my thing. Why should I trust this random author (for the most part) to impart some unknown wisdom I hadn’t known about? And how would I know that this advice actually works? To me, those books are like taking advice from celebrities. If you like them or find a use for them, more power to you, but they’re not for me. So when I finished reading Col. Chris Hadfield’s book, it immediately shot to my favorite self help book for a number of reasons.

For one, I know that I can trust him. The training astronauts go through is some of the toughest out there. They have to prepare for every eventuality. In the book, he even talks about how they would respond in the event of his or a crewmate’s death. He is someone I would listen to immediately, because I know he put in the work. His bonafides are there. And I know that this advice works, because he provides examples of how every piece of advice works, and works in space! If the advice is good enough for the International Space Station, then it is good enough for me.

So as a self help book, it’s amazing: trustworthy, and actually helpful. The advice is actual, actionable tips that could help you function better. As a biography it’s also pretty good! He parlays his pieces of advice into stories of his past, and how he’s used that advice to help him become an astronaut. And the stories are, of course, very cool. He was a test pilot for jets, then worked on the space shuttle and ISS. Hard to beat that.

I definitely recommend this book. It not only gives helpful tips, but also makes reading about highly technical space stuff very entertaining. Col. Hadfield’s talent in writing this book is distilling complicated information into easy, entertaining, and helpful chapters. It’s more than worth your time.