<\/p>\n

I’ve been slowly whittling away on a book from my own collection that has proven to be quite a journey (note that I did not use a pejorative, like “slog” or “ordeal”; it’s been an interesting read, but also a very full <\/em>read). However, I set this particular book aside for a little while (because, honestly, you need a break from even enjoyable things when they go on for too long) to read the latest book from Mary Roach, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

For those of you who are not familiar with Roach, she’s made a bit of a name for herself by writing “curious” examinations of topics that I assume pique her interest: Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife,<\/em> and Six Feet Over: Adventures in the Afterlife.<\/em> I actually received Stiff<\/em> as a Christmas present from my parents almost 10 years ago (which speaks volumes about: A) how sad my book backlog really is; and B) the types of books that make my dad think of me). After reading Packing for Mars,<\/em> I’ve made a deal with myself that I really should try to fit Stiff<\/em> in at some point this year. <\/p>\n

Hopefully. <\/p>\n

So I’m going to do that cop-out thing again and post the dust jacket description. Really, though, it’s quite a well-written summary, and I always like to give credit when it’s due: <\/p>\n

Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been slowly whittling away on a book from my own collection that has proven to be quite a journey (note that I did not use a pejorative, like “slog” or “ordeal”; it’s been an interesting read, but also a very full read). However, I set this particular book aside for a little while (because, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[654],"tags":[792,793,794],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12556"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}