An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me about Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything

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All are valuable lessons to be learned but I felt it needed more about the daily life on ISS or the interesting behind the scenes things about how a kid from Sarnia, Canada, makes it to command the ISS (which we do hear about, but I wanted more). Here we have Hadfield singing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" Please take a few minutes out of your life to watch it. Hadfield takes readers on a fascinating and exciting journey while offering insightful-if somewhat unconventional -- wisdom applicable to everyday life here on Earth.

To try and be an astronaut is to seek to perform a task to perfection even though it is most likely that task will never be performed by you. This book, to be honest, has left me in sheer envy at the life of a man who knew exactly what he wanted and became so good at what he did that he created his own philosophy.

Without gravity, you don’t need muscle and bone mass to support your own weight, which is what makes life in space so much fun but also so inherently bad for the human body, long-term.

Not really - it would have taken too long, but I liistened to it twice a day for a week and loved it. Every decision you make, from what you eat to what you do with your time tonight, turns you into who you are tomorrow, and the day after that. While this did not feel like my finest hour in space exploration, it was definitely preferable to soiling my diaper the next day. He constantly reminds us of the phrase 'sweat the small stuff' - make sure you have every last detail covered. Lessons from his new book, AN ASTRONAUT'S GUIDE TO LIFE, are so inspiring that it's hard to decide which one to tell you about.One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as an astronaut is to value the wisdom of humility, as well as the sense of perspective it gives you. All liquids, including coffee and tea, come in pouches; most are powdered, and you simply add water, then sip through a straw. He explains so many intriguing approaches to every day life, things that make you reconsider the way you do your own job or interact with others. If you’re looking to get into a memoir that explores the life of someone extraordinary who does extraordinary things yet still stays humble and true in his account of it, I highly recommend this.

I picked this book up because of plans to create a triptych of imagery from underwater, up in the air and then out into space (with the unique ‘vehicle’ that I work with) so had developed an interest in all things space related; especially after having the privilege of meeting the team at Houston, standing looking down at a live mission control and visiting the Neutral Buoyancy Lab there.

The Cupola, an observatory module built by the European Space Agency, had been installed on the Station. Hair washing involves scrubbing your scalp vigorously with no-rinse shampoo, then drying off carefully to be sure stray wet hairs don’t wind up floating all over the spacecraft and clogging up air filters or getting in people’s eyes and noses.

I felt at times that I was right alongside Chris in parts of his journey and I listened intently to his wisdom on how to be a person with integrity, humility, determination and a sense of humour. The world was rolling by underneath, every place I’d read about or dreamed of visiting streaming past. Through eye-opening, entertaining stories filled with the adrenaline of launch, the mesmerising wonder of spacewalks and the measured, calm responses mandated by crises, he explains how conventional wisdom can get in the way of achievement - and happiness. And of course the fascinating and surprising stories of an astronaut’s everyday life, a life that very few of us will be lucky enough to experience. It’s like being a newborn, this sudden sensory overload of noise, color, smells and gravity after months of quietly floating, encased in relative calm and isolation.

Most of us nerds got a good idea of who Chris Hadfield is from his youtube videos last year filmed on the International Space Station. Until 2010, water on the ISS came in large, lined duffel bags delivered by the Shuttle or resupply vehicles, but now an onboard purification system helps us reclaim about 1,600 gallons a year. Essentially a long dad-like lecture on how the lessons Chris Hadfield has absorbed from a life in pursuit of the goal of going to space can be applied to your ordinary life here on Earth.