Girls, Hiking, Psychics

At lunch the other day, my friend GP asked me if I'd ever read the book Travels by Michael Crichton.

Of course I had. In fact, I first read the book almost ten years ago off of GP's recommendation. Funnily enough, GP hadn't actually read it at the time - he had just heard it was really good from someone else.

"Yeah, I was wondering, because the book has a lot of stuff you like," said GP. "Hiking, psychics..."

No shit. This blog is a shameless ripoff of Travels, down to the format and content. Crichton's book is unlike anything he's ever written. It's a series of unconnected chapters, loosely organized around a handful of recurring themes: girls, hiking, psychics, Hollywood, and medical care.

Sound familiar?

I loved this book when I first read it as a film school student, mainly because it made the life of a Hollywood filmmaker sound so freaking awesome. Crichton has a new girlfriend in every chapter, and these are cool girls, the kind of girls who will climb to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro with you and even beat you to the top. He has a travel agent on retainer, one who is constantly arranging trips to exotic locales (with aforementioned cool girlfriends). He is directing Sean Connery in complicated action movies. He is wandering out to the middle of the desert and having spiritual epiphanies. He is offering suggestions for improving the health care system. He is skeptically consulting with various psychics, and repeatedly having his mind blown.

Think of the book as Eat, Pray, Love with a macho injection of human growth hormone and anabolic steroids. When I first read it, I fantasized about leading such a life.

Cut to ten years later. The funny thing is, I've done or experienced a sizable portion of the things Crichton wrote about.

And I'm looking forward to hitting up the rest.