Book Nerds Across America

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild. Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and , unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild. (from Goodreads) 

Flo's Review
I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would. It is a true story, but it was put together so well that it pulls you in like a novel. The author, in fact, wrote an article about Chris McCandless for a magazine, but then was so enthralled with the story that he dug deeper into it and ended up with this book. I was a little worried about first because this book is often compared to On the Road by Jack Kerouac, which has a bit of a history with the Book Nerds (basically, none of us liked it.) But the major difference between that book and this one is the purpose. While I felt that the main character in On the Road was just wandering aimlessly, Chris McCandless had a goal -- one he was very passionate about. A good way into the book we get a revelation about the author that sheds great light on how this story is told. Because of what I learned about Krakauer, I am happy that he is the one who told this story. But I am also glad that he didn't "show his hand" right away, because I feel like that would have changed my view on how the story was presented. I think one reason I was so attracted to this story was because, like Chris, I have a sense of Wanderlust. I am not going to strap on a backpack and disappear one day, but I do understand his desire to see, to see, and to see some more. This, to reiterate, is what makes this story. This is a story of passion. At the end of the day it did cost him his life, but Chris McCandless also did truly live his life in the exact way he wanted. And I think this is why this story strikes the heart of so many: the journalist who couldn't let the story go when the article was done;  Sean Penn, who turned Chris' story into a movie with Vince Vaughn, Kristin Stewart, Jena Malone and more; and the many, many people who read the book. 

Mary's Review:

Out of all the BookNerds, I was the only one to actually finish the book.  However, it was so painful to finish that I was thankful I did an audio book instead of reading the actual book.  I do not know if I would have been able to finish it! I really disliked that Sal was never content where he was.  If he was in New York then he wanted to be in Denver.  If he was in Denver then he wanted to be in San Francisco.  This whole book was very drawn out and so LONG! I was bored to tears through most of it.  However, I did like Part 2 of the book (which I am going to assume is where most of the movie will take place). I enjoyed the storyline with Sal and MaryAnn, until she left him on the corner.  I absolutely did not understand anything in Part 3,the whole story line in Mexico was a mess!  I am so hoping that the movie will breathe some life into this book. 



Teri's Review:
My hitchhiking adventure started in New York. I was going out west..YAY..I was going to discover the great unknown..the hip generation... I was excited...I was.... oh so WRONG!
Somewhere, and I couldn't honestly tell you where, as I had no stopping places in this adventure, we climbed aboard a flat bed truck with a cast of colorful characters. Actually they were more black and white, I remember none of them, maybe a man traveling with a teenager and some guy named Montana Slim. Heck for all I know these two could be one and the same, you see I slept through this part of the trip.
The truck did finally stop, jarring me from my sleep. Someone said we were stopping for a "pisscall" in Cheyenne Wyoming. Here it was, my chance to escape my fate, a chance to go on, to travel to a land ( any land really) of perhaps vampires, angels, heck I'd take on a zombie attack at this point. I slipped inside the nearest bar (Oh please please be Pandemonium and full of ShadowHunters) , grabbed  a drink and watched from the distance as Sal and his merry men rode off into the sunset. I would never make it to Denver, or anywhere else that Sal roamed. I would never meet the people he was destined to meet, but hey I am okay with that, because I know my fellow Booknerds will be joining me soon, we will get our Haymitch on and then take off on another great adventure together. Books are like that.... they let us escape!

Jacque's Review:
I started out on this journey in central Ohio.  I travelled to northern Indiana and back listening to the audio book.  I just could not get into the story.  Sal was travelling the country aimlessly from New York to Denver to California then back to New York.  He worked odd jobs, complained about not having any money, but managed to buy alcohol and party every night.  When Dean arrived in New York and they decided to travel out west again, I couldn't believe I was about to make another cross country trek.  They made it as far as Denver before Dean had to stop for gas.  While he was filling up the car, I ran into Teri who was on her way to a local pub.  After countless hours in the car, I decided to join her for a cold one and ended the road trip early.  I could not bear to listen to any more of this book.

Flo's Review:
Like Mary, I listened to this one on audio. And like Jacque, I could not finish it. I was the last of the BookNerds to attempt reading this, even after I knew how the other 3 felt about it. But I have to agree with everyone above. Sal seemed to be just traveling around without a real destination. I thought he was planning to go to San Francisco to meet his friend and they'd go work on a ship together. But after he finally made it across country, he just hung around Denver playing around for a period of time. He admitted that he didn't go to work, yet he had money to go drinking with his friends every night?! I know it was the 1940s, but still!

So, then he finally leaves Denver and heads to San Francisco...where he only stays for a night before he decides he wants to leave again?! Really?! So then he meets this girl and ends up just living with her and her son and her family for several months. We see the situation is not ideal, so it's understandable when he wants to leave again. He returns home and is there for awhile before Dean returns, and all of a sudden they are talking about randomly going somewhere else?!? It was too much for me to take. I heard that Jacque and Teri had hopped off the road and decided to hang out at the bar, so I left Sal and Dean and went to join them.

I will say this though: Jack Kerouac is a good writer. Maybe even a great one. I have a feeling that if this story actually had a plot, I really would have enjoyed it. Kerouac has a way with words. He comes up with beautiful phrases to describe simple things. Simply Google "On the Road quotes" and you will come up with a wealth of them. Here are a couple of my favorites:

"I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future."

And perhaps the most famous one: "...because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'"

So, I hinted at the beginning of the week on Monday that the point of Greek Week was to tease our July Read Along. So, are you ready to find out what that is?! Ok then. Without further adieu, the BookNerds July Read Along is....


"How do you defy destiny? Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart." (from Goodreads)

And while I'm at it, let's announce the other two books for July! Our Friday Movie/Book read is....

"On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance. Kerouac's classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be "Beat" and has inspired every generation since its initial publication more than forty years ago." (from Goodreads)


Finally, our Sunday Mystery Corner for July is...


"Welcome to our genetic world.
Fast, furious, and out of control.
This is not the world of the future-it's the world right now.

Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? Humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes; is that why an adult human being resembles a chimp fetus? And should that worry us? There's a new genetic cure for drug addiction-is it worse than the disease? We live in a time of momentous scientific leaps; a time when it's possible to sell our eggs and sperm online for thousands of dollars; test our spouses for genetic maladies and even frame someone for a genetic crime. We live in a time when one fifth of all our genes are owned by someone else, and an unsuspecting person and his family can be pursued cross-country because they happen to have certain valuable genes within their chromosomes. . . . Devilishly clever, Next blends fact and fiction into a breathless tale of a new world where nothing is what it seems, and a set of new possibilities can open at every turn. Next challenges our sense of reality and notions of morality. Balancing the comic and bizarre with the genuinely frightening and disturbing, Next shatters our assumptions, and reveals shocking new choices where we least expect. The future is closer than you think. Get used to it." (from Goodreads)

We hope you will join us for one, two, or all three of our July reads!