The Martian by Andy Weir

This has to be the most entertaining read I have had in a long time.

As a kid I loved survival stories. I thought the idea of finding water and food out in the middle of nowhere an exciting challenge. But, that is nothing. What would one do if they were stranded on Mars? Food, water? There is no air even! That is the challenge that Mark Watney faces.

Now, let me just state for the record that if I were stranded on Mars, my log would not be perky. I would have an instant sense of humour failure of epic proportions. Fortunately Mark Watney is nothing like me. He is hilarious! I woke up half the house laughing at the things he said. (That is no exaggeration. My mom did get her revenge though, as she laughed her way through the book a day after I was done with it.)

Watney, besides his wonderful personality, is also quite brilliant. He makes MacGyver look like an underachiever (although they both have a lot of respect for duct tape), and makes Bear Grylls look like an amateur. Finding water on earth is easy, man. Try figuring that out on Mars!

I really enjoyed the science in his book. I loved Watney and his sense of humour. I enjoyed the plot, and the suspense made me chew all my nails away. If anything in that brief list sounds appealing to you, then give this book a go.

Just as an FYI,  I would read the book before watching the trailer for the movie because it shows pretty much everything except the last 30 pages or so. It's a big spoiler.

Talking about the movie, I wonder how they are going to capture Watney's humour. I am guessing the log approach won't work on the screen. Oh well, here is to me actually wanting to watch a movie based on a book. It does not happen often. (Last time was Harry Potter!)

I gave this 4 stars on Goodreads, although I should probably bump it up to a 5. I loved reading this too much for it to be a 4 star book (and it does take a lot to make me laugh out loud at anything).

This is the 39th book I have read for the 2015 TBR Pile Reading challenge.