Into the Wild

Into the Wild

I don't read a lot of non-fiction, however I've been trying to change that trend. This is one of those books where the movie made me want to read it. It doesn't happen often but every once in a while I see an amazing movie and need to read the book.

Into the Wild tells the story of a young man named Chris McCandless. Upon graduating from college he gives all his money to charity, abandons his car, burns whatever money he has left and leaves for wherever the road takes him. He changes his name to Alexander Supertramp and makes a new life for himself tramping across America.

Throughout his whole journey his supreme desire is to go to Alaska and live in the wild. After two years of tramping he makes his way to Alaska and hikes our into the wilderness and lives in a bus that he finds in the middle of no where.

Written by a reporter the book tells the story from a factual point of view, while still implanting in its chapters a sense of humanity and a plea for understanding for this fascinating character. This story is both inspiring and enlightening, drawing into subjects of philosophy a the internal yearning of the human spirit to explore and find that uncharted part of the map, a feeling that has been suppressed by how well charted our current maps are. Chris McCandless's experiences speak to that part of humanity and fills the reader with a sense of awe and respect.