Weir, Andy ; The Martian ; Informal Buddy Read ; Start Date Dec 7, 2014

[K~Terror]

Emma wrote: "It is totally addictive, I can't put it down. I feel like the book has been going forever I am so engaged with it, but I haven't even reached 50% - which is great because it's the type of book you..."

Still laughing!!!

[Emma (M)]

I will have to bookmark it for days when I need a good giggle :)

[Snowtulip]

I had to grab the book off of hubby's nightstand to look up that section...loved it! It's the book that keeps on giving for me :D

[Kelly]

Kristin ~ Experiment in Terror Junkie wrote: "I'm at the end of Chapter 11
[spoilers removed] "

I read that part aloud to my husband and giggled :)

[Kelly]

Chapter 9-16
(view spoiler)[
I'm glad that they seem to be working a bit faster though I think there's too many layers of people back at NASA and they keep screwing things up. I wonder how much of their desire not to send the crew back was to cover their own butts in case something went wrong.

Side Note: Wind River (the company mentioned when he was booting the Operating System) is real. http://www.windriver.com/ The firmware group where I worked had looked at them which is why I recognized the name.

I like the added crisis by him losing his potato's. He should have stored one in a tiny habitat. I wonder what experiments he's running. Seems like a lot of extra stuff to add to his plate.
(hide spoiler)]

[Emma (M)]

Kelly wrote: "Chapter 9-16

I'm glad that they seem to be working a bit faster though..."

(view spoiler)[his poor potato farm! He had worked so hard to get it to the stage it was at. I suppose that sort of thing would happen though, not everything would go off without a hitch and it certainly makes things more interesting. (hide spoiler)]

[Kelly]

It seems like a good mix of good luck and bad luck.

[K~Terror]

Kelly wrote: "It seems like a good mix of good luck and bad luck."

He's one clever man which (view spoiler)[ definitely helps create his good luck. The bad luck would seem so devastating to me but still he seems to take most of this craziness in stride. Seriously, not all people are built for being an astronaut! My hair would be gone from pulling on it and I'd have bruises on my head from banging it. But not Mark, nope, he's like a hybrid of the little ant that could & an energizer bunny.. nothing discourages him and he just keeps on going..

Course, now I'm trying to figure out what a bunny-ant would look like...? (hide spoiler)]

[Emma (M)]

Pretty ugly I would think Kristen!

[Kelly]

He reminds me a bit of Jack Reacher who makes logical decisions at each point and things that go wrong are things which couldn't have been predicted. So far he hasn't made any idiotic decisions that caused him to lose ground. It's nice when the author doesn't have to resort to making a normally smart person stupid just to cause a story conflict.

[K~Terror]

Kelly wrote: "He reminds me a bit of Jack Reacher who makes logical decisions at each point and things that go wrong are things which couldn't have been predicted. So far he hasn't made any idiotic decisions tha..."

No kidding! So far the writing and story line has been impressive.

[K~Terror]

Emma wrote: "Pretty ugly I would think Kristen!"

If I were Erin or V, I would be able to find something perfect and post the gif

Picture that.

[K~Terror]

Less than 20 minutes to go... Wide awake at 4am...
CANT PUT IT DOWN

[K~Terror]

Done!

(view spoiler)[ It's true. In space, no one can hear you scream (like a little girl). (hide spoiler)]

[Emma (M)]

I am 24 minutes behind you in finishing Kristin! I too could not put it down and I feel like my eyes are falling out of my head - but it was totally worth it!

Have a good sleep, at 4am you deserve it!

[VNerdbooks]

Morning guys, I'm still on this one but really enjoying it.
Mark is so funny I'm up to (view spoiler)[ He has found Pathfinder and they have made contact with him.
That made me laugh "I haven't been this excited about a yes since Prom night" haha (hide spoiler)]

[Emma (M)]

Mark has some amazing one liners.

[VNerdbooks]

"Enjoy your boogie fever" Haha!

[K~Terror]

V Audio Nerd wrote: ""Enjoy your boogie fever" Haha!"

(view spoiler)[ Disco?? Seriously?!! Disco?!!!
Hahaha!!! (hide spoiler)]

[K~Terror]

Emma wrote: "I am 24 minutes behind you in finishing Kristin! I too could not put it down and I feel like my eyes are falling out of my head - but it was totally worth it!

Have a good sleep, at 4am you deserv..."

(view spoiler)[ That ending was sooooo intense! I swear I could barely breathe and I had heart palpitations! It was the perfect book to kick of the year with! (hide spoiler)]

[Snowtulip]

Yipeee!!!!

Did anyone else feel like they needed to learn some new skills?

When Kelly posted the Wind River link above, I was thinking maybe I should learn programming in case I need it in the future, or maybe I should learn how to fix a car...I might need those skills!!!

[K~Terror]

I know, right?!!! I realized I had no real skills!!

[Kelly]

Snowtulip wrote: "Yipeee!!!!

Did anyone else feel like they needed to learn some new skills?

When Kelly posted the Wind River link above, I was thinking maybe I should learn programming in case I need it in the fu..."

Heh. I don't think any of the programming stuff they were doing could be done by someone who learned it as a hobby. I think they always exaggerate people's abilities in books :)

[VNerdbooks]

oh no he's lost (view spoiler)[the farm, ahh he spent so long on them too, bless his heart (hide spoiler)]

[VNerdbooks]

Up to chapter 15

[Kelly]

V Audio Nerd wrote: "oh no he's lost [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[at least he got some benefit out of them though. (hide spoiler)]

[VNerdbooks]

yes true, (view spoiler)[i can't imagine that he is going to enjoy eating them EVERY day though lol (hide spoiler)]

[Kelly]

V Audio Nerd wrote: "yes true, [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[
I think he's saving some of his protein packs too though so maybe he'll mix those in. If I was him I'd start on mostly potatoes right away since they're riskier than the packs.

Maybe he can use his chemistry set to figure out how to deep fry them :)
(hide spoiler)]

[VNerdbooks]

Haha yes I bet he could do that

[VNerdbooks]

I have 35 minutes left of this book, it's nail biting stuff !!!

[VNerdbooks]

Arghhhh!!!

[Kelly]

Chapter 17-21
(view spoiler)[
I love how they keep tossing good and bad luck his way.

I think the whole shoot the smallest person back to earth while she eats her crewmates one of which she's sleeping with is really creepy though.

I'm curious how his dust storm will work out. He did get his energy usage way down so maybe he can cut it further.
(hide spoiler)]

[Emma (M)]

Yeah, I agree with your creepy comment!

[Kelly]

Chapter 22-end
(view spoiler)[
Yay! He made it. I couldn't really see him not making it but there were some close calls. It's crazy how much they were able to accomplish.

The weirdest part was when NASA was watching everything and it had all already happened. Since it was a 12 minute launch and 12 minute lag time he was already rescued by the time they saw him launch.
(hide spoiler)]

Awesome book, 5 stars. I've recommended it to quite a few people. Especially the other software engineers at work.

[Emma (M)]

I have recommended to heaps of people including the techs at my workplace :)