Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

I found this book extremely impactful.  It is the story of a kid who abandoned everything he knew in search of adventure.  Immediately after graduating college, Chris gave away all of his money and set out to travel across the US, experience the natural beauty, and see what life threw at him.  Along the way he met many people that he made a deep impression on.  Then he wanted to have a final adventure living off the land in Alaska for a few months.  Unfortunately, that adventure killed him.  The book goes through interviews with people he met trying to piece together his journey and motivations.

One of the things that struck me about this book was the effect Chris had on others that he met on the journey.  The book made him out to be a quiet guy who didn't seem particularly extroverted.  Yet one elderly man completely abandoned his old lifestyle and took to the road at Chris' prompting.  Chris was an idealist who was willing to do whatever it took to live by his ideals.  I think that is extremely rare and extremely potent.  I think it mostly exists in the young because they haven't yet had to make choices that might compromise those ideals.  The most finite resource we have is time, and there's just not enough of it to do everything we can imagine.  So people prioritize and pick some dreams over others.  They might pick a steady paycheck to support the family they've always wanted over their desire to live day to day, travelling the world.  Or they might make other compromises that while they understand, they can't help but admire and feel drawn to somebody who makes no compromises.

This book also left me with the question of what makes a life meaningful?  Chris absolutely led the life of his dreams.  But he died at the age of 24 with so much potential for life left.  He knew that what he wanted to do was risky and gladly took those risks.  But he didn't fully consider the impact they would have on others.  He was angry with his parents and utterly unconcerned about their feelings.  He was not angry with his sister but also seemed unconcerned about how his actions would affect her.  I don't know what I think.  I can't decide if his choices amounted to childishness and an unnecessary death or if his death was merely an unfortunate event that came from the very worthy pursuit of living life to the absolute fullest.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend to any who find the above questions worthy of exploration.