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Summary: An insight into the mind of an author...and us all...
Review: At first glance, this book could appear to be a lavish tale of an intelligent and wealthy person who has travelled more than most and wants to share it with an already existant audience. At some points, this is true. However, this book is more often than not, an incredible exploration into the depths inside and outside of yourself. Crichton has the ability to take you along his journey without talking down to you and by sharing his stories with you as if you were sitting next to him having coffee. He is very honest about his experiences and does not try to "sell" them to you. In fact, in the end, he even suggests you can do what he did and come to your own conclusions. It is a humbling compliment that this well educated and practical author can share his experiences without building a wall between himself and his audience. The book lags when it begins to feel like the reader is traversing through a list of where he has been and what he did there. But when he opens up and shares his spiritual journey, the book really progresses and is a fantastic read. Skeptics will enjoy his no nonsense accounts of visiting psychics and other assorted characters from the non-scientific realm. It makes his many esoteric statements easier to swallow. Highly recommended if you enjoy travelling inside and outside of your reality.
Rating: 
Summary: Great
Review: I loved this book. Absolutely stunning story telling of his life. The best book ever written besides the Bible.
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Summary: a confused mind trying to find peace
Review: I was amazed that in this day and age, a well known author can describe an African woman as an "animal" and SouthEast Asian child as a "mongrel". Mind boggling !...The author includes a story to a southeastern brothel where children are the prostitutes. As a reader you are shocked at him and his friends, actually checking out the kids in room after room. Somehow Crichton decides it is not for him and opts out. I am thinking, Did you really have to go into the brothel where children are prostituted to find that one out? Sick.... Washington Post calls this crap "entertaining"! They must have been thinking about the dinosaur book.
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Summary: Wow
Review: This is a consistently intriguing collection of autobiographical sketches. Mr. Crichton has done some serious travelling in his time, around our planet, and also inward, metaphorical travels. His journeys are either to rarely visited geographical locales (such as various obscure Himalayan kingdoms, pre-massacre Rwanda, Hong Kong...) or to even more rarely visited, X-Files-ish states of mind, where spoons are bent with sheer concentration, the human aura is visible, and the future can be seen. I wasn't sure what I thought about some of the more mystical explorations he undertakes here, but the older I get, the more open-minded I am to things like that. He really comes across as being honest, and quite psychologically perceptive. If you liked his novel "Sphere", this will give you a sense of the kind of thought processes that gave rise to the interesting ending of that story. Also, I should say, if you liked "Congo", be on the lookout for various scenes here that clearly influenced the writing of that book. I won't give them away here... In general, I have to say that many of the more spiritual components of this book are some of the most accessible, interesting, and provocative passages on the nature of consciousness I've ever had the pleasure of reading. He makes you really think about the mind, and how we use it, or fail to use it. He uses plain, unacademic language to describe experiences that are too often shrouded in mumbo-jumbo words like "epistemelogical" or "phenomenological". Anyone can read this book, and anyone who thinks about it can profit from it. Two thumbs up.
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Summary: Educational, entertaining, thought-provoking
Review: Probably my favorite Crichton book. It's a compilation of true, autobiographical stories from Crichton's life, from his days in med school to vacations to foreign lands to experimenting with psychic phenomenon. This book gives you a good understanding of Crichton's thinking processes. The problems with medicine (albeit in the 1960's). The openness with which he visits and tries to understand foreign cultures (and his mis-adventures in doing so). Some of his closed-minded tendencies, which we can all understand. What is particularly interesting to me is how he, as a man of medicine and a scientist, opened his mind on psychic phenomenon. I don't claim to understand any of this aura-reading, meditation, seances, etc., but it's really fascinating that Crichton spent some time experimenting with these phenomenon. Great reading!
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Summary: Beautiful Insight into Michael Crichton
Review: I am a fairly new reader of Crichton books. I had always thought of him as "science fiction", but anyone reading his books will know he puts so much non-fiction into his fiction....a person just cannot stop reading his book, once started. Upon reading this book, "Travels" it really allows you to know the inner "Michael Crichton". He holds nothing back. Tells things that most people only "think". As always with his books, it is a book you will not put down until it is read completely. I laughed and at times cried. At times I felt as though I were reading his private diary. What a great book for anyone and everyone.
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Summary: A Delightful Autobiography
Review: Right off the bat, you know that this will be a "different" kind of autobiography than the kind we are used to. After all, not many authors would choose to begin an essay on their own life with the words "It is not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw", but Crichton does. The first part of the book is a short but interesting section detailing Michael's adventures during his 4 year tenure at Harvard Medical School. It is an interesting story told from the "other side" of the medical profession. I reccommend one of MC's other non-fiction books Five Patients, to anyone who likes this section. The bulk of the book, of course, is the latter section focusing on Crichton's travels. Told are many fascinating (and true) stories of experiences in such out-of-the-way places as Hunza, New Guinea, Mount Kilimanjaro, not to mention Hong Kong and various underwater expeditions. Also included in the "Travels" section are some of Michael's many inner journeys. He talks of psychic phenomenon, future-reading, spoon bending, and the like. I found his insight on psychics extremely interesting. I reccommend this book to anyone who wants a "different" kind of autobiography, and who wants to know about people's "innter journeys", not just outer ones.
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Summary: intelligently bizarre
Review: I find Michael Crichton's books extremely fascinating because they are some of the very few massmarket books written for intelligent people. This book is a different twist from his usual works, it in many ways reminds me of Eric Segal-- must be the Harvard Med connection. It opened my eyes to a "new age" way of looking at things--he has written the first book I have ever read on the subject without a "fruitcakey" approach to it.
Rating:
Summary: Travels
Review: Crighton's stories cover his medical training, world travels, and various supernatural experiences. His autobiography is diverse, intriguing, and personal. Gain insight into a great mind and a fascinating life. One of the best books I've ever read.
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Summary: Cadavers, Kilimanjaro, and physic auras, oh my!
Review: This is book was incredible! Crichton's days as a medical student are humorous and thought-provoking, his globe-trotting is exotic and awe-inspiring, and his psychic adventures left me with a whole new vocabulary of chakras, auras, etc. The amazing med school stories are great, which is no surprise since he's written Five Patients and is the creator of ER. The travelling stories were interesting because they seemed believable. Tourbook, camera, sore feet ... I can relate to this guy a lot better than a Hemingway-type figure. I don't know if I'm going to go out and talk to cacti or fluff my aura anytime soon, but I thought Crichton's journies of the world and the soul were amazing. This is probably among the least-known of his books, but definitely a must read.
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