Wind, Sand and Stars

"Their words were not the same, but their truths were identical. Why has this high communion never yet prevented men from dying in battle against each other?"

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Wind, Sand and Stars

Before this year, I didn't know much about Antoine de Saint-Exupery aside from the fact that he wrote The Little Prince. He lived the most interesting life. He flew mail from France to Africa, and from Argentina across the Andes into Chile. He was in and out of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. He wrote the Little Prince, and in 1944, just a year after, he disappeared while flying over the Mediterranean.

In Wind, Sand and Stars, de Saint-Exupery recounts his youth as a pilot and his early flights into Africa. He tells the stories of friends who died, and some who almost did, as well as a few of his own close calls, recollects the horrors of Civil War Spain, and discusses many of his philosophies on life. 

I loved this book. It is one of the best travel adventure books that I have ever read. His writing style is beautiful, his storytelling phenomenal, and his personal philosophies are profoundly interesting. I can definitely see why it was named a National Geographic top 10 best adventure books of all time.  It was exciting, moving, and beautiful. It didn't feel dated. 

I loved his philosophy that nature is never good or bad. There is no drama in nature. That drama, that morality, those feelings of happiness and horror only occur when you throw a human in the mix. It was extremely interesting. I loved the way that the book was structured in such a way. It moved from him learning to read and feel the weather, the solitude of the desert, and the beautiful stillness he felt to his conflicting emotions surrounding the war in Spain and all of the violence, with the senselessness of it all. It was beautiful.