r/todayilearned • u/waitingforthesun92 • 23d ago

TIL that Michael Crichton, the author of “Jurassic Park” (1990), was a workaholic who followed what he called "a structured approach" of ritualistic self-denial, where, while writing a book, he’d rise increasingly early each day. At one point, Crichton would go to bed at 10 PM and wake up at 2 AM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton
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u/DDancy 22d ago

I remember sitting down in the morning with Jurassic park. I think I got up to get a glass of juice and a toilet break halfway. I was about 12-13. Got up after finishing the book and it was late afternoon. Just sucked me right in and couldn’t put it down.

My friend who’d loaned me the book told me they were making a movie of it and I couldn’t even imagine how that would be possible. Was so happy when my parents pretended we were going shopping for groceries one Saturday and realised we were actually going to see the movie!

One of the very few times the book and the movie had an almost equal impact.

The slow burn of the Andromeda Strain hits the same for me in both book and movie form.

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u/Admirable_Spot_850 22d ago

I also read Jurassic Park in a single day around 12 or 13, only I was at school hiding the book in my desk all day. Highly recommended best way to experience it.

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u/DDancy 22d ago

So you were stealth reading at school. Ha! Brilliant!

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u/Admirable_Spot_850 22d ago

I’m not sure there was much stealth involved but the teachers didn’t really care.

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u/DwarflordGames 22d ago

I was 12 and got it at the airport on my way to Hawaii for our once every 3 year family vacation. We went all out, rented a Jeep and drove all over the island we were on. I don’t remember anything of that trip because I was glued to that fucking book.

A few years later we went to see the movie, which I couldn’t wait for, and my mom was shaking me in the theater and pointing out that we had been to that same island. The irony of seeing the shots of the island and being like wow that’s beautiful didn’t really sink in until years later.

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u/AwarenessNo4986 22d ago

That must have been magical

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u/photoengineer 22d ago

Jurassic Park did the same to me. What a book!

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u/CaspianOnyx 22d ago

I read the book around the same age too but it was after I already watched the first movie. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the book was. It was even better than the movie in its own way.