When my professor assigned us our 5th and final book of the semester, it's safe to say I was dreading it. The routine was down...read the book, write a paper on it, one week off, and repeat. I, however, was not expecting to fall in love with any of the books we were assigned, but Jon Krakauer's "Into The Wild" changed my opinion very quickly.

"Into The Wild" is the true story of how a once 22-year-old Christopher McCandless escaped from society after graduating college. When Chris graduates from Emory University in 1990, he is determined to shed the skin that is known as Christopher McCandless. Instead of furthering his education at Harvard Law like he had at one time explored, McCandless sets out on a journey to detach himself from society and his former life. Eventually, he makes his way to his destination – Alaska — but sadly dies from starvation. When the story comes out that Chris has been found, along with his journal, critics are quick to claim that he was selfish, uninformed, and unprepared. Krakauer finds himself assigned to write an article about McCandless which eventually expands to "Into the Wild."

The book eventually caught the eye of the public, and expanded into an award-winning movie in 2007 starring Emile Hirsch. Krakauer paved the way for the public to initiate a comparison between Chris and America's past transcendentalists. Many said Krakauer penned this non-fiction piece with Walden by Thoreau in mind (another good read.)

If you have free time I highly recommend this book. It has been the only book this semester that has truly made me stay up all night decoding text, and thinking deeply about its meaning. Should we all aim to be Chris's level of brave and detach from society? Maybe we can't take the extreme measures that he did, but I think it's good to have cleansed every once in while, whether that means logging off of social media for a while, reading a good book, or just going outside.