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For recreation onboard Mir, crewmembers watch movies, view the Earth, read books, and pursue other activities. In her Oral History, U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid discusses the books Mir.
She says, "The Russians have a fairly extensive library up on Mir, because over the years, ... lots of Russian books ... have come up. Behind one panel, [it] was just full of books. There were even a few English in there. ... But I did bring the most English books up."
Regarding her Mir reading experience, Lucid says, "It brought home the power that authors have... Here I was .. reading 'David Copperfield' and 'Bleak House.' I thought, 'Wow, here was this guy [who] lived in a totally different era than we're living, and it had never ever crossed his mind that his book would be being read ... by an American, on a Russian space station.' I mean, that would have just absolutely blown his mind -- that the words that he penned way back there in England, I was reading [at this moment, on Mir]."
Lucid says she thought often, "about the power that authors have. And [about Dickens'] ideas and [how] his story was transcending the centuries, transcending culture..."
Related
Links:
Life
on Mir
Lucid
Increment
Profile: Shannon Lucid
Shannon
Lucid Oral History (PDF)
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Curator:
Kim Dismukes
Responsible NASA Official: John Ira Petty