The Lunatic Express, by Carl Hoffman, is the story of a journey on some of the world’s most dangerous trains, buses, boats, and airlines. Hoffman travels over mountain passes and through jungles in Peru, journeys on the notoriously bad ferries of Bangladesh, and rides the local train in Mumbai that takes the lives of over 4,000 people a year. Despite these death defying feats, it wasn’t until I read of his flight into Afghanistan in the midst of the war that I truly thought ‘maybe he really is insane.’The book is well written and compelling. I read it quickly, both to find out what would happen to him next, and also in an effort to try to understand him. When someone undertakes a project like this, there is a tendency to think they have a death wish. However, it seemed as though when Hoffman lives on the edge, he becomes…