The movie is good, but the book is much better.
The book is interesting reading but it is an exercise in speculation based on conjecture. It starts from assumptions of how much fuel you would need and then calculates outcomes based on arbitrary numbers. It is really excessively real when they could simply reroute the tachyon flow through the warp core and invert the polarity of the positronic matrix, thereby creating a feedback loop that would propel the astronaut and his potatos right into subspace.
1. That is usually the case.
2. Yes, I read it.