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I'd like very much to read a book -- preferably a memoir, but a novel will suffice -- about a person or person who decides to live an unsettled life for the time being, and who sets forth on the road to see new sights, experience the unexpected, and explore.

I know On the Road is an obvious recommendation, but I've tried that and didn't find it as enjoyable as expected.

This is why I actually came looking for this forum, because I can't find anything in my libraries -- but title searches might help me spot something previously hidden.

Have you read any of Dervla Murphy's books? She's an amazing woman who has travelled all over the world ... a lot of it by bicycle! She seems totally undaunted by remoteness, political, cultural or religious obstacles. She just seems to operate on the basis that if she ignores obstacles they will miraculously disappear .... and oddly enough they always do!

I haven't even heard of her, but she sounds fascinating. Maybe I can find something of hers, thank you.

Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but a great read (especially if you're a guy) is Into The Wild by Jon Karkauer. It's Karkauer's account of a man named Chris McCandless who, after graduating college, decided to sell everything he had but his car and live life on the road... eventually even surrendering his car. The end game finds himself in a semi-remote area of Alaska, but the entire book tries to decipher his intentions and thoughts as he travels around the country based on his journals, letters, and accounts of people he met along the way.

It is an amazing read and a true story.

I second the Into the Wild recommendation! Also check out The Burial Brothers by Simon Mayle. Walden by Thoreau is on my to-read list even though he isn't travelling...also on my to-read list is Changes in Latitude by Joanna McIntyre Varawa.

Mountain Lyrics by ???? Shucks I can't remember his name.

whiskeyguy: Thanks for the McCandless reccommendation: I read and enjoyed it last year.

MoreCowbell: Burial Brothers sounds hilarious. I read Walden last spring, too...good book on the contemplative life.

Rancher: Michael F Connelly? I found something by that title on Amazon by him: sounds particularly fascinating. Thank you.

I too liked Into The Blue, and John Krakauer's Into Thiin Air is also worth a read.
I wonder if you've read anything by Paul Theroux? Paddling the Pacific: The Happy Isles of Oceana is a great place to start. Theroux's marriage is on the rocks, he's had a suspiscious lump removed from his skin, and he's a man on the edge.. so he equips himself with a collapsible kayak and a sony walkman and paddles around the pacific for months. He's an astonishing writer with an extraordinary gift for captuing the spirit of a place, and with his knowledge of language and history it starts to feel as though you're reading the travel journals of a friendly but eccentric polymath. Just a delight.

Not sure if this is a travelling book
Eat, Love, Pray
Its a pretty good book. You should Check it out

I have read a book called "A Fortunate Life" by AB Facey it's a Memoir of a mans life growing up in Australia 1894 - 1982. It is an Aussie classic that will stay with you long after you read it. He starts working at the age of 10 goes to Gallipoli and has many stories to tell of his amazing life. I urge any person to read this book. This man was amazing who never gave up and carried on.

smellincoffee wrote:I'd like very much to read a book -- preferably a memoir, but a novel will suffice -- about a person or person who decides to live an unsettled life for the time being, and who sets forth on the road to see new sights, experience the unexpected, and explore.

I know On the Road is an obvious recommendation, but I've tried that and didn't find it as enjoyable as expected.

This is why I actually came looking for this forum, because I can't find anything in my libraries -- but title searches might help me spot something previously hidden.

Don't recall the Author (sry) but the title is "Hell of a Place to lose a Cow" and involved a hitchhiker who had hitchhiked across the US in the 70's and now was making the same trip again in post 2000...great read.