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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
Great book to read when taking a trip and around the Fourth of July holiday! A wonderful journey of Steinbeck’s observations about America, its people and his ultimate road trip
Classic a Month #5.2014
I wasn't sure about this one at first, since it's a travel memoir or a biography of sorts. But I really enjoyed it, just as much as the others. Every time I open a Steinbeck book now, it's like coming home. He's just so comfortable and easy to read. Do you have an author like that? If not, may I suggest Steinbeck? ;) Especially if you've never read him as an adult...you are missing out!
Steinbeck travels across America in a custom-made camper truck with just his dog, a blue French poodle called Charley, for company. Charley was the real star of this story. He made a peculiar Ffft sound with his teeth when he wanted attention and engineered many a meeting between Steinbeck and the strangers they met on the road. Steinbeck kind of acts like a curmudgeonly old man, but he's really not. He enjoys talking to the people he meets and soaks up the local culture everywhere he goes. The whole purpose of his trip, so he says, was to get to know his country again. Learn what makes people tick and what they are feeling, see how times have changed and how they have stayed the same, what the heart of America is and why.
For how can one know color in perpetual green,
and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness?
This book will really inspire the wanderlust in you. To just leave and travel the back roads, not the busy highways where you never see anything but speeding cars, and see where the day takes you. "he is going somewhere but doesn't greatly care whether or not he gets there, although he has direction." To head to the coast and dip your toes in the ocean, visit the national parks and the not-so-famous local parks, see the sun rise in Montana and the sun set in California, and feel how the wind and air changes across the country. Seriously, this book and Amy & Roger's Epic Detour will make you want to summer road-trip like nothing else!
Full review at: Give a Hoot, Read a Book!
I wasn't sure about this one at first, since it's a travel memoir or a biography of sorts. But I really enjoyed it, just as much as the others. Every time I open a Steinbeck book now, it's like coming home. He's just so comfortable and easy to read. Do you have an author like that? If not, may I suggest Steinbeck? ;) Especially if you've never read him as an adult...you are missing out!
Steinbeck travels across America in a custom-made camper truck with just his dog, a blue French poodle called Charley, for company. Charley was the real star of this story. He made a peculiar Ffft sound with his teeth when he wanted attention and engineered many a meeting between Steinbeck and the strangers they met on the road. Steinbeck kind of acts like a curmudgeonly old man, but he's really not. He enjoys talking to the people he meets and soaks up the local culture everywhere he goes. The whole purpose of his trip, so he says, was to get to know his country again. Learn what makes people tick and what they are feeling, see how times have changed and how they have stayed the same, what the heart of America is and why.
For how can one know color in perpetual green,
and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness?
This book will really inspire the wanderlust in you. To just leave and travel the back roads, not the busy highways where you never see anything but speeding cars, and see where the day takes you. "he is going somewhere but doesn't greatly care whether or not he gets there, although he has direction." To head to the coast and dip your toes in the ocean, visit the national parks and the not-so-famous local parks, see the sun rise in Montana and the sun set in California, and feel how the wind and air changes across the country. Seriously, this book and Amy & Roger's Epic Detour will make you want to summer road-trip like nothing else!
Full review at: Give a Hoot, Read a Book!
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Sublime! It is not a perfect book by any measure of the word, but what I love is this man’s individuality and raging against the dying of the light. His enthusiasm for his country, for knowing it - AND REALLY KNOWING IT, even at 58 is commendable.
His observations delighted me and provided plenty food for thought, but more than anything else they produced in me a burning desire to witness the majesty of redwood trees myself.
His observations delighted me and provided plenty food for thought, but more than anything else they produced in me a burning desire to witness the majesty of redwood trees myself.
Sometimes a book comes along at just the right time, and as someone who's spent many hours driving across America with a dog this year, this book was that for me.
Steinbeck, like many before and many after him, set out in a car to discover the people and places of his home country - and there's really nothing more American than the voyager's road trip in pursuit of external and internal discovery.
Steinbeck quickly realizes the folks he encounters represent no monolith and he will return with brief vignettes and nothing more. What I found most profound was his descriptions of the country's boastful landscapes - especially the desert and Texas. It's so hard for words to do justice to these vast, plentiful landscapes of nothingness. But in that, Steinbeck and this work are ultimately successful
Steinbeck, like many before and many after him, set out in a car to discover the people and places of his home country - and there's really nothing more American than the voyager's road trip in pursuit of external and internal discovery.
Steinbeck quickly realizes the folks he encounters represent no monolith and he will return with brief vignettes and nothing more. What I found most profound was his descriptions of the country's boastful landscapes - especially the desert and Texas. It's so hard for words to do justice to these vast, plentiful landscapes of nothingness. But in that, Steinbeck and this work are ultimately successful
The travels of man and dog across the wide expanse of America. Narrated by Gary Sinise, this audiobook was a pleasure to listen to. The snapshot of America captured by Steinbeck was excellent and I could picture it all.
TW: offensive racial terms commonly used in that era are present within this story.
TW: offensive racial terms commonly used in that era are present within this story.
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
4.5/5 — One of my fave travelogues! Steinbeck's writing in this is subtle but really impactful and intimate.
Steinbeck was 35 when he wrote Of Mice and Men (one of my favorite novels). He was 58 when he took the trip recounted in Travels with Charley. Just a man and his dog, out on the road to explore America. It seems a fitting idea for a book from an author who, according to Wikipedia, "frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists." How appropriate for a master of American Realism to go out into the Real America and just sort of see what was what, circa 1960.
He starts by describing the ol' traveling itch, which admittedly I've never much shared. I'm more of a "let's stay in tonight" guy, rarely willing to venture out of the suburbs. But I like the Gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson and this feels a lot like his road trip odyssey Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or his cross-country ...On the Campaign Trail, but with less, well, loathing. The story from start to finish describes a neat circle, a cyclical path from home to the open road and back home again, and has a tremendously satisfying sense of wholeness. The best parts are the little pithy observations about trips and the quirky nature of dogs.
3 stars out of 5. A little bit dated and a little self-indulgent (do we need to hear how he worries his celebrity will get him recognized too easily? Or how he single-handedly saved his 22-foot boat from a hurricane?) but all in all a great celebration of the basic joy of travel: getting to know yourself by going away and meeting with others.
He starts by describing the ol' traveling itch, which admittedly I've never much shared. I'm more of a "let's stay in tonight" guy, rarely willing to venture out of the suburbs. But I like the Gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson and this feels a lot like his road trip odyssey Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or his cross-country ...On the Campaign Trail, but with less, well, loathing. The story from start to finish describes a neat circle, a cyclical path from home to the open road and back home again, and has a tremendously satisfying sense of wholeness. The best parts are the little pithy observations about trips and the quirky nature of dogs.
3 stars out of 5. A little bit dated and a little self-indulgent (do we need to hear how he worries his celebrity will get him recognized too easily? Or how he single-handedly saved his 22-foot boat from a hurricane?) but all in all a great celebration of the basic joy of travel: getting to know yourself by going away and meeting with others.
Hemingway says that when he explained to people that he just up and left his life to travel, they'd always express some envy. I totally understand this. It's not always just wanderlust-- there's something fundamentally human about wanting to escape, to have no commitments. I certainly identify.
Still, though, I wasn't completely enamored of this book. It was certainly funny in places, but it isn't my favorite of his. The best parts are not the funny ones--but when he realizes that reacquainting himself with America means acquainting himself with some pretty nasty individuals.
Still, though, I wasn't completely enamored of this book. It was certainly funny in places, but it isn't my favorite of his. The best parts are not the funny ones--but when he realizes that reacquainting himself with America means acquainting himself with some pretty nasty individuals.
I would love to drive cross country with my dog, sleep in a camper and talk to people along the way. Honestly, that sounds heavenly. I loved his thoughts on the people and places he went. The only thing to make this more perfect was if it were all true. Still, it is a beautiful notion to travel the country experiencing American in all of its uniqueness.