W.O.W. (!)

I'm not just very enthusiastic, W.O.W. does spell out the initials of the most recent book I read,  Wide-Open World by John Marshall.

What can I say, I was at work and this book appeared on my cart, what did you expect me to do? Not check it out? Come on, we all know I'm a sucker for travel books. 

This book is the memoir of a father of two, living in Maine, and desperate for something to change his life. Not that he has a bad life, he's got two smart and healthy kids, and a wife who is very happy to teach yoga and go on the occasional international yoga retreat. But his kids are disconnected from him (and too connected to the Internet in his daughter's case) and his marriage is certainly not what it used to be. So, to avoid the terrible prospect of a dull life, John and Traca decide to make a huge change. They quit their jobs, rent their house, pack their things, book some flights, and travel the world with their two teenage kids. The thought behind this adventure is not only to reconnect a family that is subconsciously drifting apart, but also to travel the world to unexpected places and volunteer to help others. 

Volunteering their way around the world is perfect for the Marshalls, as it enables them to travel the globe but not spend more money than absolutely necessary. 

In this manner, they travel to Costa Rica, New Zealand, Thailand, India, and Portugal (no volunteering in Portugal, just meeting up with old friends). They leave for six months, and in those six months they awoke again, they reconnected, and they faced some truths about themselves.

I was so inspired by this book. It did nothing but enflame my travel bug further then it already is. I think it's amazing that "real" people (you know, the kind of people who don't have garages on their yachts for their boats) can do something as life changing and as daring as a trip like this. 

I would absolutely recommend this book. It's funny, easy to read, difficult to put down, and there are cool pictures of their travels (it's selling point, trust me). I always find that summer is the time when I have the most inspiration, and this book fit very well into my summer mindset. 

A different kind of read

As we all know, I am a big fan of anything fiction/fantasy. However, in the last several months I've found myself picking up more and more books in the non-fiction shelves of the library. They're not so much autobiographies as epic tales of profound human experiences. For example, I read Eat, Pray, Love a while ago and many of the books I've picked up recently are of the same autobiographical/memoirs register.
All these books were, of course, picked with wonderful intentions of long nights spent reading, or of lazing on the porch with a book in hand. As you can imagine, I have done very little of that, and many books I am sad to say were returned without having been read. This book, however, made it through the very narrow filter of the books I've had time to read.

Of all the books that didn't make the cut, I'm very glad this was the one I took time to read. The Kindness Diaries are the record of Leon Logothetis's adventures around the world with no money and a yellow motorbike as his only means of transportation. The idea was that he wanted to make it around the globe relying solely on the kindness of other people, who he hoped would give him money, food, gas, and shelter so that he may be able to continue on his travels. He did have his own reward system, in which he helped people who helped him. One homeless man in Pittsburgh provided him with a safe place to stay for the night, and in return Leon gave him the funds to get an apartment and enroll in culinary school to pursue his dream of becoming a chef. All the stories, be they in Europe, Africa, Asia or America, are like that. 

This book was inspiring, to say the least. Some of Leon's adventures seem too surreal to be true, and in return the gifts that he gives people seem extraordinary. Yet the concept of the book is simple, and frankly, quite beautiful. He was able to travel around the globe, hitting almost every continent, thanks only to the kindness of complete strangers in foreign countries. 

If you need a feel-good book, or you need a hefty dose of inspiration, or even if you just want a good book about a good man, I cannot recommend The Kindness Diaries enough.