Announcing Travel Reads Tuesday

Now that I’m more settled in to travel life, I’m ready to start checking some books off my reading list. Therefore, I’m officially announcing the beginning of a post series to tell you all about the travel-related books I’m reading: Travel Reads Tuesday.

First up on the list: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road

I downloaded the version above for $8.85 today. There’s also a deluxe version with a movie tie-in for the same price.

Kindle edition / Kindle deluxe edition (movie tie-in)

WHY I’M READING ON THE ROAD

On the Road is one of those books that you mostly hear people are reading before departing on a good ol’ fashioned USA road trip, and that’s exactly my purpose for making this read my first choice. In June, Ian and I will be heading out on the road to my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri from Los Angeles, California, and we’re planning to take it slow and see some American beauty in between.

I’ve just downloaded the Kindle version of the book today, so tune in next week for a progress update and my thoughts on the book so far, and who knows, maybe I’ll even finish it by then! Show me some blog love by subscribing to North to South updates in the box on the right.

CURRENT PROGRESS

Page 32 of 307 (12% complete)

CURRENT THOUGHTS

So far, I like On the Road, at least enough to have purchased it after reading the sample. I’m not in the can’t-put-it-down, on-the-edge-of-my-seat phase yet, but I’m finding it to be an easy read as I’m getting used to Kerouac’s writing style. I think I’ll have to get a few more chapters in before I can tell if I love it.

MY FAVORITE PART

I laughed out loud at this story Kerouac tells of his former sea-mate Big Slim Hazard, a hobo by choice.

“As a little boy he’d seen a hobo come up to ask his mother for a piece of pie, and she had given it to him, and when the hobo went off down the road the little boy had said, “Ma, what is that fellow?” “Why, that’s a ho-bo.” “Ma, I want to be a ho-bo someday.” (p. 26)

MY FAVORITE QUOTES

“If you drop a rose in the Hudson River at its mysterious source in the Adirondacks, think of all the places it journeys by as it goes out to sea forever — think of that wonderful Hudson Valley.” (p. 10)

“We’re going to LA!” they yelled. “What are you going to do there?” “Hell, we don’t know. Who cares?” (p. 23)

“We all had a shot, and suddenly I looked, and the verdant farm-fields of the Platte began to disappear and in their stead, so far you couldn’t see to the end, appeared long flat wastelands of sand and sagebrush. I was astounded.” (p. 25)

“As a little boy he’d seen a hobo come up to ask his mother for a piece of pie, and she had given it to him, and when the hobo went off down the road the little boy had said, “Ma, what is that fellow?” “Why, that’s a ho-bo.” “Ma, I want to be a ho-bo someday.” (p. 26)

“We zoomed through another crossroads town, passed another line of tall lanky men in jeans clustered in the dim light like moths on the desert, and returned to the tremendous darkness, and the stars overhead were pure and bright because of the increasingly thin air as we mounted the high hill of the western plateau, about a foot a mile, so they say, and no trees obstructing any low-leveled stars anywhere.” (p.28)

READ WITH ME

If you’re looking for something to read, or if you’ve already read On the Road, I welcome you to join in the conversation! Let me know about your reading experience and thoughts, or your favorite quotes from the book, in the comments below.

Or, if you don’t want to buy it and want to borrow my Kindle book when I’m done, let me know. I can lend it out for two weeks at a time!

ON THE ROAD: THE MOVIE

When I finish reading, I’ll watch the movie. But not a second before I’m done!

Happy Travel Reads Tuesday!

Current location: Milan, Italy / Next destination: California, USA

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