Why “Wanders with Josh?”

When I was young my fondest fantasy was travel. As a kid, I had a set of eight sizeable rocks lined up in my backyard as a property border, though to me they were far more. Almost every day after school I would tell my mom, “I’m going to walk my rocks,” and would for hours. I hopped across those rocks as one island-hops Greece, then I’d skip over to the Caribbean to find Long John Silver’s treasure, then to the wilderness of Romania to explore Dracula’s castle. By straddling that border I could go anywhere.

My life since then has been more than fortunate. Like the Princes of Serendip, my seeking of a good thing has consistently led me to better. Travel goals that seemed a lifetime away as a kid are now doable for me, though as I’ve grown my satisfaction walking alone has waned. Rather than hopping into someone else’s stories, I can now create my own to share. 

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Perhaps one of the most fortunate aspects of my life was the time and place in which I was raised. I’ve never had a lack of great literature to read. Here are just some of the books that I strongly recommend:

Travel

• Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
• Wilderness Essays by John Muir
• Travels in Alaska by John Muir
• Travels with Charlie in Search of America by John Steinbeck

NOVEL

• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith
• Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• The Sun Also Rise by Earnest Hemingway

MEMOIR

• Holy Land by D.J. Waldie
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau
• A Moveable Feast by Earnest Hemingway