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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The name serves an ulterior purpose as well. Anyone who has had the misfortune of being trapped in a conversation with me knows the conversation is liable to wander. Along with my physical wanders this website is, in part, dedicated to the mental wanders that preoccupy much of my life. 

The Writers who Have Inspired Me


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

 

 

POETRY
  • Omeros by Derek Walcott
  • War Music by Christopher Logue
  • Search Party: Collected Poems by William Matthews
  • Dark Harbor by Mark Strand
  • Geography iii by Elizabeth Bishop
  • Meditations in an Emergency by Frank O’Hara