Sunday, March 23, 2014

Head in the books.

I have had my head in the books lately.  Well, in one book and in my kindle to be more accurate.  In the past 2 weeks I have started and finished two books.  I read Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Walden on Wheels by Ken Ilgunas.  I guess I should clarify.  I partially read Wild.  When I read the backcover it spoke about her overcoming some difficulties with her mother's death and hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.  Turns out most of the book is about her constant whining from being ill prepared, drug use and complete ignorance regarding hiking.  I ended up skipping most of the pages of the book whenever she was rambling about her past and tried to read the poorly described trail descriptions.  I gave up on the book with two chapters left and moved on to Walden on Wheels.  It was clearly written by an educated writer that has ability to describe his surroundings, feelings and thoughts with ease.  Walden on Wheels tells Ken's story about graduating with his undergraduate degree and thousands of dollars in debt.  He becomes so bothered by the debt and the inability to get a job related to his degree that he travels to Alaska and works minimum wage jobs for three years to pay his debt in its entirety before getting accepted into a PhD program at Duke.  He then lives in a van on Duke's campus parking lot for the next 2.5 years staying out of debt.  Naturally, Duke now has a law against anyone living in their vehicle on campus.  His story is very well written, his adventures in the summer with work in Alaska and other nature oriented jobs add the little bit of outdoorsy-ness that I enjoy reading.  His book is also inspiring about ways that others can simplify their life to decrease their debt and to feel a new type of "freedom."
Now, it's time to charge my kindle and try to find a new book.  What good books have you ready lately?  Please leave a comment below.

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