I've followed Lauren Juliff's blog for several years now. Far from the 'typical' travel blog, Never Ending Footsteps, is full of tales about things that have gone wrong while Lauren has been travelling and they are so littered with humor that you cannot help but giggle while you're reading them. These humorous posts are mixed in with various travelling tips and brilliantly useful monthly travel cost summaries, making it entertaining but informative at the same time. Lauren is an inspiring person, who sold everything she owned, packed her bag and hopped onto a plan whilst clutching a one-way ticket despite suffering with anxiety and despite undergoing problem after problem during her travels. Five years later she is still traveling and not only has a successful blog, a wonderful nomadic lifestyle but she also has a incredibly hilarious, published book called How Not to Travel the World.
The blurb of Lauren's book reads...
I had no life experience, zero common sense and had never eaten rice. I suffered from debilitating anxiety, was battling an eating disorder and had just had my heart broken. I hoped by leaving to travel the world I would be able to heal myself.
Instead, Lauren’s travels were full of bad luck and near-death experiences. Over the space of a year, she was scammed and assaulted; lost teeth and swallowed a cockroach. She fell into leech-infested rice paddies, was caught up in a tsunami, had the brakes of her motorbike fail and experienced a very unhappy ending during a massage in Thailand. It was just as she was about to give up on travel when she stumbled across a handsome New Zealander with a love of challenges...
The book itself is such a fun read, so fun that I read it all in one sitting as I couldn't put it down and I'm fairly sure I had a stitch by the time I reached the final page as I could not stop laughing! But don't let me fool you into thinking that this is a pure comedic read. Aside from being entertaining, Lauren has simultaneously managed to write in such a beautiful and engaging way that it is impossible to not be inspired by her determination to continue on with her travels despite stumbling from disaster to disaster. If I'm ever feeling daunted, scared or uninspired by anything this will definitely be one of the books that I will turn to as on every single page of the book Lauren proves that being scared of something is definitely not an excuse to not do it anyway.
Overall, How Not to Travel the World is a hilarious, witty, well-written and inspiring book.
A must read for absolutely everyone.
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The post Book Review: How Not To Travel The World by Lauren Juliff appeared first on Sweet Serendipity.