Rate this book

The Good Girl's Guide To Getting Lost: A Memoir Of Three Continents, Two Friends, And One Unexpected Adventure (2011)

by Rachel Friedman(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

038534337X (ISBN13: 9780385343374)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Bantam

review 1: I actually read this book at exactly the right time. I really needed it. I have always considered myself a traveler over a vacationer. I have an urge to see the world and learn about all corners of it. The author takes this to another level. I was prepared to not like the book that much; sounded like a spoiled rich girl trying to "find herself" and I was sure would complain about a ton of first world problems. She turned out to be a very insightful writer. I enjoyed her observations about the cultures as well as how they progressively changed her.Like I said I needed it. I am too obsessed with routine and have lost my way in being the free spirit I used to be. I have always been happier while traveling...it's really the means not the ends.Also, SPOILER ********************... more****************It's kind of cool that she marries Martyn at the end. The fact that he wasn't intricate to the story at all makes it so great. Marriage, like travel, is a story that just keeps writing itself.***************************Can't wait to be sleeping in a tent in the Bavarian Forest next week. Back to exploring the world. Thanks for the inspiration.
review 2: I would rate this 2.5 if I could, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and give it a 3. This book feels weird to me. While I did enjoy it, I would often put it down and not return for days or weeks because I dreaded reading it again. I recall enjoying it while reading it, but I can't seem to think of why that was. Eventually I finished it because I didn't want to leave another book half read.So here's the deal. Stuffy, 20-something year old Rachel Friedman does something that is apparently completely out of character for her and moves to Ireland for four months. There she meets her complete opposite, the adventurous and carefree Australian, not to mention travel-junkie, Carly Dawson. The girls strike an instant friendship and after Friedman returns to America to finish her degree, the two spend a year living and travelling together.Here is what I enjoyed: I liked the authour's voice even though she got on my nerves sometimes. She had a very dry, sarcastic sense of humour. She reminded me a lot of myself, in fact. I also liked the philosophical musings she discusses in the book, having to do with finding one's place in the world, carving out your own life and facing your fears.Here is what I did not enjoy:While the authour was a good writer and had an amusing sense of humour, most of the time she came off as a bit self entitled. She spends the entire book complaining and stressing. Through this, she claims that travel is changing her and that is has become a passion, yet she seems miserable the entire time and continually makes rookie traveler mistakes even after months of wandering. She seemed only to be traveling because she had nothing better to do and didn't want to face the unknown waiting her back in the US. I think I would prefer to have read this from Carly's point of view. I also did not like the way her travel stories were laid out. More than half the book is not actual traveling, but merely the authour moving to countries that are not culturally unlike America and living the average life that she fears so much. Besides that, we never get to read about the activities she does in the road, and when we do, it's only the activities that A) almost cause her death, B) she hated or C) made her terrified. I feel as if this book is one giant description of the authour moving between places. She spends 17 hours on a bus, then stops in this town on her way to this town from which she plans on travelling by train to this country. It got very monotonous and I find myself not caring where she went because she alway did the exact same thing: drank in pubs and slept in hostels. I feel like her descriptions of hostels are more vivid than those of countries.All in all, not a terrible book, but it didn't get my heart pumping like really well written travel memoirs do. I liked it enough that I would be interested in reading other travel writings she may publish, but not enough that I would pick this up if I was in need of some travel inspiration. less

Download links for: The Good Girl's Guide to Getting Lost: A Memoir of Three Continents, Two Friends, and One Unexpected Adventure

Advertising