One Year Off

When I spent the weekend in Haarlem at my friend Maggie's house, I noticed a book on her shelf called, One Year Off: Leaving It All Behind for a Round-the-World Journey with Our Children.

Their one-year journey makes my one-year journey seem like a cake walk!

Maggie said the author, David Elliot Cohen, and his wife:

• quit their jobs
• sold their house and belongings
• took their kids out of school
• traveled around the world for a year
• came back to their home town
• landed new jobs
• bought a new house and new belongings
• and put their kids back in school

Can you imagine doing that?

I love this quote from the beginning of his book, "Disengaging from your normal routine and establishing an entirely new way of life is a full-time job for months on end."

Amen.

Other posts about get-out-of-your-box books:

• Just one word: Walden.


• If you travel as a tourist you risk being quarantined in the bus and quarantined in the hotel. Don't follow the formula. Try Lonely Planet's Experimental Travel.


• The Urban Camping book tells the story of how the Tombrowski family "got-out-of-their-car." They've walked everywhere since 1998 when they sold their vehicle.


• The Art of Travel is a collection of nine essays divided into five categories, "Departure," "Motives," "Landscape," "Art," and "Return." Apparently difficult to read, but I love the categories.


• Dan Ho went from being a homeless nine-year-old in Guam, as a result of a typhoon, to being a successful Michigan restaurant owner who built a big Prairie School style house, to selling the house and reducing his possessions down to 55 belongings. He wrote a book called Rescue from Domestic Perfection.


• Finding the Open Road: A Guide to Self Construction Rather Than Mass Production is a book written by young college grads who sought individuality in their career paths. They interviewed a lot of famous people. Their work has become a student movement in the USA as well as a documentary series.

So, do nomads have books? Or do they just get books deals?

Technorati tag: urban camping, one year off, travel, nomad, open source, art, lifestyle, individuality, walden, philosophy, urban jungle, camping