A week ago I was rooting through my projects folder and I came across something that I had somehow forgotten: a full length book I wrote about Life Nomadic. I gave it a quick read-through and thought, "man... there's some great stuff in here! Why didn't I release it?"
So, I'm going to release it soon. I've spent a good part of the last week doing some light editing, rearranging, and adding in sections that I hadn't quite finished.
The book has a lot of stories and anecdotes in it, but it's really a manual for the nomad or hardcore traveler. It talks about why to be a nomad, what it's like, what to expect, and how to deal with some of the challenges. About half of the book is dedicated to logistics: how to choose gear, how to pack it, where to stay, how to get there, etc.
The best chapter, in my opinion, is the air travel chapter. My goal when writing it was to make the chapter so valuable and practical that the whole book would be worth purchasing, even for someone who only travels once or twice a year. I include every tip and strategy I have for air travel, including a bunch of stuff I've never seen written anywhere else.
The general theme of the book is this: become versatile, see the world and experience everything it has to offer, but do it as cheaply and intelligently as possible. If that resonates with you, you'll probably enjoy the book a lot.
I haven't decided whether I'm going to release it as an ebook, physical book, or both. I thought about breaking it up into several mini books on different travel subjects, but I think that might be annoying.
Once Todd finishes editing it (*nudge* *nudge*) I'll post a really cool video clip from this year's Life Nomadic trip, and I think I'll post a sample chapter or two as well. So if you enjoy Life Nomadic related stuff, you'll have a lot to look forward to in the next couple weeks.
As I mentioned last week, I'm about to release the book version of Life Nomadic! It's just over 150 pages of travel related awesomeness. Here are some of the many topics I talk about in it:
My goal when writing the book was to make it ESSENTIAL reading for any traveler or nomad, but also for it to be VERY valuable to even the casual traveler or for someone who doesn't travel at all (by sharing interesting stories and life philosophies). Some parts of the book cover topics I've covered here, but almost all of it is brand new.
Anyway, I'll go more into detail when I release the book on MONDAY 10/5. For now, enjoy reading the first two chapters. But first....
For years people who came to my place for the first time and looked at my books would be confused. First of all the amount of them would freak people out as they never seem to take me for a reader anyway but also the selection. I'll pretty much read anything.
Now I haven't always been that way. When I was growing up I pretty much only read Stephen King. Sure, they made me read stuff by dutch authors in school but I only read that cause I had to. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that I didn't like anything else, it just never occurred to me to try it. And why should I? There were enough books for me to read that I knew I would enjoy. So I would only add a new author to my reading list if I'd had exhausted the works of whatever author I was into at the time. So for a long time I didn't really expand my reading selection a lot. Only doing that when I had to.
Then one day when I was flying from London to Amsterdam my flight got delayed and my I finished my book before my flight was even boarding. As it wasn't sure when we would start boarding and there was no bookstore near the gate I was waiting at I was stuck without a book. Or rather, I did have some books that I picked up for a friend. She's an English girl that lives in Amsterdam and had given me a list of books to pick up (this is pre internet ordering. Yes, I'm that old ;) ). So technically I was only "without a book I like".
Now for some reason she decided to give me a list of romance novels so I was stuck with 7 of those. As the delay was taking ever longer I eventually opened one of them and started reading and... exactly as I expected, I hated it! Seriously, I forced myself to read the first chapter but then really couldn't handle it anymore. But about 30 minutes later I was so bored that I decided to give another one of the books a try. Again, a romance novel but this one was much better than the first one. I found myself actually getting into the book and before I knew it we were boarding, took off and landed and I was home having finished the book.
That moment though was when something changed. Although I have always known we can't see whether or not we like something (or can do something for that matter) until we've tried it, it wasn't until that moment that the message finally sunk in.
