Matt Kepnes tells the story of how he got into long term travel, going away for long periods of time, and never coming back for long. He has travelled for cheap in many places, mostly on his own. So he has plenty of experience to relate, about hostels, the locals he met, other travelers, his girlfriends, the times he got scammed, and the difficulties he experienced. But mostly it is about the psychological journey of becoming a nomad, and his rejection of conventional life, which came to seem dull and constrained. At the same time, it is very difficult to maintain the life of a nomad and maintain long term romantic relationships. It is also difficult to make long term plans for one’s later years. He started to blog about his experience and he wrote a guide book to traveling, How to Travel the World on $50 a Day. After many years of traveling, Kepnes started to find that his experience had changed, and he no longer was so keen to meet everyone coming through a hostel. It seems he became a little jaded. He also had a close friend die, who also been a traveller. This made him rethink his life again, and he moved to New York, although he has not stopped traveling.

The unabridged audiobook is performed by Ryan Burke, who brings an energetic sincerity to the 6.5 hour performance. The writing is chatty, and Kepnes aims to illuminate the role of the modern nomad. Unfortunately, he does not have a lot of great insight to say about it, so he ends up with some banalities and a bunch of stories — it turns out that partying gets old after a while. So readers who want to learn about traveling would probably be better off with his guide book. But he seems like a pleasant person and if you like travel stories, this book has plenty.

© 2019 Christian Perring

Christian Perring teaches in NYC.