5 Books for Adventurous People

Looking for more books to keep you on track with your adventures or inspire you to go off on some adventures of your own? Here are a few books which are hotly recommended.

You can find them at a library near you or check out my Amazon list 5 Books for Adventurous People if you’d like to lay your sticky paws on them.

I read and read but I only write about the best books here so you can rest assured if you’re after a good read that’s what these books will deliver.

Great Books for Adventurous People

1. Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Ordinary Craziness by Jon Ronson

Just the kind of book I’d like to write and one I loved reading. If there’s a funny, creative non-fiction category in your local book shop you’ll find this book here.

Jon Ronson is a British journalist who pokes fun at himself but not at the subjects of his stories, no matter how ludicrous they are. Quirky, interesting and a fun read.

2. The Psychopath Test: a Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson

I liked Out of the Ordinary so much I decided to read another book by Jon Ronson and this seemed like a good choice for someone who’s been touched by madness. My brush with madness (in the form of depression) and my first ever visits with a shrink this year have been good for me.

There’s strong evidence that talk therapy can work as well as drugs to treat depression and anxiety. But my first shrink had a thing about commitment therapy while the shrink I’m seeing now in group therapy is into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

It looks like psychotherapy, much like anything, evolves and changes so it’s important to shop around and know what you’re getting into before you go to see the shrink.

And be warned – if you’re even the teeniest bit suspicious about the world of psychotherapy this book could tip you over the edge into paranoia.

Another great read which you can find on Amazon here.

3. Fat, 40 and Fired: the year I lost my job and got a life by Nigel Marsh

Fun story about a British dad who moves to Sydney, Australia from the UK for work, loses his job and decides to stay home with the kids instead.

I loved reading a book by a man who gets the whole work, life, parenting balance and had a few chuckles too. This book definitely help remind me to how to start feeling  happy again.

4. Overworked and Underlaid: a Seriously Funny Guide to Life by Nigel Marsh

Just like with Jon Ronson’s book I enjoyed Nigel Marsh’s first book so much I decided to read the sequel. I didn’t enjoy it as much though, partly because there was less story and more philosophizing but also because the quit-your-job-live-the-simple-family-life hero ends up going back to his high flying job and fat pay check.

That was disappointing for someone who’s focus is living your dream in a material world. I know it’s a more realistic outcome but it’s sad that modern parents can’t just work nine to five so we can have family and relaxation time every day AND earn enough money to support the lifestyle we want. This is no reflection on the author and his choice because we all have to make our own decisions, it’s just a sad fact about the times we live in.

I’ve read that my parent’s generation will be the last wealthy generation and as a working parent it’s hard to live with less and know you’re giving your children less than you had yourself.

I sometimes struggle with the lifestyle choice we’ve made to live in Noosa and earn less so we can spend more time with our kids. I often wonder if I’m doing the right thing and should be earning more to buy them all the stuff they want, get a bigger house and be able to afford more holidays. Sadly this book fed into that fear.

I can feel my stomach clenching as I write this now and I love that the book make me question life. If you’re not afraid to tackle the thorny issues and want a little potted happiness to get you by hard times this is a good read.

5. Call of the Weird by Louis Theroux

If you love Louis Theroux’s TV documentaries about offbeat American subcultures then you’ll enjoy Call of the Weird in which he checks back in with a few of his subjects to see how they’re getting on.

If you’re not familiar with Louis Theroux, you’re interested in culture and anthropology and you like to laugh then you’ll probably love him as much as I do so you should definitely check him out. That’s Theroux in a press shot for Call of the Weird up top.

The blurb says is a book about “returning, reconsidering – revisiting, literally and figuratively.” It’s about Louis’s point of view as a half-American, half-British which makes him “half-outsider, half-insider”.

I enjoyed his thoughts on what is weird since I’ve have a few thoughts on being weird myself. This is Theroux’s take:

“Weirdness is a form of belief or a practice that isn’t merely outside the mainstream but is also in some way self-sabotaging.” And if people could “shake off their beliefs and start to become normal.”

The epilogue also has some great truisms:

“But people don’t change their beliefs easily. Even when their deepest convictions are challenged – by the failure of the world to end for example – they continue on their way, sticking to the old routine. They get back on their Weird bikes and ride again.”

Theroux says this tendency is all about the power of emotion to drive our reactions:

“”Have you ever argued with a member of the flat earth society?” a self-help guru named Ross Jeffries once asked me. “It’s completely futile, because fundamentally they don’t care if something is true or false. To them, the measure of truth is how important it makes them feel. If telling the truth  makes them feel important, then it’s true. If telling the truth makes them feel small and ashamed, then it’s false.” My experience on my trip has borne this out. On the list of qualities necessary to humans trying to make their way through life, truth scores fairly low. Why do people believe and do weird things? Because in the end, feeling alive is more important than telling the truth. We have evolved as living creatures to express ourselves, to be creative, to tell stories. We are instruments for feeling, faith, energy, emotion, significance, belief but not really truth.

As noted by both Shakespeare and Elvis, the world is a stage we walk upon. We are all, in a way, fictional characters who write ourselves with our beliefs.”

Then there’s a great line which sums up why so often we can’t stop thinking about the places we went on our travels and the people we met. Theroux ends by writing:

“I would never stop musing over cups of tea, and wondering what became of the people I met; the journey was ongoing and endless.”

I hope you find some good reads for your summer or winter holiday. You can find them all on Amazon here. As usual don’t forget to let me know if you’ve read any good books for, about or by adventurous people. If so leave a comment below. We’d love to hear from you.

Happy reading and travels until next time!

Annabel

PS. And if those books for adventurous people above don’t hit the mark check out my other book recommendations:

• 5000 Words and Five Books on Mindfulness
• 10 Books That Will Change Your Life
• 17 Great Books for Travellers, Writers and Fiction Readers
• 5 Hot Books I Loved Reading

Have you read any good books recently? What can you recommend to us? Leave a comment thank you.