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An eye-opening and fascinating journey from an acclaimed travel writer who circled the globe without ever leaving the ground.
In this age of globalism and high-speed travel, Seth Stevenson, the witty, thoughtful Slate travel columnist, takes us back to a time when travel meant putting one foot in front of the other, racing to make connections between trains and buses in remote transit stations, and wading through the chaos that most long-haul travelers float 35,000 feet above. Stevenson winds his way around the world by biking, walking, hiking, riding in rickshaws, freight ships, cruise ships, ancient ferries, buses, and the Trans-Siberian Railway-but never gets on an airplane.
He finds that from the ground, one sees the world anew-with a deeper understanding of time, distance, and the vastness of the earth. In this sensational travelogue, each step of the journey is an adventure, full of unexpected revelations in every new port, at every bend in the railroad tracks, and around every street corner.
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Anyone familiar with Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days will already know the basic premise of Stephenson’s book: an around-the-world voyage in which we visit strange lands, meet unusual people, and have interesting adventures. Unlike Phileas Fogg, however, Stevenson and his traveling companion (his girlfriend, Rebecca) have no deadline: they can take as long as they want to make their way around the globe. But, like Fogg, they intend to stay earthbound the entire time (his balloon trip wasn’t on the original agenda), eschewing airplanes for cargo freighters, buses, bicycles, and other terrestrial forms of transportation. It’s a very entertaining story, told in a spirited, engaging style (the author is an experienced travel writer). While falling in the very contemporary category of “extreme travel,” this entertaining account manages to combine a hip modern approach with a charming nostalgic feel. A must for armchair travelers. --David Pitt
Review
While falling in the very contemporary category of "extreme travel," this entertaining account manages to combine a hip modern approach with a charming nostalgic feel. A must for armchair travelers. --Booklist
Stevenson's writing is full of charm and humor... In an age when everything has to be done yesterday, it's nice to know that there are still people wandering the globe who feel that getting somewhere could be more than half the fun. --Library Journal
I'm a contributing writer for Slate. My work has also appeared in the New York Times, New York, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, and other wonderful (and less wonderful, and in some cases defunct) publications. I've received multiple Lowell Thomas awards from the Society of American Travel Writers, been excerpted three times in the Best American Travel Writing series, was nominated for a Digital National Magazine Award, and won the 2005 Online Journalism Award for commentary. I grew up in Brookline, Mass., graduated from Brown University and the Columbia Journalism School, and live in New York.
I picked this book up because I love both traveling and reading about travel. The premise seemed excellent - "let's travel around the world without once setting foot on an airplane." As someone who flies a lot, I can understand the motivation.
At first I was intrigued by the nuances of alternative travel...how does one book passage on an ocean-going freighter??? These insights were interesting at first.
I didn't get a real sense of the wanderlust of the author and his mate, but rather got a sense that the motivation was...hey I have an idea for a book, let's use that as an excuse to travel.
No problem with that, until they get out on their adventure and set out to be the most anti-Will Rogers types I've come across in a long time. The author and his girlfirend set out to demonstrate that they never met a man (woman) they ever liked!
Much of the book is Mr. Stevenson attempting to demonstrate his humor and wit by denigrating everyone he meets. He & his mate make fun of the Russian girl announcing over the speaker on the Estonian ferry that a face-painting activity is about to begin - hilarious! Here's a fellow from the U.S., who more than likely doesn't speak Russian or Estonian, making fun of an employee offering a fun activity to children, and respite to their parents, in English. This is just the beginning, as he has insulting descriptions of everyone he meets...on Russian trains, on buses, on cruise ships ("assist me in ridiculing these fogeys" p.218 - even while accepting their hospitality). This author has a snarky attitude which I am certain he believes is clever and witty.
It's humorous to Google him and find him writing an article for Slate in 2006 discussing the "mean-spirited" Apple ad......Stevenson epitomizes mean-spiritedness in this book.
When reading the book you keep looking for adventure...but it never really comes. Basically his job was to circumnavigate the globe without flying, and he succeeded - even if he did leave his girlfriend behind so that he could catch a departing ship. What a swell guy, I guess we now know that her chance of accomplishing the circumnavigation was not a priority for him.
In many places they don't "have time" to stop and see anything...they are the worst sort of travelers in this book - "check it off, so we can say we did it."
Their travels ended with a whimper...back to their wonky D.C. worlds of writing for Slate (which I like) and working as an attorney.
This book is about nothing more than Stevenson saying "look at me, look at me...I can leave a perfectly safe & prosperous Gen Y life behind for a few months, complain about everyone I meet, insult them, write a book that other snarky people might enjoy, and hope for some more of those prestigious 'Lowell Thomas' awards."
If you want to read real travel writing - that sometimes is dark, but analytical and insightful, then save your money on Stevenson and read Paul Theroux.
If you want to read humorous travel writing - well written & inspired by a genuine delight in travel, adventure, and meeting people and making friends then read Bill Bryson.
The ultimate irony of this book offering...the title - Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World - could not be more misleading. I expected a a payoff of the potential of the double entendre in the title: a clever travel premise - circumnavigate without flying, and a "grounded" author sharing his adventures. Stevenson isn't grounded, he thinks he's better, smarter, and more clever than everyone he meets. Good luck to him.Read more ›
I read this book while on a long-haul flight, and the author rambling along about why he dislikes modern air travel got me hooked. However, apart from the fact that a young couple without financial problems (locating the closest ATM seems to be the major thrill here) travels round the globe, there doesn't happen much. A pre-booked cycling tour of Vietnam, a ride on Japan's high speed train or a trip on a luxury cruiseship? Ordinary hotel rooms and a rent-a-car trip across Australia? I had expected a little more adventure!
Seth Stevenson and his wife Rebecca are horrendous travellers.
This may seem like a stern judgment, but when you write an entire hackneyed, vapid book about your empty sneering travels, around the globe without an airplane (gasp!) -- you pretty much write about yourself, and invite judgment, or about people, culture, art, conversation, the world, and invite wonder.
He made the wrong choice. One gets the sense, reading this book, that the author and his wife have exactly zero ability to engage in or record interesting conversations with people they meet. They do not elicit interaction. They chunk down their world tour in great bites of sitting in trains and ferries. They never move much beyond the quotidian, drinking with various other travelers. They offer no insights, no percipient commentary on the world.
On this journey, the star couple are bruited about like a couple of suitcases, moved along the longitudes of the world higgledy-piggledy. You get the sense that the author NEVER has an interesting conversation to offer fellow travelers, that he is sort of taciturn. You get an NPR sense of sneering self-satisfaction.
At one point he is proud to be mistaken for a native German, and to have avoided white socks and shorts, being seen as a north american. Yet he is oblivious to the fact that he cannot speak the language, and that his worldliness is a matter of dressing himself in the right costume.
At one point, he notes that there sure are a lot of containers moving on the container ships of the world.
At one point, in order to keep his lame "no airplanes" rule, he leaves his wife behind and forces her to take an airplane to catch up. Charming, IF you admire the goal and the man.... Lame, and totally self-centered, if you find his trip less than compelling.
The author fails the key question asked of all travel writers: OK, you went there. So what?
He can be funny, in a sarky way, but he is never percipient, never engaged, lacks an eye for the key detail, the crucial dialogue. He is a boar and a bore, in an approved east-coast insular fashion. You would not want to travel with him, and nor do you want to read about his self-involved travels.
The concept of this book is really interesting: a couple decided to travel around the world using only surface transportation, including cargo ships, the Trans-Siberian Railroad, bikes, bullet trains, and buses. Great idea, right? Just thinking about it makes me green with envy, which is why I was so disappointed when the book fell short. The singular focus of this book is *how* they made their journey, and it reflects almost zero insight about what they saw along the way.
I had expected that one of the factors in choosing this unusual method of world travel would be the opportunity to encounter people from other cultures at a slower, more reflective pace, and to get a more authentic picture of everyday life in those places. Ideally, ground travel would give you more time to learn about the history and culture of a place and a better opportunity to gather some perspectives about what's really special about a country or a region. As a reader, I was hoping for the vicarious thrill of hearing about the local people they met along the way, the foods they ate, the music they had never heard before, or the local holiday celebrations that they saw or participated in. And I expected some insights about the way that a more gentle pace of travel contributed to their ability to understand and appreciate those things.
Instead, the book was about an endurance exercise in continual motion and travel logistics. Even though they never took to the air, these two people were in a big rush, and it seemed like they barely experienced anything interesting or learned anything noteworthy in the course of their travels. It didn't even sound like they enjoyed large parts of the trip because of their relentless drive to continue moving.... They arrived in Auckland, New Zealand in one ship right before their next ship departed, so they spent one hour in the city shopping for clothing appropriate for a cruise. They drove from the west coast of Australia to the east coast in four days, barely stopping for sleep and meals (although the author didn't miss the chance to say condescending things about the people who live in such a remote part of the Outback). They spent something like nine days at sea to reach Europe, and when they arrived in Belgium, they were gone in a matter of hours. In fact, the full extent of their efforts to experience anything in the city of their arrival was to pick up a free map at the tourist center, go to a fountain with a few sculptures, and proceed to ridicule it. Where they did stay in place for any length of time, they seemed to spend most of their time drunk with other travelers. While I have nothing against that, why would I be interested in reading about it?
In a world travel memoir, you'd presume that the travel logistics would be pretty much the least interesting element of the trip, and yet in this book, I read pages and pages of the author's grievances about air travel, their difficulties scheduling cargo ship departures, and why they hate American rail travel. Most of those grievances are legitimate, no question about it, but they overtake the book and don't delve any deeper into the subject that a typical gripe session in line at the ticket counter of an airport after one's flight has been cancelled.
I kept hoping that the book would improve, but it never did. I loved the idea of what they were trying to accomplish, but it just seemed as though these two people were too shallow to appreciate what a wonderful opportunity they let slip away. I still hope that somebody writes this book the way it should be written, and when they do, I can't wait to read it.Read more ›
