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Blue Highways: A Journey into America Paperback – October 19, 1999

by William Least Heat-Moon (Foreword), William Least Heat Moon (Author)

471 customer reviews

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Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads.
William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi."
His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.

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About the Author

William Least Heat-Moon is the author of the bestselling classics Roads to Quoz, Blue Highways, River Horse, and PrairyEarth. He lives in Columbia, Missouri.

Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Back Bay Books; 1st Back Bay pbk. ed edition (October 19, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780316353298
ISBN-13: 978-0316353298
ASIN: 0316353299
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 471 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14 in Books > Travel > Food, Lodging & Transportation > Road Travel
- #42 in Books > Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Writing > Travel
- #45 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Culinary

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KarenEvans

Wonderful, Lesser Known Travel Memoir

September 20, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

There are different books to read during different seasons; I read a lot of travel memoirs in the summer and this one was a masterpiece! Bill’s wife leaves him and he loses his job as an English professor around the same time so he decides to take off alone on a road trip around America following what he calls the “blue highways”, roads that are blue on an atlas or essentially country highways. He avoids all expressways. Along the way he meets a host of interesting characters and documents his conversations with them and discusses the various restaurants where he dines; he determined that the more calendars a diner has, the better the food. Whenever I read during quiet time at the daycare, my students always excitedly ask me what is happening in my book. Unfortunately, they got a bit sick of me telling them that Bill was eating again, although I loved his descriptions of diner grub. His visit to a monastery was my favorite section of the book as he documented his conversation with a monk asking him about why he chose that lifestyle. I have an interest in stepping into other people’s shoes and seeing how people live differently in various communities so I found it fascinating. I think this curiosity is one reason I moved to country; I had never lived in the country before.

23 people found this helpful

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Ellen Drake

I can identify

October 23, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I love meeting people and I love going places. I'm the kind who, when out and about on an errand or toward a destination, sees a narrow shady road branching off the highway and wonders what's down that road. Moon's book takes me down those roads, introduces me to people I, too, would like to meet. I've recommended this book to so many people--both after my first reading when it first came out (I gave a copy to my husband's grandmother) and again now. I don't know what they're teaching in literature, writing, and culture classes these days--not to mention U.S. history--but I think this book could easily be fit into any of those courses. Book clubs should read it. I so wished I had someone to read it with so that I could share my thoughts on what I was getting out of it. I shared many passages on FB and others with my best friend (Kindle makes it easy). This is a book to read slowly, savoring the skillful writing, the apt descriptions, the colorful characters, the "philosophizing." I loved this book. Can you tell? I'll read it again and again.

15 people found this helpful

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Philip Atlas Clausen

Gritty blue collar snapshot of America in 1982

February 4, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Very gritty blue collar snapshot of America in 1982. Least Heat-Moon needed to get away from home in Missouri where his marriage and career were disintegrating so he took this circular trip around the USA to clear his head and in so doing created one of the great travelogues of all time. He's not visiting glamour spots or drinking destinations of the travel brochures. He's down, lost and confused. He wants to see how real people are living and getting on with life and maybe get a clue about his own place in life. And since he's limited himself to the back roads, the blue-lines on the map, he meets mostly blue collars in the little out of the way places. A delightful plus and surprise to me was he took photo snapshots of the people he met and included them in the book. The man has a photographic mind for detail and dialog which got a little overwhelming at times.

10 people found this helpful

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W. R. Wakefield

For those who love America

July 18, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

If you love this country, and can put his writings from before 1980 in context with today's social climate,you will love the book. It should be read with an atlas close by or, better yet, Google maps. It is richly rewarding to follow on a map or even aerial photograph exactly where the author travels. The interaction and dialog with fascinating people is rewarding. Much has changed in the almost 40 years since "the drive" was made but this only makes the contrast more poignant. A beautifully crafted book.

7 people found this helpful

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R. Collord

Very well researched, lots of historical facts. Personally ...

November 12, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Very well researched, lots of historical facts. Personally I wish it had a little more on the trip itself, but I realize that wasn't his goal. Very different from Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, yet also similar. Both books get bogged down in philosophical matters I don't care about.

5 people found this helpful

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cosmikat

You can follow this trip on Google Earth by finding landmarks described in the text

October 24, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I love to read travelogues. This one is about a circular trip around the United States in a van, in the late 1970s (I think, the 70s. Maybe early 80s). There are descriptions of areas that I looked up on Google Earth and was entertained for hours while following these roadways to see what Least Heat-Moon was seeing. The author is an English major -- a professor, I believe -- and writes with an intellectual wittiness that I much appreciate. This particular book is beginning to age and yellow a bit, which makes me feel a little sad, because this book should definitely be reprinted and kept refreshed for more people to read.

2 people found this helpful

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Chloe Patton

A beautiful book

August 20, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I first read this book when it came out in 1981 and I was 41 years old. And I loved it. Since then I've read it at least six times including recently. I am now 77 years old. Each time I read it I see things from a different perspective. It's a beautiful book.

4 people found this helpful

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Bowser BTop Contributor: Photography

On the old highway maps... That's all you need to know!

April 16, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

If you think you might want to take an American road trip, buy and read this first. If you have no interest in road trips, buy and read this, and see if you don't change your mind. I've given this book as a gift probably half a dozen times...and been enthusiastically thanked later every time. Maybe I pick the right people to receive it, or maybe this book is universally appealing. If you've read it already, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't read it, it's not too late. Over thirty years old now, it's as pertinent today as it ever was.

One person found this helpful

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