Only Pack What You Can Carry: My Path To Inner Strength, Confidence, And True Self-Knowledge (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Even though I continued on for a few more chapters (finally giving up due to excessive and extreme preachiness), she really lost me on page 48.You see, earlier she'd barely managed to survive a couple of nearly fatal incidences (one a horse-riding accident, one a bout with disease) by willing herself to stay alive because "this was not how she wanted to die". Then she travels to Costa Rica, where she ends up riding a half-wild crazed horse through ocean surf while wearing a swimsuit and dangling a sarong behind her with one hand. This was to capture the perfect photograph for an advertising campaign. She's terrified she's going to fall, she's in physical pain, and she can't get the horse into the desired gallop, because she knows if she does, she might actually be killed. And then she realizes: dying to capture an advertising campaign's photo is a "worthy exit", somehow completely unlike dying in her previous horse-related accident, or dying of a disease. Upon which realization, she loses all fear and opens herself up to the experience.Whatever. I was ultimately disappointed in this book. I started out really enjoying the author's story; I loved that she had been a plucky little girl who loved horses and adventure, and that she was looking to reconnect with that part of herself as a grown woman. She has an interesting life story. But she lost me when she strayed away from her own insights and experiences to give background on famous historical figures, from John Muir to Mother Teresa. Those parts felt like filler to me, as did the exercises at the end of each section. She also spent too much time on some adventures and not enough on others, and she wasn't clear about chronology. At one point in the book she has an epiphany – after losing her job – that she wants to take time off to travel the world. I was excited to read about that journey, but she never wrote of it again. I found that hugely disappointing. I love reading about people who leave it all behind to explore the world, so I felt seriously let down that she didn't share that experience, if it even ever happened. I guess we'll never know. There was also less actual travel in this book than I had assumed, considering it's a National Geographic book. Most of her trips are within the U.S.
What do You think about Only Pack What You Can Carry: My Path To Inner Strength, Confidence, And True Self-Knowledge (2011)?
I just won a free copy of this from Goodreads - looking forward to readiing it!
—Samantha
inspirational! makes you want to challenge yourself and travel.
—Sheath
