On Wanderlust and Vagabonding with Kansas Travel Author Rolf Potts

Legendary travel writer and Kansas native Rolf Potts returns to the Raven for the first time in years to share his brand new book The Vagabond's Way: 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel. Audience Q&A will follow an author presentation; copies will be available for sale and signing. 

All in-store Raven events require masks and proof of vaccination for entry. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Thought-provoking reflections on the power of travel to transform our daily lives—from the iconoclastic travel writer, scholar, and author of Vagabonding

For readers who dream of travel—or long to get back out on the road—The Vagabond's Way explores and celebrates the life-altering essence of travel. Each day of the year features a one-page meditation on a certain aspect of the journey, anchored by words of wisdom from a variety of thinkers—from Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger and poet Maya Angelou, to Trappist monk Thomas Merton and Grover from Sesame Street.

Throughout the year, Rolf Potts embraces the ragged-edged, harder-to-quantify aspects of travel that inevitably change travelers' lives for the better, in unexpected ways. Daily topics include reinventing "bucket lists" and saving money before the journey, improvising itineraries and navigating technology on the road, and keeping the spirit of the journey alive when you get home. The book's various sections mirror the phases of a trip, including: 

  • Dreaming and planning the journey: "All life-affecting journeys—and the unexpected wonders they promise—become real the moment you decide they will happen."
  • Embracing the rhythms of the journey: "The most poignant experiences on the road don't occur in the presence of some grand monument, but in those quiet moments when we recognize beauty in the ordinary."
  • Finding richer travel experiences: "Developing an instinct to venture beyond the obvious on the road allows you to see places not merely as checklists of sights to be visited—but as mysteries to be investigated."

The Vagabond's Way is meant to sustain the mindset of a journey, even when one isn’t able to travel. This unique philosophical guide will compel readers to see travel as an ongoing metaphor for life itself, and to bring the lessons of travel back into the context of their home lives.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rolf Potts is the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel. His adventures have taken him to six continents, and he has reported from more than sixty countries for National Geographic Traveler, The New Yorker, Slate, Outside, The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, Sports Illustrated, and the Travel Channel. Rolf’s stories have appeared in numerous literary anthologies, and more than twenty of his essays have been selected as “Notable Mentions” in The Best American Essays, The Best American Non-Required Reading, and The Best American Travel Writing. He is based in north-central Kansas, where he keeps a small farmhouse on thirty acres with his wife, Kansas-born actress Kristen Bush.

Event date: 
Wednesday, October 5, 2022 - 7:00pm
Event address: 
809 Massachusetts St
Lawrence, KS 66044
The Vagabond's Way: 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel By Rolf Potts Cover Image
$28.99
ISBN: 9780593497456
Availability: In stock at our distributor’s warehouse; will be at the Raven in 3-10 bus. days! More at ravenbookstore.com/ordering-faqs
Published: Ballantine Books - October 4th, 2022

“Thought-provoking, encouraging, and inspiring” (Gretchen Rubin) reflections on the power of travel to transform our daily lives—from the iconoclastic travel writer, scholar, and author of Vagabonding


Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel By Rolf Potts, Timothy Ferriss (Foreword by) Cover Image
By Rolf Potts, Timothy Ferriss (Foreword by)
$17.00
ISBN: 9780812992182
Availability: In stock at our distributor’s warehouse; will be at the Raven in 3-10 bus. days! More at ravenbookstore.com/ordering-faqs
Published: Ballantine Books - December 24th, 2002

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • With a new foreword by Tim Ferriss • “Vagabonding easily remains in my top-10 list of life-changing books. Why? Because one incredible trip, especially a long-term trip, can change your life forever.


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