Step By Step: The Life in My Journeys, by Simon Reeve
Published by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 6th September 2018
Genres: Nonfiction, biography, autobiography, travel, adventure
Format: Hardback
Source: Gift
I love the subtitle of this book!! So many people would talk about their life in journeys, but I just love the idea of exploring the life in your journeys. That is usually what I remember from my travels, that day we got ridiculously lost and ended up in some random place, or the time we almost got stuck in a National Park in remote Namibia because of the bad roads, or the people I meet along the way. Those things make much more lasting memories than the famous landmarks and must-see attractions.
“the further you go from the tourist traps the warmer the welcome and the more authentic and unforgettable the experience. (…) It’s also a guaranteed way of tingling your senses, enhancing your life and gifting you a huge stack of memories, encounters and experiences.”
I knew nothing about Simon Reeve before reading his autobiography, which was gifted to me as a Secret Santa present. But since finishing the book I have watched a number of his documentaries because I found his descriptions of them very interesting and inspiring.
In his book, Reeve is very candid about the difficulties he faced as a young man, struggling with problems at home, lack of education and depression. His journey from unemployed school drop-out to TV presenter for the BBC is very inspiring and shows what you can achieve through hard work.
This was a real page-turner and I read through it really quickly. The descriptions of his adventures abroad filming for the BBC were so vivid that you could almost imagine yourself there with him and definitely made me want to see the programmes and places for myself.
In particular, I was intrigued by his Meet the Stans series, focusing on Central Asia. This is a region which I am desperate to visit so I found it very interesting to read about his experiences there.
All in all, it was a great travel and adventure autobiography, well-written and captivating!
My rating: 5/5