To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret

by Jedidiah Jenkins

From travel writer and Instagram phenomenon Jedidiah Jenkins, a long-awaited memoir of adventure, failure, and lessons learned while bicycling the 14,000 miles from Oregon to Patagonia.

On the eve of turning thirty, terrified of being sucked into a life he didn't choose, Jedidiah Jenkins quit his dream job and spent the next sixteen months cycling from Oregon to Patagonia. He chronicled the trip on Instagram, where his photos and profound reflections on life soon attracted hundreds of thousands of followers and got him featured by National Geographic and The Paris Review.

In this unflinchingly honest memoir, Jed narrates the adventure that started it all: the people and places he encountered on his way to the bottom of the world, and the internal journey that prompted it--the question of what it means to be an adult; his struggle to reconcile his sexual identity with his conservative Christian upbringing; and his belief in travel as a way to "wake us up" to our lives back home. As he writes in his inspiring search for wonder and a life he could believe in, "It's not about the bike. It's about getting out of your routine--and that could look like anything."

• ISBN13: 9781524761387
• Publish Date: 2 October 2018
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 4 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Convergent
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[g2pro]

Good book, for the most part. I could have used more about the travel and a lot less about his introspection.

[adamfortuna]

A 30-year decides to take a bike trip from Oregon to Patagonia with only what he can carry and a friend. This may sound like a sequel to Motorcycle Diaries, but it’s actually a modern-day adventure with millennials spending time on Intagram.

The drive for travel and adventure gets people moving in different ways. For this author it meant announcing to his friends and coworkers he was going to undertake this adventure - and following trough on it.

While many books of this genre are journeys to “find myself” it felt more as though this were a journey to just do something cool and instagram worthy. To enjoy doing it for sure, but that was more the drive. I felt I could very well empathize with the narrators sometimes controlling behavior and over planning, which can be a hinderance to just enjoying the moment.