I really enjoyed this honest look into what the past decade has been like for Matt, aka Nomadic Matt. It’s been a pleasure watching his journey over the last several years, and this book does a great job summing up the good, the bad, & the beautiful.

I admire Matt for being able to go out and just do what a lot of people dream of doing. But it got so repetitive for me and boring. I just couldn't get invested in this book.

I requested and received this book from #netgalley and #stmartinspress last year. Regretfully, I was not able to read it immediately. I enjoyed reading this mostly memoir with a touch of travelogue story of the authors 10 years of traveling around the world. He focused on the relationships he formed while traveling more than the places and sights. In doing so, he also examined his own life and reasons for his desire to travel rather than follow the traditional path of college and career. I found the book insightful and will look more from this author. #matthewkepnes #bookstagram #biographies #memoirs

<b><big>*****SPOILERS*****</b></big>
<b>Release Date:</b> July 16, 2019
<b>Genre:</b> travel biography
<b>Rating:</b> 🎃🎃 2.0

<b>About the book:</b> Matthew Kepnes knows what it feels like to get the travel bug. After meeting some travelers on a trip to Thailand in 2005, he realized that living life meant more than simply meeting society's traditional milestones, such as buying a car, paying a mortgage, and moving up the career ladder. Inspired by them, he set off for a year-long trip around the world before he started his career. He finally came home after ten years. Over 500,000 miles, 1,000 hostels, and 90 different countries later, Matt has compiled his favorite stories, experiences, and insights into this travel manifesto. Filled with the color and perspective that only hindsight and self-reflection can offer, these stories get to the real questions at the heart of wanderlust. Travel questions that transcend the basic "how-to," and plumb the depths of what drives us to travel — and what extended travel around the world can teach us about life, ourselves, and our place in the world.

<b>What I Liked:</b>
1. It's a travel book
2. He started off with the same complaints that many workers have.

<b>What I Didn't Like:</b>
1. It came off pretentious
2. He doesn't understand the real world
3. It was repetitive and boring.

<b>Overall Thoughts:</b> We started off great and then by page 30 I was annoyed. Who was this person to tell people that if we wanted to travel (not just travel) but live by backpack that we all could. That the world isn't a scary place. Matt doesn't take in account that the world is a scary place for women and people of color. People who have children to feed can't drop their jobs to travel living on scrapes. The book jumps a lot from thought to thought. In one he talks about quiting his job and then saving money. Saving money? How you have none coming in? Oh by that point he decides that his dream is going to involve his parents supporting him financially as he moves home to save money. So even though his parents don't believe in him doing any of this they now have to support him and pay for his food and needs? Oh Matt! Not everyone has those great parents that can take them in and possibly a family too just so they can backpack around Europe. It was there that I didn't believe in anything he says. Sometimes for fun I'll watch YouTube videos of people saying how to save money only for them to reveal they have moved home to save money. No no no you're just mooching off of your parents and using their money. He sounded like a juvenile talking about how everything is possible.

<b>Final Thoughts:</b> No thanks Matt I'll take my travel advice from people that aren't mooches off of mummy and daddy.

Apparently, the author is well known in some communities online. He's new to me! I did enjoy his book and reading about his travels around the world as a nomad. There's much to be said about traveling alone; I always do. No obstacles, just do and go and see what I want. The experience of traveling and meeting people from other cultures leads to so much more than just being a tourist.! I am sure I could not be a nomad, I love having my home base. But the author is still young. I may have enjoyed this years ago myself, had it occurred to me and the opportunity had presented itself! Fun read! Make a great gift for high schoolers, and of course, anyone who enjoys traveling and reading travelogue books.

I’ve been a fan for a few years now, so I was excited to received a copy of this. I was hoping for more reflection than the psychological aspects of choosing to travel or not travel, etc. it was interesting to see those aspects, but it started to feel a bit repetitive.

Honestly, I did a mini happy dance upon discovering this book was happening. I have been a huge fan of Matthew Kepnes for quite some time, I know him as Nomadic Matt. I have devoured Matt’s words as my travel gospel for years. As a teen on the brink of adulthood with very serious dreams of teaching English in Southeast Asia and backpacking Europe, I would spend hours each week pouring over page after page of his travel insights, adventures, and tips. Though those plans took quite the seismic detour, and my life has followed a different path than I expected I still know I will see as much of this world as I can, and I still plan on taking time to travel before settling down in one place. So, Nomadic Matt remains a place I turn to when I find myself in dreamland for adventures that I know I will make happen for myself. The website gives clear advice, and pushes aside the shiny, nothing-bad-ever-happens bits and focuses on real life budget travel and his trips around the world, as well as the same from other contributors to the site. So, I knew all of his fantastic travel tips, but I wanted an insight into his philosophy, his very being, and the general outlook of a man that quit his cushy 9-5 job, sold his belongings and decided to travel the world for multiple years. Ten Years a Nomad: A Traveler’s Journey Home was just that.

“I am a nomad. For a decade I have lived a long, peripatetic life on the road. Three thousand nights away from home. Actually, I take that back—I was home. In more than ninety countries. In a thousand different cities. In hundreds of hostels. With countless people. For three thousand days and nights. For half a million miles on airplanes, and half a million more (I’ve added it up) on trains and buses and tuk-tuks and cars and bicycles. That was my home. In all that time, over all those miles, I wandered with no goal. I wasn’t on a trip, vacation, or pilgrimage. I had no list of set destinations or set sights to see. My only purpose was to travel. To be a nomad: Someone who could move from place to place without urgency, without plans. Someone whose destination was the journey itself. Someone who could just wander, as a seeker, a traveler. To pick up and go whenever I pleased.”
Matthew Kepnes
From the very first line I was entranced. Matt’s words spoke to me. Y’all should see my Kindle copy because it’s covered in highlights. There was just something about the poetic way he delivered my own way of thinking that had me floored. I could not put it down. I read it in two night’s time, and only because I felt I should probably sleep just a little the first night. On Nomadic Matt, I had seen so much of where he had been and the how but what we often miss is the why and his why spoke to me on the deepest of levels. I often find myself feeling lost, so adrift and so not where I thought I would be and just a month shy of my twenty-third birthday this is something that has been weighing heavily on my mind. I am happy, so much so in this last year especially, but at times I can’t help but wonder if my choices have always been the right ones. I’m proud of the business I am building, of the people who I have in my life that I love dearly, but there is sometimes still that nagging thought in the back of my mind that tells me I’m not doing things on the right timeline. Seeing that same thought process from someone else always makes you feel less alone, and the way that Matt not only had that thought process but readily embraced the notion of throwing it all away and realizing there is no timeline but the one you create for yourself truly was something I didn’t know I needed.

“Because it is only when you submit to the world you hope to see that you can truly be present for the experiences you’ve so long dreamed about. Plans shouldn’t be a security blanket—they should be a means to an end. And for me, that end has always been adventure.”
Matthew Kepnes
Aside from the surprisingly deep life philosophy I took from this book, I found that it truly stood apart for me from other travel memoirs. It wasn’t just about a trip, it was about the ideas behind it. It didn’t just focus on the bright moments, it focused on the indecision, the mistakes, the right, the wrong, and the truth about what you give up and what you get when you trade a “normal” life for one of adventure. I’m not the type to want to lose roots. I want a home, but I also feel like a home is not a place but perhaps something like a person or a feeling. That being said, I personally don’t think I’d ever travel endlessly for ten years but I do want to see every state in my own country and as many countries as I can. I want to truly live and not just exist and Ten Years a Nomad spoke to the very essence of that. If you often find yourself bit by the travel bug and want to live vicariously, or if you, too, sometimes feel lost at sea in terms of the societal expectation of who you should be this is a book you’ll want to read.

“There is no old you. There is just the you that you are right now. You are always a work in progress. You are always ever changing. The world moves on, time passes, people come and go, and the future is always uncertain. As they say, that is life.”
Matthew Kepnes

I received a digital copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

When I requested this book, I honestly just saw the word nomad and hit request. This one along with two other books about being nomadic. I have just always been drawn to that lifestyle but never had the courage to do anything about it. Anyway, I did not know this was a book by Nomadic Matt when I originally asked for it...I learned about it once I opened up to start reading. Of course, I know who Nomadic Matt is...isn't he the guy that everyone followed for awhile on all platforms available? The one that everyone lived vicariously through? I know I did. If I am being honest, I would probably give it 3.5 stars but since that isn't available, I have to go with three. But to be fair, I really did like this book. Starting with what drove him to become this traveling sensation...of course learning that made me question my own life as I am in between jobs and wondering what I want to do. Do I even WANT the kind of jobs I have been searching for? I loved reading about his first trip he took by himself as part of a tour group...I loved learning why that wasn't everything he thought it would be. I loved reading about the many friends he made along the way and the girls he dated. I loved the way he described what he was seeing every step of the way. Of course, as he is describing cities and islands, I am looking them up on Instagram so I can picture what he is talking about. But mostly I loved when he became real with himself and with the world. This lifestyle is not something most people will be able to continue as they start to get older. I say most people because obviously, there are some people that never really need a home base. I could probably be one of those people, I think, but most people are not. Personally, I would recommend this book if you are even slightly into traveling...there is a good chance he has been there, done that, and brought home the t-shirt.

https://www.smartertravel.com/9-new-fall-books-to-read-immediately-2/

Matthew Kepnes is one of the world’s most popular travel bloggers. His new book chronicles his nonstop travels since he set off on a year-long round-the-world-trip that turned into 10 years, 500,000 miles and 90 different countries.

Having read the Nomadic Matt blog over the years, I was expecting the book to be, like many bloggers' books, a reworking of popular blog content with some new material added. In actuality, though, this publication is quite different: a memoir and justification for travel, rather than Matt's typical topics relating to how and where to travel on the cheap. There are some nice quotes and interesting travel writing facts thrown in, although I think the travel lessons at the beginnings of the chapters sometimes distracted from the narrative of the memoir.

It's said that only 20% of Americans hold a passport, so perhaps this book would be compelling for the 80% who don't. Or for recent college grads who are just discovering that they hate our work-obsessed culture and need encouragement to spend their lives a different way than in the rat race. But personally, I'm already convinced that a travel-filled life is worthwhile. Also, the experience of a young, white, male, able-bodied, college-educated, middle-class American finding his way around the world isn't universal, so I hope in the future publishers like St. Martin's will feature travel writing from authors who can share different perspectives on being a nomad.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I occasionally enjoy reading travel themed biographies because I mostly travel in my mind via books. In fact, I haven't taken a proper trip since twenty years ago when I went to England. I'm about to correct that before summer ends when my family travels to Memphis, Tennessee for a musical historic journey to the home of Elvis- Graceland. Growing up, my family never went on a vacation and never owned a car, so I'm conditioned to be content at home...and I am. However, I do love travelling vicariously through others, which is why I requested to read this book.

Matthew was fresh out of college with an MBA and working in a hospital when he decided to chuck it all to go travelling around the world. Of course, his friends and family thought he was daft. But he had an overwhelming passion to travel, and did it anyway. I admire people that follow their passions. When he was working at the hospital and finally had some meager vacation time, he went on a brief vacation. It really whet his appetite and left him hankering for much more. As Matthew explains in his book, there is a big difference in going on a vacation and travelling.

My favorite part of his story was when he embarked on his first trip to Costa Rica. He planned it so carefully, but when he landed at his destination, the language barrier and the need to locate his pre-arranged driver thrust him into near panic mode. Multiple taxi drivers were pestering him with offers to take him to his destination where he would settle into a hostel for the night. Luckily, he was patient and eventually noticed his driver standing nonchalantly holding a sign with Matthew's name. The initial stress of adapting to foreign surroundings and finding the correct transportation with fears of getting lost was palpable, and I identified with that insecurity. On that first trip when Matthew managed to navigate all these challenges, save the few times he was tapped for a novice and scammed on some tour invitations, he grew in confidence and it only amplified his hunger to travel more widely.

Matthew discusses aspects of travelling like making friends, finding romance (often brief), making lifelong connections, how to make money to finance your trip while you're on it, and deviating from a travel plan on impulse, which is often a good thing. Matthew launched a travel blog which was a very new thing back in the early 2000's when he began it. He became known as "Nomadic Matt", and the blog burgeoned into a job in itself. Suddenly he had to carve out time to serve the needs of his blog by answering emails, posting photos, videos, etc., as well as other writing opportunities and speaking engagements. The job began overtaking the freedom and joy of his nomadic pursuits.

A good portion of the book depicted his seemingly never-ending inner struggle to be nomadic vs. settling down somewhere. He suffered from anxiety and stress over this conundrum, but was mostly nomadic for a decade. The book clocks at a fairly modest 240 pages, and I wouldn't have even minded if it was a little shorter. The endless internal struggle about travelling vs. settling down was grating on me after awhile. At the 95% mark there was an unfortunate political dig regarding a driving tour he took around the United States and pre-conceived notions he had about certain people, which I did not appreciate. I find recent biographies inserting these political comments more and more which are very divisive, and serve to alienate half the country. It calls to mind the true comedic talent and class of the legendary Johnny Carson, who would tell jokes even handedly about both political parties.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

I don't think I read the blurb closely enough because I was expecting stories about what it was like to travel the world for 10 years and how the author tackled practical challenges of traveling without really a plan or budget. I wasn't expecting quite so much insight and self-reflection. And there is a lot of self-reflection and a whole bunch of talking about the psychology behind travel and our desire to travel or not travel. It started feeling a bit repetitive early on and that didn't get better. I ended up feeling like the author was just trying to justify his own choices and I wanted to reach through the book and tell him to relax and just live his life which he kept talking about doing exactly that.

The travel stories were interesting when we eventually got around to them. While no part of me will be staying in a hostel in a room with six other strangers I did find reading about the experience interesting. I also liked just the snapshots of all the different areas all over the world. It was definitely intriguing to get a glimpse of the road less traveled. Unfortunately, the balance seemed to skew far more towards the author explaining his choices which had the book falling a bit flat for me.

Budget travel guru Nomadic Matt turns introspective in Ten Years a Nomad.

I was expecting more travel and less ruminating on why Matt is compelled to wander the world. I love his website but this book has a more internal focus. He tries, with varying success, to apply what he has learned about himself to others. However, I just wasn’t buying it. Ten Years a Nomad seemed like a self-indulgent trip down memory lane. If I wanted to listen to that for hours, I would have become a therapist and be paid $150 an hour.

Okay, you can tell I didn’t like this book much. However, you might enjoy it if you know going in that it is not really a travel book so I’ll give it 3 stars.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The author wrote a great account of the personal journey they embarked on. The honest and detailed writing made it easy for the reader to feel invested in their journey.

Title: Ten Years a Nomad
Author: Matthew Kepnes
Genre: Nonfiction
Rating: 4 out of 5

After finishing college, Matt Kepnes realized he wanted more out of life than a boring 9-to-5 job. So, he quit and spent the next ten years traveling the world. They say the first step—out the door—is the hardest, but for Matt, traveling was easy. It was home. Now Matt writes and blogs about traveling, inspiring people all over the world to follow his lead.

This is more than his cheap-travel tips. Ten Years a Nomad is an introspective look at travel, a life lived traveling, friendship and relationships, and home. I enjoyed reading this immensely and would love to visit some of the places Matt has traveled.

Matt Kepnes is a traveler and a writer. Ten Years a Nomad is his newest book.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

As an avid traveler who has nomadic aspirations, this book was perfect for me to read. The author gives you the good, bad, and the ugly when it comes to pursuing a life around the world. There was no holding back on what he experienced whether it was life changing or devastating. This book showed me that at this point in my life, I no longer crave to live indefinitely abroad. Whatever decision I make for my future, this book is a reminder to do everything with intention. Even if you're not a traveler, this book is great for anyone wanting to break outside of the norm and what society deems as the American dream.

have mixed feelings about Ten Years a Nomad. Matt was rather self-righteous in the first part of the book in his expressions about traveling. As it goes on he matures and eventually decides he wants a home base.
I have been interested in traveling on a longer basis than just a week or two weeks, but I am entirely turned off by the culture Matt puts forward a story normal for nomads or long term travelers. The drinking, partying and casual sex can’t really be what is most appealing when seeing the world, but it is what most of the single travelers who have written books write about as their experience. Only the books about couples and families focus on what I thought would be the main appeal, learning about other cultures, history and people.
So while it was interesting to follow Matt on the disjointed journey that was presented in his book, I was disappointed by the sum total of his experiences being focused on what he found while drinking his way around the world.

3.5/5 I have to say, I picked up this book because I recognized a little of myself in the title- though I guess my story would be called Ten Years an Expat since I lived and worked abroad. I was really looking forward to hearing a fellow traveler's stories, but it turned out the actual stories were few and far between. For the most part, Matt reflects on why he started traveling, his motivation for continuing, how his family views his travels, and random friendships/loves along the way.

I think this would appeal to young 20 somethings who are having their first case of itchy feet and are looking for inspiration. Matt focuses on the backpacker lifestyle, staying in hostels, and living on the cheap- which, honestly, is how most people have to travel in their 20s. The only thing I didn't care for was his insistence that hostel hopping is some sort of rite of passage and that those who don't do that, whether because they go on organized tours or stay in nicer places aren't traveling the right way. He says that getting ripped off is just part of travel. Well, let me tell you, if you stay in one place long enough to actually learn something about the culture instead of just hopping all around, then you make local friends. And friends don't let friends get ripped off. Taking the time to read up on a place, learn the language, meet local people (instead of just hanging out with the hostel crowd) can really add a lot about your understanding of the place your visiting.

So, overall, an interesting read, but I guess I'm more interested in how he is going to spend his next ten years now that he is aging out of the hostel set and, you know, might want some decent health care at some point (I know that's what got me).

I went into reading this expecting a typical travel memoir filled with humble-brag type adventure stories. Instead it is much more, an honest, behind the filter peak into the realities of long term travel. Social media shows us all the glamour and romance of traveling but never the difficulties, and that’s what Matt has done with this memoir. From his first intimidating but life changing trip to Costa Rica to the inevitable loneliness that comes from a life without permanency, to feelings of inadequacy and career/responsibility driven anxiety, this book is REAL. The most important part of this was his acknowledgment that it is not only okay and even necessary to come home, but that putting down roots doesn’t have to mean the end of adventure. Life is what you make it. Finishing the book you realize it was a sort of epitaph for his days as Nomadic Matt, and a rebirth of Matt Kepnes.

Ten Years a Nomad by Matthew Kepnes is a great travel book . It is a discussuion of Kepnes early thinking about travel and the transition of though and practice he experiences. Such wonderful insight into the nomad way of life as well as profound adventure, opportunities, and exploration. I enjoyed this read. Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.


Actual rating is 3.5