White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World

Episodic, wide-ranging, funny, and smart, this exploration of why we travel marks a return to the subject of Dyer's most successful book, Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It, albeit with the wisdom of age. From viewing a lightning field in the Mexican desert by night, to chasing Gauguin's ghost in French Polynesia, from falling in love with a tour guide in the Forbidden City of Beijing to tracking down the house of a childhood idol in L.A., Dyer pursues all permutations of the peak experience. His trademark style blends travel writing, essay, criticism, and fiction, with a smart and cantankerous wit that is unmatched. Like Alain De Botton's On Travel and Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide to Getting Lost, this is a book for armchair travelers and slacker philosophers everywhere.