Imagine: A Vagabond Story by Grant Lingel

Imagine by Grant Lingel is an insight into the world of backpackers

My book review rating: 3 stars one to read if you have always dreamt of travelling the world

When Grant Lingel discovers in his final year of college that he doesn’t quite have enough credits to complete his course he decides to throw caution to the wind, and instead of completing the missing credits and destining himself to a desk job like the rest oh his friends he packs a backpack and heads off to Mexico.

In his memoir Imagine, Lingel recounts his travels, from the places he visited, to the people he met along the way, and what he learned about himself and the world in the process. It certainly made for an interesting read, especially as I never had the backpacking bug myself – I prefer to stay in a nice hotel for a week at a time than to put my life in a backpack and hang out in hostels!

Lingel certainly raised an eyebrow or two throughout the book as he seemed to bed a girl in every town and drugs play a large part in his journey – parents, if you have a teenager who is about to head off on such an adventure you might not wish to read this!

You might already know that my other passion is for all things Disney World, and as I was reading Imagine I couldn’t help comparing it to the trip reports I read of people’s Disney vacations at a forum I frequent. While they are about short vacations rather than long backpacking trips some of them are almost as long as this book LOL

The writing is clunky at times and this is never going to be a literary masterpiece – but for an insight into the world of backpackers and the reminder that a big wide world exists out there for us to discover it certainly serves its purpose.

If you have dreams of the big blue yonder then you should definitely treat yourself to a copy.