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

by Jedidiah Jenkins Narrated by Jedidiah Jenkins

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES*BESTSELLER ¿*“With winning candor, Jedidiah Jenkins takes us with him as he bicycles across two continents and delves deeply into his own beautiful heart.”-Cheryl Strayed, author of*Wild*and*Tiny Beautiful Things
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On the eve of turning thirty, terrified of being funneled into a life he didn't choose, Jedidiah Jenkins quit his dream job and spent sixteen months cycling from Oregon to Patagonia. He chronicled the trip on Instagram, where his photos and reflections drew hundreds of thousands of followers, all gathered around the question: What makes a life worth living?*

In this unflinchingly honest memoir, Jed narrates his adventure-the people and places he encountered on his way to the bottom of the world-as well as the internal journey that started it all. As he traverses cities, mountains, and inner boundaries, Jenkins grapples with 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 life back home.

A soul-stirring read for the wanderer in each of us,*To Shake the Sleeping Self*is an unforgettable reflection on adventure, identity, and a life lived without regret.
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Praise for*To Shake the Sleeping Self

“[Jenkins is] a guy deeply connected to his personal truth and just so refreshingly present.”-Rich Roll, author of*Finding Ultra
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“This is much more than a book about a bike ride. This is a deep soul deepening us. Jedidiah Jenkins is a mystic disguised as a millennial.”-Tom Shadyac, author of*Life's Operating Manual

“Thought-provoking and inspirational . . .*This uplifting memoir and travelogue will remind readers of the power of movement for the body and the soul.”-Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

09/03/2018
Following loosely in the footsteps of his parents, authors of A Walk Across America (first published in 1979), Jenkins tells of his bike trip from Oregon to Patagonia in this thought-provoking and inspirational memoir. He decided on the expedition because he felt his “youth was passing” as he was about to turn 30. He believed travel would resensitize him to life, and also thought the journey would help him square his identity as a gay man with his beliefs as a Christian. Much of his writing focuses on his internal feelings—a mix of emotional dives into his past, present, and future—rather than the physical journey. Still, there’s some fun and vibrant travel writing here, including stories about tripping on mushrooms, seeing a butterfly migration, and exploring Machu Picchu. Jenkins is joined briefly by Weston, an improvising free spirit who loves weed and shuns money and religions; he plays foil to Jenkins and adds levity while challenging the author’s beliefs. The narrative is about the journey, not the destination, and though Jenkins doesn’t find all the answers, he does feel “a warm direction, a positive pulling toward something else.” This uplifting memoir and travelogue will remind readers of the power of movement for the body and the soul. (Oct.)

From the Publisher

A thrilling, tender, utterly absorbing book. With winning candor, Jedidiah Jenkins takes us with him as he bicycles across two continents and delves deeply into his own beautiful heart. We laugh. We cry. We feel the glory and the agony of his adventure; the monotony and the magic; the grace and the grit. Every page of this book made me ache to know what happened next. Every chapter shimmered with truth. It’s an unforgettable debut.”—Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things

"Thought-provoking and inspirational . . . This uplifting memoir and travelogue will remind readers of the power of movement for the body and the soul."—Publishers Weekly
  
“[Jenkins is] a guy deeply connected to his personal truth and just so refreshingly present.”—Rich Roll, author of Finding Ultra
 
“This is much more than a book about a bike ride. This is a deep soul deepening us. Jedidiah Jenkins is a mystic disguised as a millennial.”  —Tom Shadyac, author of Life’s Operating Manual

Praise for Jedidiah Jenkins

“Jedidiah Jenkins is a storyteller. He’s also an adventurer, a connoisseur of good pourovers, an avid Instagram user, a startup co-founder, and one of those humans that makes everything about them seem inviting.”—USA Today

“Jenkins’ words are brutally honest and leave me thinking a little deeper about my own observations when I pass a stranger on a street or see a flower blooming on a rocky trail.”—Outside Magazine

Kirkus Reviews

2018-08-20

Or, evangelism and the art of bicycle maintenance on a long journey of self-discovery.

Instagram personality Jenkins works a familiar trope: a challenging season of travel as a means of finding out what makes him tick and working out the big questions. Granted, his travel was far more challenging than most, as he decided to leave a job and a life that afforded him plenty of satisfactions in order to ride a bicycle from Oregon to the tip of South America. "It wasn't the job that chased me away," he writes of hitting the 30-year-old mark, "it was mortality." He adds, meaningfully, that he had plenty of background; what remained was to acquire experience, or "background and tools," with which to live his life henceforth. The trip took 16 months and brought him a built-in audience for this memoir as he posted photographs and observations to social media. In the company of an adventurous friend, Jenkins found plenty of occasions for that self-discovery, sifting through the wreckage of family crises, wrestling with sexual identity, and grappling with questions of faith and religious belief. "I think that you're scared, and that's bullshit," said his friend after a critical moment that managed to touch on most of these points. "I just want you to be free." Jenkins gets there—to that freedom, that is, and also to Patagonia. His account runs a little long, some of it a mere slideshow of impressions ("Mexico City is a beast"; "It was beautiful, the air was clean, the light angled just right"). Other moments are more successful, though. The author is especially good at eliciting wisdom, even if sometimes of a loopy kind, from the people he encountered—his traveling companion in particular but also people like a young Argentinian woman who confided that she wants to do a road trip through the U.S.: "I want to see the empire before it falls."

Jenkins' many Instagram followers won't be disappointed.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172110429
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	10/02/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "To Shake the Sleeping Self"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Jedidiah Jenkins.
Excerpted by permission of The Crown Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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