Book Description

From travel writer and Instagram phenomenon Jedidiah Jenkins, a long-awaited memoir of adventure, failure, and lessons learned while bicycling the 10,000 miles from Oregon to Patagonia.On the eve of turning 30, 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.Now, for the first time, 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 the book, "It's not about the bike. It's about getting out of your routine--and that could look like anything."Long awaited by the hundreds of thousands of readers who followed Jed on his quest, To Shake the Sleeping Self is a 10,000-mile search for identity, wonder, and an honest life, sure to resonate with readers of Wild and A Walk Across America (the latter of which was written by Jed's father).