Whether RV-specific or just inspiring reads for soon-to-be travelers here’s our list of books to help you ditch the suburbs in an RV.
Blue Highways: A Journey into America
Amazon description:
Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation’s backroads.
William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about “those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi.” His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.
How To Hit The Road
Written by the owners of the FulltimeFamilies membership club, this book seeks to be a primer on the fulltime RVing lifestyle for families.
It covers topics like fitting your stuff into an RV, how much it will cost, how support yourself while traveling, taking pets with you and more.
How to Hit the Road also includes some downloadables in the form of packing lists and budget worksheets.
No Excuses: Go Nomadic
Chris and Cherie are known as the Technomads. They live and work out of a vintage bus conversion.
They are especially well-known for their expertise on internet gear for fulltime RVers.
Their book isn’t specifically geared towards families but is still a great read, covering topics important to fulltime RVers like jobs, family, being eco-concious, pets, community, relationships, money, healthcare and more.
You can read our blog post for more information or follow the links below to get the book.
Lessons from the Scenic Route
Amazon description:
“One mom traveling with three kids, for 12 weeks, in a 22ft RV, crossing 19 states and logging 10,079 miles, alone. What would we learn? Turns out, quit a lot.”
On the Road...with Kids
One family. 30 Countries. No Turning Back.
Booktopia Description:
It’s a life-changing trip. Take it!
John Ahern has a high-flying job, a big house, a loving wife and two great kids. But if this is success why does he sense he is failing as a husband and father?
So John does something insane. He blows his career apart and buys a busted-up campervan online to chase an improbable dream: a year on the road… with kids.
From the North Pole to Africa’s highest peaks, John and his family get mugged by monkeys, charmed by snake handlers, and challenged by their quest to create a life less ordinary.
On the Road… with Kids is a funny, messy and inspiring adventure all families will love.
Travels with Charley
Written by John Steinbeck after a 1960 road trip in a truck outfitted with a truck camper, this classic has recently taken some heat for being more fictional than fact.
So don’t read it as an “early travel blog” - but do read it for travel inspiration, to get a travel philosophy, for the quotable quotes, and for an idea of the stories that might happen to you while on the road.
Read our pre-trip reaction to the Travels with Charley.
Turn Left at the Trojan Horse
Amazon description:
“Go away. Figure it out,” she was saying. “Don’t come back until you do.” She looked at the calendar. “You have thirty-one days.”
With these words, like Helen of Troy launching a thousand ships across the Aegean, Brad Herzog’s wife launched a Winnebago Aspect onto the open road.
A modern-day Odysseus in Kerouac clothing, Brad Herzog plunges into a solo cross-country search for insight. With middle age bearing down on him, he takes stock: How has he measured up to his own youthful aspirations? In contemporary America, what is a life well lived? What is a heroic life?
Vicariously Yours
Amazon description:
“Vicariously Yours: Letters and Lessons from the Ultimate Road Trip is the story of a woman who won one of the 276 cars on The Oprah Winfrey Show. With the proceeds from selling the excess car, she and her family abandoned a suburban lifestyle, and spent a year discovering America through the windshield of a 38-foot motorhome.”
Great stuff! Thanks!