Author, Norm Schriever sent me an e-copy of his book Pushups in the Prayer Room.

Description from Goodreads:
In the spring of 1999, Norm Schriever leaves his old life behind and backpacks around the world for a year, not returning to the US until the spring of 2000. Throughout his journeys he touches down in more than 20 countries in 6 continents, spanning 70,000 miles total, or the equivalent of almost three times around the equator.

There is never a dull moment on this wild and irreverent adventure, whether Norm is evading armed carjackers in a high-speed chase in the barrios of Venezuela, exploring ancient wonders of the world like the pyramids, the Great Wall, and Machu Picchu, almost landing in a Bolivian jail for mistakenly being accused of cocaine trafficking, or witnessing the holiest sites on earth in Jerusalem. Along the way, Norm encounters a broad spectrum of human existence and experiences a blossoming of consciousness and spiritual growth that he never anticipated. What started out as a wild, raucous party trip evolves into a man’s quest for his life’s purpose in the world.

Review:

I don’t usually read travel journals, and if I was going to pick one up, it would probably be one by a woman so that I had more in common with the author. For example, any way you look at it, the dangers of picking up women in San Juan isn’t relevant to me. Much of what Schriever does in his year long journey would be inaccessible (or at least highly inadvisable) for women. However, due to my generally inability to say ‘no’ I agreed to review this one. Yeah, it’s a character flaw that I am trying to address. But I’m glad to have read this one and I’ll tell you why. The man can write. The book is easy to read and quite funny. It also addressed some vague and hard to conceptualise subjects, like the effects of the media on fear. You can’t really quantify it, and so, it can be hard to explain. Schriever’s first-person account easily highlighted it.

I also love the title. It has panache. It has wit and hints at a meaningful intersection of otherwise incompatible cultures. I think Schriever tried very hard to address ethnocentrism and cultural discrepancies he encountered on his journey. Sometimes he was more successful than others, but I absolutely appreciate that he made the effort. It is so much more than some would do. I was disappointed that he felt the need to explain the title though. It took a lot of the mystery out of it and made me wonder if I wasn’t expected to be smart enough to ‘get it.’ The incident leading to the name could have still been relayed without making the point so disappointingly blatant. I know that might not be fair. It’s probably not fair, but that’s how I feel. A person can’t always be responsible for how they feel about something, but I can sure be accountable for it and that is how I feel.

Other than being far more relevant to men than women, my only real criticism is that I didn’t see much of the spiritual growth that was referred to. He essentially got drunk, high, and laid in over 40 countries. I’ll admit he definitely seemed to grow as a person, possibly even discovering adulthood in his travels. While that is an important transition and worthy of a book in and of itself, it didn’t strike me as particularly spiritual. Now, this may be a subjective argument, but there it is. If you are looking for an interesting account of someone’s travels around the world this one is worth reading.