A Beginner's Guide to Paradise
A True Story for Dreamers, Drifters, and Other Fugitives from the Ordinary
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4.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
So You Too Can:
- Move to a South Pacific Island
- Wear a Loincloth
- Read a Hundred Books
- Diaper a Baby Monkey
- Build a Bungalow
And Maybe, Just Maybe, Fall in Love! *
* Individual results may vary.
The true story of how a quarter-life crisis led to adventure, freedom, and love on a tiny island in the Pacific.
From the author of a lot of emails and several Facebook posts comes A Beginner’s Guide to Paradise, a laugh-out-loud, true story that will answer your most pressing escape-from-it-all questions, including:
1. How much, per pound, should you expect to pay a priest to fly you to the outer islands of Yap?
2. Classic slumber party stumper: If you could have just one movie on a remote Pacific island, what would it definitely not be?
3. How do you blend fruity drinks without a blender?
4. Is a free, one-hour class from Home Depot on “Flowerbox Construction” sufficient training to build a house?
From Robinson Crusoe to Survivor, Gilligan’s Island to The Beach, people have fantasized about living on a remote tropical island. But when facing a quarter-life crisis, plucky desk slave Alex Sheshunoff actually did it.
While out in Paradise, he learned a lot. About how to make big choices and big changes. About the less-than-idyllic parts of paradise. About tying a loincloth without exposing the tender bits. Now, Alex shares his incredible story and pretty-hard-won wisdom in a book that will surprise you, make you laugh, take you to such unforgettable islands as Yap and Pig, and perhaps inspire your own move to an island with only two letters in its name.
Answers: 1) $1.14 2) Gas Attack Training Made Simple 3) Crimp a fork in half and insert middle into power drill 4) No.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this self-absorbed, whiny guide, Sheshunoff sets up a successful Internet company, quickly tires of it, and heads to the South Pacific armed with books. Along the way, Sheshunoff shares little lessons he learns on islands such as Yap, Pig, Palau, and Angaur. Early in the book, Sheshunoff learns his greatest lesson "capital P Paradise doesn't exist... there was no deluding myself that a place could fully protect us from ourselves... the human capacity to complicate life... would never be diminished" but he refuses to listen to his own advice and to complicate his life at every turn, eking out "lessons" from his reading and his faltering attempts at being sociable. Such self-evident lessons include "making some big choices," "finding the right island," "settling in," and "meeting someone." Not long after Sheshunoff meets Sarah, the woman who will eventually become his wife, she deftly and cagily describes his quest in words that also summarize his book: "the contemplation of one's navel in search of a mystic experience." By the end of this overlong memoir, his life has changed little, except that he's traded the streets of Manhattan for the roads of Anchorage, Alaska.
Customer Reviews
A Beginner's Guide to Paradise
Hilarious, heartfelt and a joy to read! If you've ever lived on a foreign island (as I have) or if you've ever wanted to just ditch it all and move to paradise (as I do at about 3 pm each Friday), this is the book for you!