Is that you, Obi-Wan?

Long Way Round
Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman
Sphere

Well, let me start out by saying that I think our friend Ewan should probably stick to acting.  Writing, as evidenced by this travelogue, is definitely not his forte.  If you were to ask me for three adjectives that best describe this work, I'd probably pick "insipid," "navel-gazing," and "poorly-written."  So much for international bestseller.

For those of you who don't know the back story, a few years ago, Ewan McGregor and a fellow motorcycle-nut, Charley Boorman, decided that they would like to take the trip of a lifetime and bike their way from London to New York.  They were going to take the "long way round" by crossing Europe, into Kazakhstan, across Mongolia, and eventually through Siberia where they would then catch a plane to Alaska and cross North America to New York.  The journey took about three and a half months and their adventures were documented by both themselves and by a film crew for reality-type series. 

The book alternates between narrators and I think that is part of the reason why I didn't really enjoy it.  While I've never ridden across a continent on a motorcycle, I have done my fair share of  road tripping and I understand what it is like to be cooped up with the same person (or people) for days on end.  At one point in the story, McGregor mentions that the experience was sometimes isolating -- they were on the same journey, but not doing it together.  That's how I felt about the book -- they were writing about the same series of events, but they weren't narrating the same story. One muddy pannier out of five.