Take Me With You - Brad Newsham

Take Me With You:
A Round-the-World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home

Travelers' Tales hardback, September, 2000

This book, published in 2002, is my account of a 100-day backpack trip around the world. Up front I tell the reader that I will be inviting one person from the trip to visit me in America for one month - my treat - my only criteria being that it be someone who would otherwise never have the opportunity to leave his or her own native country. I describe the cultures, sceneries, and adventures I encountered in the Philippines, India, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, and profile dozens of strangers I met along the way. Toward the end I tell the reader which stranger I finally did invite, and in the final section I describe our taxicab trip across America together during June and July of 2001.

One of my favorite reviews said "Take Me With You is no less than a page-turner of a travel memoir." There is indeed an element of surprise - the reader does not know, until the end, which of the people portrayed in the book will be receiving the surprise of a lifetime. I hate it when I, or others, blow the surprise, but it's getting more difficult all the time. The book has received quite a bit of media attention, and during our trip across America my friend and I appeared on television and radio and in newspapers many times. Still, I try not to give away the ending, and if you are a potential reader, I invite you to not visit the Dispatches section, which is my electronic diary account of our taxicab trip across the States. Just read the darned book, please and thank you.

$100 Reward

Warning! Please don't read this unless you already know how the book ends - reading further will blow the surprise. If you haven't read the book: Stop! Go Back! I'm serious. Please. Otherwise click here for more information about the $100 reward.

Travelers' Tales published the lovely hardback version in September, 2000 (before our trip across the States - this version does not have the afterword). Travelers' Tales graciously donated 100 books to my friend when he was here, and he and I have both signed them, and some copies are still available for $50 each.

Ballantine published the American paperback version in February 2002, and you can buy that here or, preferably, at your local independent bookseller.

My current favorite, however, is the Random House-UK paperback, published in June, 2002, both because I believe it has one of the most striking book covers I have ever seen, and because it has become a minor best seller in the UK. God Save the Queen! Amazon-UK will deliver a copy to your door in three or four days for about $16 (click here).

How to Buy Take Me With You

Of Other Interest

Dispatches from trip across America
Photos
Updates
Reviews

Random House-UK paperback, June, 2002

Media Mentions
(click to view or listen)