Writing this book was one of those defining experiences in my career thus-far as a writer, and living the research was a defining experience as a traveler. When I set out for China to take the Trans Mongolian and Trans Siberian Railroads from Beijing to Warsaw, I didn't anticipate writing a book about it. I thought the trip would be fun (and often it was), and that I would get some good travel articles from the experience (which I did), but looking back on it after returning, the adventure had the elements of a defining story...namely, moral challenges and fundamental shifts in perspective and character. So I set out to write about what my friend Josh and I saw as we traveled together, and all the challenges that made the trip such a vivid, sometimes harrowing experience. I wrote it in hopes that other travelers (armchair and backpack travelers alike) can appreciate the humor, relate to the challenges, and maybe see their own defining experiences in better light for having shared in mine. I hope you enjoy reading it, and that it really reaches you. Either way, though, please pass on your copy when you're done, giving it to a friend or family member or colleague, so that my readership may grow; it's my readers who justify the years I spend on each of my books, and expanding my readership is more important than sales. So bring on the second-hand copies, and check it out at your library, whatever it takes to see if you like my work! And if you do, please--read more. Thanks, and good reading! ( )

As an avid armchair traveler, the unexpected advantages and additional benefits of reading a book such as Following Josh is its exceptional ability to provide a captivating cerebral journey. Dave Norman's impressive facility to turn ordinary words into sharply visual and spontaneously engrossing experiences eminently surpasses most travel memoirs.

Although his somewhat pompous friend Josh considers himself the superior and knowledgeable guide, Dave truly is the consummate traveler who tumbles as easily into Josh's turf in Seoul as he does in Beijing, Ulan Bator, Irkutsk, Perm, Moscow, and Brest. Their long-planned marathon Russian railway adventure quickly runs awry as Josh whines and groans when the cultural environs and disparate hostels prove less enchanting than the well-marked guidebooks promise. Josh totally dissipated and blatantly cynical as they approach Krakow decides to leave, and Dave alone continues to their projected destination, Warsaw.

An enduring friendship ebbs and flows and nothing tests one (or a marriage) more radically than daily confinement with that sole person, regardless of various locales and intermittent fellow travelers along the way. Written more like a novel than a travel journal; this is a book well worth reading, if not for Dave Norman's exceptional writing, then definitely as an inconspicuous traveler seeking an incredulous cultural and historical adventure. I think Dave sums it up best,

"…life is freedom and discovery and music you've never heard before…thinking outside our narrow channel even if we're happy with the herd's direction…" ( )

This was an early reviewer thru Librarything. Josh and Dave reunite and travel thruout eurasia together as young people can, and also as young people reuniting, they find how far apart they've grown. Despite their increasingly strained relationship they manage to find their way (mostly separate)to interesting, and sometimes scary places in the far east, Mongolia, and Hong Kong, and Seoul. It was an interesting book, but the underlying strain of the two guys, along with something else I can't quite name, dampened the book for me. ( )

I enjoyed Following Josh, by Dave Norman. It's an interesting tale all on its own, full of anecdotes and history, and worht reading for any arm-chair train travelers stuck in one place for a while. It also made me take time to reminisce about my own post-college travels, which made me like the book even more! A good adventure, we are lucky Dave Norman took the time to share it with us! ( )

Review pending ( )