Three Cents a Mile

By: Mark Mooney

Narrated by: Mark Mooney

Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Three Cents a Mile is the story of a roguish journey that lasted more than two years and circled the globe.

The trip was fun, even hilarious at times. It was always fascinating, like crossing Iran during its revolution. At times it was dangerous, like being held up by bandits in a Baluchistan desert. I met who must be the greatest pickpocket in the world, someone doing the dirtiest job in the world, and some of the world's saints.

But it is primarily about the thousands of people who left home to drift across continental divides and what made them do it - and what made me do it.

©2016 Mark Mooney (P)2016 Mark Mooney

Great story, great nostalgia

It's easy to get absorbed by this book and there is a lot of nostalgia for a time long gone.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it!

Around the world for 3 cents a mile

Published in October of 2016 by Mark Mooney
Read by the author, Mark Mooney
Duration: 5 hours, 57 minutes
Unabridged

CNN Money editor Mark Mooney's Three Cents a Mile tells the story of his 2 year trek across the world as a vagabond traveler more than 35 years ago. He left New York City and headed east, visiting Ireland, England, France, North Africa, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Thailand and even more destinations with nothing more than a few dollars in his pocket and a typewriter and a notebook to compose travelogue articles that he sold to newspapers back in America.

Along the way he met playwrights, authors, poets, star-crossed lovers, thieves, hippies, drug burnouts, farmers, beggars, mystics, and he turned down the chance to meet Mother Theresa. He slept on beaches, in flophouses, on buses, above a bookstore with other aspiring writers, in an apartment building filled with strippers/prostitutes and in a barn. He traveled by plane, by ferry, by bicycle, by bus and, of course, by foot and barely made it out of Iran before Ayatollah Khomeini's revolution took completely took hold of the country. His story of the buses having to carry the right picture (the Shah or his opponent the Ayatollah) in order to be granted safe passage was both scary and funny.

Interspersed with the travel adventures are remembrances of a troubles childhood, especially his relationship with his father, a difficult man. This tense relationship is most likely the reason why Mooney took off on his world-spanning trek in the first place.

I listened to this story as an audiobook. It is read by the author, Mark Mooney, who does not have the typical voice of an audiobook reader. At first I was turned off by his reading style and the fact that I could hear papers rustling from time to time. It was clear to me that he did not put as much into the audio production as the books that I generally listen to. But, his personal style grew on me and there are times when the reader can hear that he is genuinely moved by having to actually speak the words of difficult passages and that adds to the story in a way that a professional reader could not.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

Exciting and fun travel memoir

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this audiobook. The stories and adventures Mark Mooney shares in this book are great and it is fun hearing him tell you those stories himself.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I absolutely loved the chapter with the boy in Morocco who spoke French.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration was done by the author himself and isn't the best quality which, at first, did interfere with me following his ideas in the introduction. But once he started telling of his travels, I was soon able to look past the quality of the recording and was able to follow along easily.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There were moments and excitement and moments that did make me chuckle. The main reaction that I had to this book was jealousy and respect. I want to see and go to all the places Mark Mooney went and writes about so badly, but he worked really hard to have those experiences and I have a lot of respect for him to be able to sell and store everything to fulfill this dream.

Any additional comments?

Like I said above, the author recorded the audiobook himself. It is not the best quality and did take me a little bit to get past it at first. I like to listen to audiobooks at a much higher speed and that proved difficult at first due to the sound quality. I was able to listen past that once the book got going though and was able to enjoy it without noticing it too much.