Go West Odyssey: How I Saw America in 19 Days (Paperback)

229 Pages | Paperback

Review the book on Goodreads here

This richly illustrated book by NS Rajan captures a personal account of a first time visitor to the USA, chronicling the most memorable travel experiences on a 19-day drive from the East Coast to the West Coast and back. From the obvious to the unexpected, Rajan takes you on a joy ride through national parks, the Grand Canyon, bustling and always busy New York, the sin city Las Vegas, the sun-kissed beaches, glamorous Los Angeles, the Golden Gate bridge, the Tufa towers, Amish country, out-of-the-way museums, sandstone marvels of Arches NP, historical and geographical monuments and much, much more.

Visiting a foreign land for the first time is very exciting. Especially when it is the USA, with its vast and varied topography, a unique and vibrant culture and places of great historical and spectacular value — the visit becomes exhilarating indeed.

Rajan, an officer of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) (Retd.), recorded detailed observations and experiences of his six-month visit to the US in the Summer of 2011. The first part chronicles his long walks and discoveries in New York City. The second part is a detailed diary of his cross country, coast-to-coast road trip covering nearly 8,000 miles in 19 days, driving end-to-end through 18 states and passing through two more.

Rajan takes you on a joyride through the massive landscape of America, capturing the variety of the land, its people and the way of living in the US. His ruminating accounts create a riveting picture of the various American states, with the panorama changing all the time.

The book does not purport to be a ‘guide’ to the US. The firsthand accounts of the places Rajan visited, peppered with his humour and witticisms, and also useful information about their importance and history, make Go West Odyssey a delightful and handy reference book for first time visitors.

978-81-956660-6-5
Publisher: Blue Pencil
Category: Bestsellers, English, Non-Fiction, Non-fiction, Publications, Travel
Tags: illustrated books, memoirs, travel books, USA travel book
978-81-956660-6-5

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About the Author

NS Rajan

NS Rajan is a retired senior IRS Officer and has been a permanent resident of Bangalore for a long time now. He is an avid reader and a sports lover, particularly cricket, having watched many greats in action from the late 1940s (he has played cricket at a fairly competitive level). He listens to music of all genres, is fascinated by Hindi film music of the ‘golden era’ and has written many essays on composers, lyricists and singers.

Rajan loves to sing and spends some of his time singing on his Karaoke system. He likes to write and has contributed articles, short stories and letters to newspapers and magazines, some of which have been published in Silhouette Magazine and LnC.

Rajan is very fond of travelling and learning about new and fascinating places and is a keen observer of all that he sees, hears and observes during his travels. Travel and photography usually always go together and Rajan has been interested in photography from his teens, weaned on a German ‘Zeiss Ikon’. His abiding love for travel and photography inspired him to write an illustrated book on his trip to the USA, “The Go West Odyssey”, including in it a number of pictures taken by him during the trip. He works actively to keep himself engaged in some mental pursuit or the other and to keep himself mentally and physically fit at the ripe old age of 87

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