I hope people don’t confuse my thoughts on Shivya Nath’s book – The Shooting Star, with her travel blog ‘The Shooting Star’ 🙂 Although if you do want to know, I loved the book and I love her blog too. And you should check both out, if you’re a traveler at heart, or are just looking for some inspiration.
I wanted to read a filler, or a book palate cleanser before I got into the Six of Crows duology, after reading Ninth House last week, and I couldn’t have picked a better book to do that! My two major reasons for choosing this book from my owned books TBR shelf were:
- I wanted to read a non-fiction
- My NaNoWriMo concept this year is about friendship, life and travel and this was the perfect inspiration
Shivya Nath is a traveler with a cause. When you read her blogs, or follow her Instagram stories or read her book, you might think of the following about her – traveler, stereotype breaker, solo female traveler, vegan, sustainable traveler, nature lover..the list is long.
When you read the book however, you don’t just learn about her story, of how at the young age of 21, she left her cushioned high paying corporate job in Singapore, sold her belongings and decided to live as a digital nomad, traveling the world and bringing indigenous cultures and tribes into our radar and supporting them through her travel blogs. You also learn about life and how to live life.
I am a traveler at heart and although I haven’t been traveling as much as I used to or want to lately, due to multiple reasons, I do all about the life changing, soul impacting affects of travel. Travel, where you become one with the place you go to, talk to the locals in that place, eat their food, live in their homes. Travel, that challenges you, and widens your horizons and breaks your perceptions. So I was literally getting goosebumps while reading about Shivya’s experiences and her story. I wanted to be her and wanted to quit my job right away and pick up my backpack and go on a trip, even though I’ve never backpacked in my life. So there’s another thing that I can do one day in my life and say, this is the first time I backpacked in my whole life!! haha 😀
In her book, Shivya talks about her reasons for living the way she lives, or traveling the way she travels, and also encourages to let go of fear and inhibitions. She puts up a very romantic picture of her travel that will make you throw all caution to wind and embark on a similar path. She does undergo hardships, she is honest about her struggles, how she had to convince her family, how she is always on her guard and has to fend off the one most common question – why travel alone?, which she is asked more often because she is a woman, the fact that she isn’t a millionaire or rich as she could have been, with her corporate job and fat pay check. But she is free, and that she values the most.
We have all read books or watched movies about famous people who found their purpose while traveling (Che Guvera, Jon Krakauer), or simple people like us losing everything they had, just to find their purpose, themselves and their spirit via their travels (Elizabeth Gilbert from Eat Pray Love, Cheryl Strayed from Wild) and have written about their stories to inspire us and uplift us. Shivya Nath’s story could be put in the same category – a girl who found herself and her purpose in life via her travels.
If I had to find one fault with the book, then it was just that the book is short, and in her endeavour to talk about all the good things about traveling alone, she has sort of skimmed over the hard and sad parts. She does talk about her ordeals, but the good parts easily outshine the hard parts. So, try to read the book with caution, and dare to dream, go on an adventure, be inspired, but also remember, that Shivya Nath had to work hard for her adventure and that it is not always a bed of roses, but sometimes the thorns are worth it too, because a cactus is as beautiful as a rose 🙂
All in all, I absolutely loved the book, and will highly recommend it, if you’re looking to be inspired and read a non fiction on travel. 🙂
P.S. : You can check out Shivya Nath’s blog here: The Shooting Star
Starry Eyed Enigma 