A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO PARADISE

9 Steps to Giving Up Everything


So You Too Can:

– Move to a South Pacific Island

– Wear a Loincloth

– Read a Hundred Books

– Diaper a Baby Monkey

– Build a Bungalow

And Maybe, Just Maybe, Fall in Love!

*

* Individual results may vary.

The true story of how a quarter-life crisis led to adventure, freedom,

more …

So You Too Can:

– Move to a South Pacific Island

– Wear a Loincloth

– Read a Hundred Books

– Diaper a Baby Monkey

– Build a Bungalow

And Maybe, Just Maybe, Fall in Love!

*

* Individual results may vary.

The true story of how a quarter-life crisis led to adventure, freedom, and love on a tiny island in the Pacific.

From the author of a lot of emails and several Facebook posts comes A Beginner’s Guide to Paradise, a laugh-out-loud, true story that will answer your most pressing escape-from-it-all questions, including:

1. How much, per pound, should you expect to pay a priest to fly you to the outer islands of Yap?

2. Classic slumber party stumper: If you could have just one movie on a remote Pacific island, what would it definitely not be?

3. How do you blend fruity drinks without a blender?

4. Is a free, one-hour class from Home Depot on “Flowerbox Construction” sufficient training to build a house?

From Robinson Crusoe to Survivor, Gilligan’s Island to The Beach, people have fantasized about living on a remote tropical island. But when facing a quarter-life crisis, plucky desk slave Alex Sheshunoff actually did it.

While out in Paradise, he learned a lot. About how to make big choices and big changes. About the less-than-idyllic parts of paradise. About tying a loincloth without exposing the tender bits. Now, Alex shares his incredible story and pretty-hard-won wisdom in a book that will surprise you, make you laugh, take you to such unforgettable islands as Yap and Pig, and perhaps inspire your own move to an island with only two letters in its name.

Answers: 1) $1.14 2) Gas Attack Training Made Simple 3) Crimp a fork in half and insert middle into power drill 4) No.

less …
  • NAL
  • Hardcover
  • September 2015
  • 464 Pages
  • 9780451475862

Buy the Book

$25.95

Bookshop.org indies Bookstore

About Alex Sheshunoff

Alex Sheshunoff is a writer-like person whose work has appeared in National Geographic Adventure, Slate.com, Marketplace on National Public Radio, and other very prestigious media outlets. Before deciding to call himself a writer, Alex snuck through Yale and started and ran an Internet company in New York called E-The People—a nonpartisan precursor to Moveon.org that was featured in the New York Times, Forbes, CNN, and elsewhere.

Today, Alex and his wife, Sarah, live in Ojai, California, with their two sons, Ian Shenanigan and Andrew Commissioner.

Praise

A charming and ferociously entertaining book, part memoir and part how-to guide for reconstructing your life once you’ve departed the rat race. In its hilarious and wise anecdotes and observations, it also offers a great window out of the blinkered monomania of modern life for those of us who can’t quite find a way to quit it all and decamp to a remote island.—Peter Mountford, author of The Dismal Science and A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism

If I were to bring only one book to a desert island, it would probably be The Idiot’s Guide to Desalinating Water. But if I had to bring five, one would be Alex Sheshunoff’s A Beginner’s Guide to Paradise. It’s hilarious and brilliantly written—a great tale about culture clashes, literature, love and geckos. Please take it with you on a trip, even if that trip is just to your couch.”—A.J. Jacobs, editor at large, Esquire, author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically