Just last week I finished reading my first ebook, A Year Without Make-Up: Tales of a 20-Something Traveler by Stephanie Yoder, on the plane ride to Florida. I decided to buy the book, published by Thought Catalog, after reading a few reviews of it on some of my favorite blogs and I was not disappointed.

As a 20-something traveler, of course 20-something travel is one of my favorite travel blogs out there. Ever since I started The Penniless Traveler I’ve been following the adventures of Stephanie Yoder so I already knew I loved her conversational narrative style and flare for storytelling–what I didn’t expect was how applicable it was to me.

I breezed through this 100-pager in a few short days and was easily captivated from chapter to chapter. Reading like her blog posts, each chapter was short and neatly packaged, stringing together the past year of her life in travel. Unlike a blog, the book truly did read like a fluid and connected story and I found myself captivated by even places she described that I haven’t visited (like China and Vietnam). Often reading blog posts or stories about places you haven’t been can be difficult to picture and uninteresting, but when done well you feel like you’re being transported there yourself.

Yoder’s book did just that and more. It reassured me that as a 20-something I don’t have to have it all together yet. It reminded me what I love about travel and the importance of flexibility  and it opened my eyes to all of the places I have yet to see.

I would recommend this quick and captivating read to young travelers like Stephanie for the helpful insights she provides about traveling at this time in our lives, but truly it’s worth reading for anyone who loves travel and appreciates different cultures.

I feel new inspiration to travel to Asia next week and a confirmation of the importance of traveling at this time in my life. Plus, Stephanie’s book encouraged me to begin working on one of my own that has been stewing in the back of my mind for a while. I hope to finish it this summer and if it’s even half as interesting as Stephanie’s I will consider it a major success.