Discovering Beautiful: On the Road to Somewhere

by Rory Miller

Discovering Beautiful is the tale of a lost and lonely young Yorkshireman who takes himself off to America for a month-long vacation and ends up embarking on a four year odyssey of travel and adventure in the search for happiness. Along the way he lives semi-homeless in New York, crashes numerous cars, visits several American jails, hitch-hikes over fifteen thousand miles, rides freight trains, and works as a stunt cowboy. Ultimately, he is led on a voyage of salvation by fate/destiny/synchronicity/call-it-what-you-will to a life-changing meeting with an odd and intriguing shaman and tai chi master in the deserts of Mexico, the culmination of his search. And that's when things get really interesting...

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

335 pages, Paperback

First published December 8, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm bias because I know Rory. I met him in Baja, Mexico, at a yoga institute. When I first met him I thought "wow this is the most enlightened human I've ever met. He must have been born like this. Is he even a person?" He radiates this pure love and peaceful energy that I've been fortunate enough to encounter a few times in my life but is SO rare. He is brilliant.

So, in reading this book, my mouth hung open. He warned me I probably shouldn't read it unless I wanted to get a deep and honest look into his life, but, of course, I ignored him.

The first few chapters I was like "THIS IS NOT RORY WHO IS THIS GUY WTF IS HIS PROBLEM" and then, slowly, I realized that yes this is Rory and this is his story. It's so rare for us to get an honest look into the past of the people we love and I feel really honored to be able to see where he's come from and how he got to who he is today. And who he is today is a very wonderful, caring person and I'm lucky to have gotten even remotely close to him.

For anyone looking for some stuffy, classical novel about a road trip, read something else. But for those looking for an honest to god narrative of a man's life who went through some serious shit and came out on the other side in one piece and better than before, read this.

[Anne - Marie Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult to articulate my feelings towards this book. I found myself getting very, very frustrated by his behaviour and constant run ins with the law which occurred often and became tiresome. However, his journey is interesting and honest and after getting over these initial annoyances I did find myself enjoying the book.

[Izzatina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not finished this book. This is not 'On the Road'.