Book Info
A Trip of One’s Own: Hope, Heartbreak, and Why Traveling Solo Could Change Your Life by Kate Wills (2021)
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/28155352/
Acquired from: Little Free Library, [undisclosed location], USA
Started reading: September 19, 2025
Finished reading: October 28, 2025
Bookmark: Books, Inc. “Where the Bay Goes for Books” (came with book)
Review
I feel like she sold the idea of this book as her following historical solo female traveler’s travel routes and then it turned into a memoir about how she messed up her life and kept making probably bad choices and then somehow it turned out okay. Every other chapter is a “how to” for other solo female travelers and mostly they’re pretty good, but it’s weird to include those in a personal memoir type book when they seem like they’d better fit in a guide type book. I did enjoy reading about all the different historical women– many of whom I haven’t heard of before, and whose books I can’t find online despite them being in the public domain.
Notes
Page 0: I already travel solo extensively (in fact, full-time for years) but this seems more like a travel memoir than a how-to so I think it’ll be good to read.
She’s following the travels of one of the early travel writers, Egeria, who went on a pilgrimage which means visiting Israel and other nearby sites. In fact this author starts right off in Israel, just fyi.
Page 11:
During my twenties, travel seemed like an easy way to make myself more interesting. I came from the suburbs; I had mousey hair. I was average at most things. I was medium. I was beige. I was completely middle-brow. People who traveled seemed impossibly glamorous. They wore cashmere wraps in business class. They sipped coffee from takeaway cups as they briskly made their way through departure lounges, and they complained about jet lag. They brought back wicker bags and kooky ornaments and when you complimented them on their dress, they said they picked it up from a Mexican flea market for ten pesos.
Travel became my passport to having a personality.
This has echoes of what I thought full-time travelers were like back when I was planning my own stuff in high school. Except my idea was, like, big backpack, baggy Thai-style trousers and running for the train with a group of new friends you met at a hostel– it seemed exciting!!
Page 15: Banksy has a hotel in Palestine???
Page 27: a “tips for first time solo travelers” section which honestly feel about as bland as a Saltine cracker
Page 36: Oh, she’s not just following the nun’s travels. Each chapter is a different solo female traveler (I think).
Page 38: “But when you’re single and you have no plans, life can feel desolate.” I don’t feel that way AT ALL but tbh that might partly be because I’m asexual/aromantic. If you want/need/are used to companionship (and this author says she’s never seen single since she started dating as a teen) then I can see show it’d be a shock.
Page 49: Small section with suggestions for what to do at night besides watching TV and eating chips— pretty good suggestions too, tho honestly once the sun goes down I tend to not want to go out anyway. But in hot climates that’s when it’s BEST to go out! Sigh…O
Page 62: Quite a fun chapter about being a travel journalist, then and now. It’s one of those jobs that seems more exciting than it turns out to be!
Page 67: A round the world trip and she (Annie Londonderry) only took a change of underwear and a revolver, and here I’m debating about whether I need 3 pairs of socks or 4!
Page 120: I don’t want to be judgmental but I can’t help but think it’s probably a very bad idea to make a baby with your post-divorce fling when you still aren’t emotionally stable from the divorce
Page 141: Rekindling of romance with rebound guy. Supposedly she’s stable now but idk maybe I’m extra judgy because I’m aroace but I can’t help but think she’s still afraid of being alone. Actually alone, you know? She said she’s never been single since she started dating and her whole single life so far is an emotional upheaval.
Page 150: she turned down an amazing trip to Antartica to spend time with her boyfriend. Massive eyeroll from me!!!P
Page 172: she got pregnant 6 months into this relationship. I’m gonna skim the rest of the book Jfc
Book List
📚 Around the World on Two Wheels by Peter Zheutlin
📚 Hints to Lady Travelers by Lillias Campbell Davidson
📚 My Great, Wide, Beautiful World by Juanita Harrison (1936)
📚 No Hurry To Get Home by Emily Hahn
📚 Through Persia in Disguise by Sarah Hobson
📚 Travels with Myself and Another by Martha Gellhorn (1978)
📚 Books by: Dervla Murphy, William & Fanny Workman, Anne Mustoe
See also: Books Read (2025) / All Reading Logs
tozka | 📖 reading log: a trip of one’s own