Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Roads
    Unavailable
    Roads
    Unavailable
    Roads
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    Roads

    Written by Larry McMurtry

    Narrated by George Guidall

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    As he crisscrosses America -- driving in search of the present, the past, and himself -- Larry McMurtry shares his fascination with this nation's great trails and the culture that has developed around them.

    Ever since he was a boy growing up in Texas only a mile from Highway 281, Larry McMurtry has felt the pull of the road. His town was thoroughly landlocked, making the highway his "river, its hidden reaches a mystery and an enticement. I began my life beside it and I want to drift down the entire length of it before I end this book."

    In Roads, McMurtry embarks on a cross-country trip where his route is also his destination. As he drives, McMurtry reminisces about the places he's seen, the people he's met, and the books he's read, including more than 3,000 books about travel. He explains why watching episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show might be the best way to find joie de vivre in Minnesota; the scenic differences between Route 35 and I-801; which vigilantes lived in Montana and which hailed from Idaho; and the history of Lewis and Clark, Sitting Bull, and Custer that still haunts Route 2 today.

    As it makes its way from South Florida to North Dakota, from eastern Long Island to Oregon, Roads is travel writing at its best.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 13, 2001
    ISBN9780375418471
    Unavailable
    Roads
    Author

    Larry McMurtry

    Larry McMurtry is the author of more than thirty novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove. He has also written memoirs and essays, and received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on Brokeback Mountain.

    Related to Roads

    Related audiobooks

    Travel For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Missouri 200

      Jul 20, 2021

      Missouri 200
      10 min read

    • Article

      Into The Woods GEORGIA

      Sep 2, 2021

      Into The Woods GEORGIA
      3 min read

    • Article

      Mary McNamara: The Author Of 'Blue Highways' On His New Novel And The Art Of Traveling In Place

      Apr 1, 2020

      A man who knows the road well enough can learn to travel in place. And that can come handy when the road, or the places along it, are denied him by pandemic or the cussed realities of age. William Least Heat-Moon is just such a traveler. In 1978, he

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Pursuit of Happiness

      Dec 15, 2020

      The Pursuit of Happiness
      7 min read

    • Article

      A bloody Long Run

      Nov 28, 2022

      A bloody Long Run
      15 min read

    • Article

      The Pastures of the Empty Page

      Oct 5, 2021

      The Pastures of the Empty Page
      12 min read

    • Article

      Steam To Snow

      Dec 1, 2023

      Steam To Snow
      2 min read

    • Article

      Reluctant Legend

      Jul 21, 2020

      Reluctant Legend
      9 min read

    • Article

      Books And Literature

      Dec 29, 2020

      Little, Brown and Company littlebrown.com ISBN 9780316353298 $18.99 Road trips are about far more than just the destination or even scenery. Properly done, a road trip puts the participants in touch with their world. The sights, sounds, smells, an

      1 min read

    • Article

      Jeremy kroeker BOOK COLLECTION

      Oct 13, 2020

      Jeremy Kroeker is a speaker, a YouTuber, and the award-winning author of “Motorcycle Therapy.” With his motorcycle, he has travelled to over 35 countries while managing to do at least one outrageously stupid thing in every one. He has evaded police i

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Different Nation

      Mar 25, 2023

      A Different Nation
      5 min read

    • Article

      Editor’s Letter

      Apr 4, 2024

      It’s easy to forget how big Mexico is. The 13th-largest country in the world and 11th-most-populated, it offers such a breadth and depth of experiences that a fleeting visit to Mexico City and Puerto Vallarta on the west coast — I’m talking about me

      2 min read

    • Article

      Read This Now

      Aug 30, 2022

      The story of the American railway system is more than tracks and trains. It changed the country’s economy, identity, and its very landscape as it snaked its way across the states and redefined how and where we lived. In this new volume, Travelers, Tr

      1 min read

    • Article

      They’ve Got a Ticket to Ride

      Oct 2, 2018

      They’ve Got a Ticket to Ride
      3 min read

    • Article

      McMurtry, Author Of ‘Lonesome Dove’ And ‘Last Picture Show’, Dies

      Mar 26, 2021

      Larry McMurtry, one of most acclaimed writers of the American experience, died Thursday at his home in Tucson, Arizona. Author of such popular and critically praised books as “Lonesome Dove,” “The Last Picture Show” and “Terms of Endearment,” McMurtr

      2 min read

    • Article

      What Do You See In A Year On The Road With Traveling Carnivals? A Father Tells Us In 'American Oz'

      Aug 19, 2020

      CHICAGO - Some years ago, a not-so-young and close-to-penniless journalist named Mike Comerford took a trip. It was not his first trip, but it was a long trip, taking him across this country and into Mexico. He traveled by bus (5,740 miles), train (2

      4 min read

    • Article

      In Search of Lost Travels

      Jun 4, 2018

      In Search of Lost Travels
      9 min read

    • Article

      Right On Track

      Feb 23, 2021

      Right On Track
      3 min read

    • Article

      Hard Times On The Black Dragon River

      Nov 25, 2021

      STRETCHING FOR AN ESTIMATED 2,826 miles from its Mongolian source to the Pacific Ocean on Russia’s east coast — acting as the border between Russia and China for more than 1,000 miles — the Amur River is believed to be the tenth longest on the planet

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Lost Cyclist

      Aug 3, 2022

      The Lost Cyclist
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Lost Cyclist

      Jun 15, 2022

      The Lost Cyclist
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Great Divide

      Oct 24, 2021

      The Amur River is the 10th longest river in the world. It rises in the mountains of Mongolia, near Genghis Khan’s birthplace, and flows into Siberia before meandering south-east towards the Pacific, forming the border between Russia and China, before

      4 min read

    • Article

      David Benjamin Sherry

      Dec 8, 2020

      David Benjamin Sherry
      2 min read

    • Article

      Big Highways Blah? Don't Dis Them. Why And When To Travel Interstates — Happily

      May 27, 2019

      When we think about road trips - and, now that schools are out or almost so, we may be - we rarely think about the road itself, especially the big, rumbling, boring interstates that lace together our country. Why should we? They're the method, not th

      3 min read

    • Article

      RECOMMENDED READ: Island Escape

      Dec 13, 2022

      “WHO DOESN’T HAVE A THING ABOUT ISLANDS?” writes Robert Twigger on page one of his terrific new book. The way he sees it, they haunt our imagination as places of opportunity to escape our everyday lives and have new adventures. In this, as he acknowl

      3 min read

    Reviews for Roads

    3.5/5

    3 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 1/5
      boring and difficult to listen to? give it a pass!
    • 4/5
      McMurtry is the schizzle - an excellent storyteller with extraordinary insights. I feel like this is a book best read (yourself) with your own permanent copy to scribble in the margins (thus making it a travel journal of two) and a book best set down occasionally to look up the interesting insights provoked by geography. This dashing across the country denies McMurtry the opportunity to do what he does best, which is to delve into the motivations and emotions of individuals. He does this well on a sociological scale (I'm pretty sure the outlet mall shopping opportunities in the Upper South in the 80s & 90s staved off many a major depressive episode among some of my family members), but it's not the same intimacy of his novels.

      Not a fan of this narrator for this book. He's "leaning forward" all the way through in an irritating fashion (for me, at least).

      Southern (and Texas) literature has a cadence and rhythm to it that should be honored in the narration and absolutely is not honored here.

      Audio books have done wonders for increasing the number of books "read" while reducing the number of dirty dishes and laundry in my house, but if the narrator is going to read it like a carnival barker getting paid at a rate of words per second, then my laundry is just gonna have to pile up, because I can't take this assault on what I know to be good writing.