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Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across the World

ewan mcgregor charley boorman

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It started as a daydream. Poring over a map of the world at home one quiet Saturday afternoon, Ewan McGregor -- acclaimed actor and self-confessed bike nut -- noticed that it was possible to ride all the way round the world, with just one short hop across the Bering Strait from Russia to Alaska. It was a revelation he couldn't get out of his head. So he picked up the phone and called his fellow actor-slash-biker friend Charley Boorman and told him it was time to hit the road....
Long Way Round
Beginning in London, Ewan and Charley chased their shadows through Europe, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia; across the Pacific to Alaska; then down through Canada all the way to New York. Long Way Round is the result of their four-month, 20,000-mile joyride. Featuring original diary entries, travel maps, mileage charts, and dozens of photographs, this is a freewheeling, fully charged, and uproariously entertaining book about two world-famous individuals who chose the road not taken...and made the journey worthwhile.

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2004

This edition

Format
320 pages, Paperback
Published
November 1, 2005 by Atria Books
ISBN
9780743499347
ASIN
0743499344
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Ewan McGregor

    Ewan Mcgregor

    Ewan Gordon McGregor OBE (b. 1971) is a Scottish actor who has starred in numerous film and musical roles. His first professional role was in 1993, as a leading role in the British Channel 4 series Lipstick on Your Collar. He has also portrayed heroin add...

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About the author

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ewan mcgregor

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Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama and charity.
While studying drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, McGregor began his career with a leading role in the British series Lipstick on Your Collar (1993). He gained stardom for starring as drug addict Mark Renton in Trainspotting (1996) and as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999–2005). His career progressed with starring roles in the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001), action film Black Hawk Down (2001), fantasy film Big Fish (2003), and thriller Angels and Demons (2009). He gained praise for his performances in the thriller The Ghost Writer (2010) and romantic comedy Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011).
McGregor made his directorial debut with the crime film American Pastoral (2016), in which he also starred. For his dual role as brothers Ray and Emmit Stussy in the third season of the anthology series Fargo (2017), he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film. He voiced Lumière in Beauty and the Beast (2017), and played the title role in Christopher Robin (2018), Dan Torrance in Doctor Sleep (2019), and Black Mask in Birds of Prey (2020). He reprised his role as Kenobi in the 2022 miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for his portrayal of fashion designer Halston in the miniseries Halston (2021).
McGregor has also starred in theatre productions of Guys and Dolls (2005–2007) and Othello (2007–2008). He has been involved in charity work and has served as an ambassador for UNICEF UK since 2004.

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
kyahaku
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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This book reads as though McGregor and Boorman wrote it in their favourite green crayon on the back of a beermat in the bar at the airport's departure lounge. Admittedly these guys aren't authors, but they skimp on details and the story and have a style that is 'tell' rather than 'show'.

It gets a bit grating in places, and although I enjoyed their camaraderie and the trials of riding their bikes, ultimately the book was a disappointment and offered no greater insights than the film.
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MangaEnjoyer
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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This book sat on my shelf for years after we watched the TV version when it was originally broadcast. We loved the TV version, but I never felt compelled to read the book until it was chosen as one of our monthly reads by Thought Foundation Book Club. I did enjoy reading the book in the end, but if you are interested in finding out about the journey documented, I recommend watching the TV series over reading the book. In the TV version you get to see the places and people for yourself rather than relying on the descriptions in the book and your imagination, and that made a big difference to my enjoyment of the stories and the people involved.
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Pranav5255
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Having adored the Long Way Round TV series, where actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman biked from London to New York "the long way round", it was only a matter of time before I picked up the book. I met Charley Boorman a few years ago and we swapped travel stories (his were far better than mine!), leaving me in awe of the adventures he and Ewan had been on. So when I found Long Way Round and the Scotland to South Africa adventure Long Way Down in a charity shop for pennies each, there was no excuse for me not to finally read them.

If you haven't seen the series, the book is a dual pov sort of travel diary from Ewan and Charlie as they hop on a pair of donated BMW motorbikes and travel across Europe, Asia and North America to reach New York, crossing 12 countries and 20,000 miles in 119 days. It's meandering, a little self indulgent at times with more than a little navel gazing, but it's also inspiring and uplifting. The guys bicker and argue, clash with their road crew and tv sponsors, but for every breakdown or day of riding on unpaved, dangerous roads completely alone, there's a Mongolian sunset or encounter with locals that makes it worthwhile. An encounter with Eastern European gangsters is simultaneously laugh out loud funny and genuinely a bit scary, while a surprise visit from Ewan's dad on the road enough to make me well up. I skim read the opening chapters which covered the set up and logistics, keen for the guys to get on the road, but the book gives great insight into the effort and physical and emotional toll that the trip took on everyone involved, especially Ewan and Charley. If you're hoping for a juicy read riddled with schadenfreude about a Hollywood A-lister forced to rough it in the wilderness, you'll be sorely disappointed. Both guys dive headfirst into their journey, embracing everything that comes with it, good and bad.

I've been reading this book on and off for nearly three months. It's certainly not unputdownable, more of a lazy Sunday afternoon read that you can dip in and out of. If you're a travel fanatic like me, you should definitely give it a go. Long Way Round is an absolute must read for anyone who dreams of leaving it all behind and chasing their shadow across the world.
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Sad-Frog
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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wait this was great. not a book i would’ve ever read without being recommended it, but i’m so glad it was. thought i was gonna have to be a big ewan mcgregor and/or motorcycle fan to care at all, but not true! i also accidentally got the illustrated edition on ebay that has w a ton of photographs but i’m honestly glad i did - the photos for sure add to it
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hclf1
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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A brief bit of escapism for wannabe vagabonds. Authors dreamed up an enviable trip from London to New York, but made a critical mistake that really showed itself in the book. The actors leveraged their fame to incorporate the trip. They had BMW's support with the machines and training, a television deal, a book deal, and all the entourage and accoutrement that comes with those things. It was hard to read these guys complaining about having a support crew when they had the option to do the trip on their own! Apart from that, it was an amusing read of two not terribly well traveled urbanites getting out into "the cud" and well out of their comfort zones. The authors (or editors) wisely spent nearly the whole 300 pages discussing the remotest and least western parts of the journey: Ukraine, Mongolia, and Siberia.
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COMThing
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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This book is ok. Skip the book and see the series on DVD. Really enjoyed their journey.
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rustler08
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Let's do a drinking game. Every time either Ewan or Charley say they miss their family you drink a shot.
Seriously, don't do it, you'll die.
It was a fantastic idea, to go from London to New York the long way round on motorbike, however most of the time they were unable to enjoy it because they were too homesick. Or tired of the journey. Or complaining about camping/not camping. Or complaining about something else.
Then at the last chapter they keep saying how much they will miss being on the road, and we don't understand why, as they seemed to not like being on the road that much.
Anyway, it had some good parts, especially about Mongolia, but it was a boring book to read.
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ichigo2979
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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I read this years ago, I think in middle school? My love for Ewan McGregor developed during my obsession with the Star Wars prequel trilogy. lol To be fair I don't remember much, but I think this was my first non-fiction book!
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