Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Geuvara

Suggested Reading Time : 7 days
Category : Memoir

If there was ever a personality which captures the spirit of youth and in way epitomizes their angst, its Che Geuvara. You may know a lot about him and his methods, or you may be absolute blank, but the probability of your wearing a t-shirt embossed with a Che-like face remain equally high. Most of us in the 20s associate with the spirit of rebellion he stands for and therefore take to him.

This book, in a way, reinforces the same spirit, of freedom and rebellion. The book accounts for the travels of Che with his friend Alberto Granado all across the American continent. They travel for the most part by their bike and the rest thought various means. The book is a compilation of notes maintained by Che during the journey.

The book would serve as a nice introduction to the life of Che, especially the part being referred to in the book, represents the formative stage of his life, in terms of his thoughts. You would be suggested to read this book as a prelude to the larger philosophy and actions Che Guevara subscribed to, and would be recommended that after reading this book, you read a lot more on and of him.

Some amazing quotes from the book:

“I finally felt myself lifted definitively away on the winds of adventure toward worlds I envisaged would be stranger than they were, into situations I imagined would be much more normal than they turned out to be.”
“The first commandment for every good explorer is that an expedition has two points: the point of departure and the point of arrival. If your intention is to make the second theoretical point coincide with the actual point of arrival, don’t think about the means — because the journey is a virtual space that finishes when it finishes, and there are as many means as there are different ways of ‘finishing.’ That is to say, the means are endless.”

These are the kinds of quotes that should set into motion, stir your spirit to read this book. If you are in your 20s, and breathing fire, well this would quench your thirst for now.