Featured From The Blog
January 30, 2023
More talks and appearances coming up this year. (Check back soon—additional dates on the way!)
August 7, 2011
Last Sunday was my friend Rick’s birthday. But two weeks earlier, his car’s odometer reached 200,000. Which matters more? I know about the miles because he took a picture of […]
June 20, 2011
Sometimes when I’m writing I get behind on my movie viewing, and so it was only recently that I got to watch “How to Train Your Dragon,” a movie recommended […]
April 29, 2011
As literature struggles to retain its place of importance in our cultural life, it’s thrilling to see the birth of a new and serious magazine. The first issue of The […]
April 26, 2011
Last week Tim Hetherington was killed in Libya. Hetherington was a British photographer who lived in New York. With Sebastian Junger, he made “Restrepo,” the Oscar-nominated documentary about American soldiers […]
March 1, 2011
My latest book, The Routes of Man, is now out in paperback, sporting a beautiful new cover and an improved subtitle: Travels in the Paved World. It is available at […]
December 15, 2010
Recently the wife and I went to see “127 Hours,” Danny Boyle’s film about the real-life misadventure of mountaineer Aron Ralston. Ralston, as moviegoers know, was solo hiking in a […]
December 6, 2010
Historic roads: going but not gone
For weeks (okay, months) I’ve been meaning to link to this thought-provoking post at BLDGBLOG, written by Geoff Manaugh. It’s about ancient routes all around us — at Monticello and […]
June 29, 2010
Though I’m always after my wife for saving too much stuff, in fact I have the same problem. One thing that’s been particularly hard for me to get rid of […]
June 4, 2010
Has Garry Trudeau been reading The Routes of Man? (image via Slate)
February 28, 2010
Since its launch on February 9 (and even before then, in pre-publication media) my new book has been reviewed in print, on the radio and online. More reviews, I’m told, are […]
February 20, 2010
One of my favorite photographs of a road is by Nicholas deVore III. Nicholas was one of those rare people of approximately my age or older who grew up in […]
February 15, 2010
The magazine The Week asked me for a list of my top six books about travel on roads. It’s in the current issue.
February 13, 2010
A lot of us work to music. I used to play music to help get me get going, to start the flow – mostly music without words, and especially guitar […]
February 10, 2010
Flat Tires and That “Sad Stretch of Road”
The car was feeling sluggish as I drove my son to school last Monday morning. Slow to back out of the driveway, slow to accelerate. Of course it was cold […]
February 9, 2010
My new book is about roads – roads as a powerful force that change the world, including the people on them. I traveled six transformative roads, in six countries, with […]
February 8, 2010
In past years I’ve had the pleasure of participating in The Moth, a live storytelling series based here in New York. Last year podcasts from The Moth became a big […]
January 10, 2010
Newjack: Teaching in a Failing Middle School
In this article, Peter Sipe compares his first year as a middle school teacher in Brooklyn, New York, to that of a rookie corrections officer at Sing Sing prison.