John Steinbeck's 'Travels with Charley' - My composition

Dijous vaig fer una composition per a una prova de nivell d'anglès. Entre altres opcions terribles --tipus "has tingut una idea per a un negoci: escriu una carta a un amic per convence'l de ser el teu soci"-- hi havia la de comentar un llibre que hagués llegit fa poc. M'ho vaig passar TAN BÉ redactant el text que, tot i que hi deu haver mooooltes faltes, el poso aquí. (Si alguna ànima caritativa que sàpiga més anglès que jo me'l vol corregir, li estaré eternament agraïda, i de passada n'aprendré!)

TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY, BY JOHN STEINBECK

How I got the book
I didn't choose Travels with Charley willingly. I had bought a magazine, Altaïr, in a travel bookshop, together with some books, and when I was already at home and took my time to have a look at my shopping --a very pleasant activity, in my opinion--, I found it among the other books. At first I thought it was a mistake, and only later I noticed that Travels with Charley was a gift that went together with the magazine.


Why I read the book
Some months later, I decided to read it. John Steinbeck was familiar to me because of two related reasons. The fist one: a very beautiful song by Bruce Springsteen, "The gost of Tom Joad", is inspired by another novel by him, The grapes of wrath. The second one: after having listened to the song dozens of times, I saw the film inspired by the novel, and I liked it.

I love travel books: I feel that they are a different way to travel, without leaving home. Most of the travel books I've read are about Patagonia and Tierra de Fuego, an area of the Earth that --I don't know why-- really fascinates me, and where I'd like to go some time in my life. Meanwhile I read books by people that have made the trip I don't know whether I will ever make.


What is the book about and why I liked it
Travels with Charley is the story of a lonesome and sometimes lonely travel through the USA. It is also the story of the relationship between a man and his dog (Charley). John Steinbeck gives his point of view about the States at the beginning of the sixties of the last century, but it is sometimes astonishing to notice how his vision is often not at all old-fashioned, but really valid nowadays.


(Pictures sources:

http://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/2009/06/forgotten-nonfiction-books-travels-with.html

http://www.mrbramesblog.org/2011/02/thoughts-on-john-steinbeck.html

http://reason.com/archives/2011/04/04/sorry-charley/singlepage)