Yep - I read two books when I was 22, at a pivotal time in my life. I was driving from Canada down to the Navajo Nation as part of an ethnographic field school program out of North Western University in Chicago.
I spent 5 days driving on my own, winding through the various states back-roads etc. Drove through the Black Hills, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah... great trip. I was there for 3 months. Got my first tattoo (not this one) at a place called the Crawling Squid in Pheonix, the day I saw the Allman Brothers and Blues Traveller play an outdoor concert. A friend and I drove down from Window Rock to Pheonix for the concert. 5 hours, almost all down hill.
The two books were On the Road, and Zen and the Art. That summer (yes, summer in Arizona) I developed a relatonship with who is now my wife and mother to my daughter. I also left university upon my return in the fall and no more than 5 months later moved East and began a career in Telecommunications.
That was my 'transition' time from adolecence to adult hood, and those books, combined with the various experiences I had that summer were a big part of the transition. The Reservation is a strange and wonderful place
