Becoming What You Are

‘Nietzsche is one of those writers who addresses his readers directly; you feel alone with him while he explores his thoughts in your presence”, notes the writer Ken Hollings. “This makes him one of the best travelling companions.”

For more than a decade, a week’s summer break in Europe has provided Hollings with uninterrupted leisure time to read a different work by the influential nineteenth century German thinker, Friedrich Nietzsche. On Holiday with Nietzsche reveals Hollings’ personal thoughts and impressions about these literary encounters. Working from notes and journal entries compiled during his travels, Hollings takes us over mountains and lakes, through meadows and forests, across oceans and city squares - locations often frequented by Nietzsche himself.

Starting in Turin, a favourite city of Nietzsche’s, and ending up on the North Sea, where Hollings wrestles in his cabin with Nietzsche’s book Untimely Meditations, this first essay offers an overview of Nietzsche the philosopher as the restless traveller dissatisfied with the complacency of the world around him.