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Post by hwinpp on Aug 4, 2009 5:11:36 GMT
Well, he was governor of Hong Kong, it would have been difficult for him to stay out of it SD.
I'm reading 'A Blinding Light' for the second time for lack of anything else. It is a kind of inner journey (though an outer journey starts the whole story rolling).
BTW, what happened to 'distantshores'?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2009 17:06:28 GMT
Will keep my eyes open for that one hw. Didn't see it at the used book store with the other Theroux's. Picked up The Stranger At the Palazzo D'Oro while perusing yesterday.
Don't know what happened to distantshores. Was thinking the same thing when I reopened this thread and saw his old posts. Guess he broadened his horizons. I hope he's ok. Nice chap.
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Post by spindrift on Aug 4, 2009 22:19:53 GMT
hw - OMG I am so stupid. I completely forgot he was the governor So funny! He was always being photographed with his two blonde daughters. Yes, I miss distantshores too. He was such fun ;D
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2009 12:41:15 GMT
Received as a gift a wonderful book(Bixa you may know of)called "Diario De Oaxaca",A Sketchbook Journal of Two Years in Mexico by Peter Kruper. Beautifully illustrated with sketches and reminisces of the years 2006-2008 spent with family in Oaxaca at the height of the teacher's strike and what culminated as a result. Have only just begun but am enjoying immensely. (Peter Kruper is well known as the Spy vs. Spy artist for Mad Magazine and co-founder of the political comics magazine,World War 3,Illustrated.)
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 9, 2009 16:40:02 GMT
Oh ~ I didn't know a book had been made of Kuper's sketches from Oaxaca. I saw quite a few of them online during 2006, but never knew he was the Spy vs. Spy guy. This link has six of his pictures of that time. Looking at these and at his blog page, I'm surprised that he uses photo manipulation so much in his work. Before looking at the pictures above, you may want to check out this very brief explanation of the conflict in Oaxaca. It should clarify some of the elements in the drawings.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2009 13:32:35 GMT
I would be very curious to hear your take on this book Bixa should you be able to get your hands on.(It's a bit pricey,had it not been a gift I doubt I would have purchased). As with most books with an outsider looking in,(goodness knows with all the Katrina books published,95% of which are rubbish)oft times the author,although he/she fancies their self to be taking an inside track,completely miss the point. The illustrations however,are worthy of a glance or two.
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Post by Kimby on Nov 19, 2009 22:36:13 GMT
Whatever you do, don't believe the sort of things that are published in guidebooks. I'm pleased to see we have a published author in our midst, but - for first-time visitors to a city at least - I can't agree with his advice. Our stay in Sydney was so enriched by our hotel being only steps from the Circular Quay, Harbour Bridge and Opera House, which made spur-of-the-moment walks through the center a possibility any time of the day or night. If we'd had to get on a bus or train to go there, we wouldn't have had the same experience. Also liked our downtown Paris digs, too, for the same reason. However, for a return visitor, I think K2 has a point. But as my grandfather would say, if he keeps his hat on maybe no one will notice it! End of threadjack. Sorry.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2010 20:35:45 GMT
Surely there must be something new and different in the world of travel books.
Damn, I would know the answer if I could travel.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 31, 2010 21:12:17 GMT
I read a travel book that I simply adored, that I want to go around thrusting at everyone ......... then I posted about it in the "what is everyone here reading?" thread instead of in this one. Oh well ~~ I can just quote myself! Yesterday I began Paul Theroux's Ghost Train to the Eastern Star.
I am completely bowled over. This is writing and thinking of a very high order, a mature author gracefully displaying his talents. Other readers here may know what I mean when I say I mourn each page I read, as it means I'm that much closer to the end of the book. Even more than he did in The Great Railway Bazaar, he conveys that itch to just take off, pack up and go. Yesterday I finished Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, by Paul Theroux. It is sublime: thoughtful, beautifully crafted, informative, and touching. This is a book that I will definitely read again and wholeheartedly recommend to everyone.
I've read several reviews which do not conform to my great admiration and enjoyment of this book, and can only think the reviewers are stupid, small-minded, and or peevish because they wanted some other kind of book. Here is a review with which I concur: www.mcclelland.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780771085338
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Post by Kimby on Aug 2, 2010 22:38:32 GMT
Surely there must be something new and different in the world of travel books. Damn, I would know the answer if I could travel. No excuse, K2. Not travelling gives you more time for reading, right?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2010 11:29:23 GMT
One of my used book purchases while in NY was/is a book Hitchhiking Vietnam,A woman's solo journey in an elusive land,by Karin Muller. I have only just begun reading it last evening. (Copyright 1998) It has great maps!!! With my new found knowledge of this beautiful country thanks to HWINPP and K2,and others,I am so looking forward to reading!!!
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Post by Jazz on Sept 29, 2010 23:55:19 GMT
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Post by hwinpp on Sept 30, 2010 7:17:33 GMT
Maybe I can pick it up here second hand, will have to check.
Hitch- hiking is actually quite brave!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2010 8:01:57 GMT
One of my favorite authors of extreme living is was Dan Eldon who was brought to my attention when his book "The Journey is the Destination" was published posthumously. How incredible to have traveled to 46 countries only to be killed by an angry mob... at age 22.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2010 9:33:26 GMT
Maybe I can pick it up here second hand, will have to check. Hitch- hiking is actually quite brave! It's a wonderful read!! Many of the places and descriptions of daily life are very reminiscent of so many of your posts HW,although,I have to say, yours are written with more depth and detail. (Perhaps you have the makings of a travelogue book in you HW!!??) I would never dream of hitch hiking alone through a foreign country these days,let alone even my own country. Back in my hippie days yes,(I was way more daring ,and dumb),but not now.
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Post by betsie on Sept 30, 2010 10:14:38 GMT
I'm cheating, since this isn't really a travel book but pure humour, but I gotta get it in here, since it's the funniest book I've ever read:
Molvania, a Jetlag Travel guide. I've got another in the series, but this one is a jewel.
"Molvania, a land untouched by modern dentistry, birthplace of the Polka and whooping cough...if something goes missing, best thing to do is to look for a Guardja Civiltje, chances are he will be the person who stole it..."
When I read this book late at night, I laughed so loudly I scared the cat and the neighbours phoned to ask if I was alright. ;D
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 9, 2011 18:19:50 GMT
I'm always struck, when reading Paul Theroux's travel books, by his reading list as he travels through various countries. So often he is reading books that I would have characterized as "out of date". However, as a world traveler and excellent author, he must know many things I don't. So, this morning, when I came across mention of Richard Halliburton, I paid attention. abridged from Wikipedia:Richard Halliburton (9 January 1900 – presumed dead after 24 March 1939) was an American traveler, adventurer, and author. Best known today for having swum the length of the Panama Canal, Halliburton was headline news for most of his brief career.
Halliburton's first book, The Royal Road to Romance [1925], became an immediate bestseller. Two years later he published The Glorious Adventure, which retraced Ulysses' adventures throughout the Classical Greek world as recounted in Homer's The Odyssey. In 1929 Halliburton published New Worlds To Conquer, which recounted his famous swim of the Panama Canal, his retracing the track of Cortez' conquest of Mexico, and [his being] "cast away" on the island of Tobago.
Writers Paul Theroux and Susan Sontag, among others, have offered debts of gratitude for his influence on their work.
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Post by bjd on Jan 10, 2011 19:29:17 GMT
Halliburton looks interesting, Bixa. I just had a quick google, but his books seem to be out of print while Princeton decides about his papers.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 10, 2011 19:40:11 GMT
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Post by ninchursanga on Jan 27, 2011 15:52:28 GMT
One of my favourite travel writers is Annemarie Schwarzenbach, a tragic character who died early but left a wonderful legacy of writings about her travels during the 1930's and 1940's. My favourite is her book about the journey she undertook with a fellow writer to Afghanistan. The two women drove all the way from Switzerland to the Central Asia, quite remarkable for that time. Unfortunately her work doesn't seem to have been translated into English.
However, her travel companion Ella Maillart has been published in French and English. She's been even more adventurous, traveling in Central Asia all by herself during those times. "Turkestan Solo" was my favourite one and her version of that Afghanistan trip has a bit less drama but is more of a travel report.
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Post by bjd on Jan 27, 2011 19:31:06 GMT
I have read Ella Maillart's books, including the one about the trip to Afghanistan. As I recall, she went with another woman that she wanted to help get over drug addiction or something similar. Would that have been Annemarie Schwarzenbach, under a different name (Christina?)?
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Post by bjd on Jan 27, 2011 19:31:48 GMT
You were right about Halliburton, Bixa. I did find some of those books afterwards, but as you say, they are really expensive.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2012 20:38:01 GMT
Among the books about voyages that most marked me, there was the extraordinary Indian Nocturne by the Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi, published in 1984 (and which was made into a quite good film).
It's about a man who goes to search for a mysterious friend in India. He has many unusual encounters along the way.
Antonio Tabucchi died today at age 68, in Lisbon.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2014 11:58:38 GMT
I recently heard of a book called Permanent Parisians. It's a guide book to the cemeteries of Paris. The title is in reference to all the feline inhabitants of the various cemeteries. I got the impression it's been around awhile.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2016 16:43:30 GMT
Last week I gave my Lonely Planet French Guatemala guidebook to a passing visitor who needed it more than I.
Soon I will buy the Routard Guatemala et Yucatan guidebook to continue my personal research.
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Post by mossie on May 30, 2016 19:22:53 GMT
Weighing my coffee table down is "Paris" Harrap Guides Bleus, all 1614 pages of it, bought for peanuts in a charity shop. On my kitchen table for dipping in to is "Paris revealed, The secret life of a city" a humorous book by Stephen Clarke, a series of essays covering many aspects but with an Englishmans preoccupation with sex.
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