I Should Have Stayed Home: The Worst Trips of Great Writers

by Roger Rapoport (Editor), Mary Morris (Introduction), Jan Morris (Contributor)

In this hilarious anthology 50 top travel writers, novelists and journalists, including Isabel Allende, Jan Morris, Barbara Kingsolver, Paul Theroux, Mary Morris, Dominique Lapierre, Eric Hansen, Rick Steves, Tony Wheeler and Helen Gurley Brown, tell the stories of their greatest travel disasters. Most of the writers of these original essays are contributing their royalties to Oxfam America, the international relief organization. Guaranteed to whet your appetite or make you cancel your reservations.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Humor, Essays, Memoir, Anthologies, Journalism

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

About the author

As a newspaper and magazine writer and aviation specialist Roger Rapoport has written in all 50 states, 6 Canadian provinces, and 30 foreign countries. A lifelong sailor and enthusiastic kayaker, he has traveled extensively throughout the Great Lakes, along the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Atlantic Coast.

Roger Rapoport graduated with a Bachelor's of Arts in Journalism in 1968 from the University of Michigan where he was editor of The Michigan Daily.

While working on a story for Ramparts Magazine he met his first wife, Margot Lind. They had a son & daughter and later divorced in 1993.

In 1978, Rapoport began to work at California newspapers, including The San Jose Mercury-News, the San Francisco Chronicle & the Oakland Tribune.

In 1991 Rapoport went to work for Ulysses Press in Berkeley learning about the publishing business.

In 1993 he launched his own publishing effort, RDR Books in Oakland, CA and has since published more than 60 books.

Rapoport met Martha Ferriby, director of Hackley Public Library, while in Michigan in 1995. They married in 2000.

Rapoport moved to Michigan in 2004.

In 2007 RDR became a defendant in the seminal fair use case J.K. Rowling. v. RDR Books, aka The Harry Potter Lexicon Case. Rapoport and Steve Vander Ark, founder of “The Harry Potter Lexicon” website had sought to publish a book version of the Vander Ark's Potter fans' website.

Author J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. claimed copyright infringement. RDR Books claimed the right to publish under the fair use doctrine.

Although RDR lost the case, Judge Robert B. Patterson Jr. awarded the plaintiffs less than $7,000 in damages for infringement, the minimum amount possible.

Judge Patterson concluded that "reference guides in general, including the Lexicon, are transformative in nature and capable of fair use protection, and that the Lexicon could be published with less appropriation from the original works. "

On January 16, 2009, RDR Books released The Lexicon: An Unauthorized Guide to Harry Potter Fiction and Related Materials including more commentary than before the suit.
For more information see: Right to Write.

RDR Books is now closed. Most of the former RDR Book titles are now available from Ashley Creek Books.

Books written and edited by Roger Rapoport are now available from New Lake Books and Lexographic Press.

Rapoport published Steven Faulkner's Waterwalk. With Richard Harris he has since co-produced and adapted Faulkner's story for a film starring Robert Cicchini.

Reviews

[Mellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part of this book was the opening essay by Mary Morris. She opines that the best memories come out of the worst experiences. I found it to be a marvelous viewpoint. Ironically, the best stories did not live up to the title of the book -- these were interesting and uplifting tales of redemption: Isabel Allende's story of camping in Paris and finding that the food in restaurants wasn't that much better than camp food; Muriel Dobbin's story of traveling around the world with LBJ; Mary Mackey's story of the army ants cleansing her hotel; Croutier's story of making extra spending money after she was forced to buy caviar and champagne at the Soviet border; Eric Hansen's educational story of spending a cold winter's night in Grand Central Station; Carole Peccorini's story of an amorous orangutan. The least successful stories were those that told of just miserable experiences where the travelers could find no redeeming feature of their trip. No matter where they were, Nepal, Italy, Idaho, or the Dominican Republic, somehow these travelers came out seeming more whiny than put upon and surely should have stayed at home.

2012 #3

[Keaton Ibendahl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some made me giggle, but not a lot. Also took me like 6 months to want to finish it, so my lack of motivation says something. This would be good for a bathroom magazine rack!

[John Orman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Travel horror stories by all types of writers!

Barbara Kingsolver was rejected from a restaurant while visiting New York.

Paul Theroux had an unfortunate hangover while in Zambia.

Rick Steves having a wild time on a bus with a stoned Afghan driver.

Other than those stories, there are many more--freezing campers, army ants, warfare crossfire, avoiding sexual predators, falsely arrested, and frozen solid at the North Pole!

Read if you dare, but most of all--travel if you dare!

[Cat. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some hysterically funny descriptions of trips-gone-wrong (scorpions falling from the ceiling) as well as some thought-provoking ones (spending a winter night in Grand Central Station with all the resident homeless). Also, just a lot of interesting places mentioned. Reading this made me want to get on a train/plane/boat & GO! Altho' p'raps not to Ceylon or Central America....

[Peyton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the brevity of a lot of these stories, it gave short glimpses into the accidents or misfortunes that can happen when traveling and gave the opposite perspective of what we’re used to with guide books and seeing dream destinations on social media. There were quite a few interesting stories but most were so short it was hard to become fully immersed in the experience. Good for a laugh though or if you need a collection broken up into short essays.

[Theut · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acquistato in una splendida libreria di viaggi, il titolo mi ha affascinata... solo quando l'ho iniziato mi sono accorta del commento di Diana, che condivido in pieno: alcuni racconti sono piacevoli, altri davvero raffazzonati, giusto per fare numero. Peccato perché il tema si sarebbe prestato a millemila aneddoti divertenti (o meno).

[Amber the Human · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I bought the sequel to this book a few years ago and didn't much enjoy it. So why did I then buy this book? Probably because it's a dollar. Probably because it's been over a year since I've left the country and I felt like taking a trip in my mind. It had some good stories, some I still think about. Some more depressing than others. None super funny. But, you know, it was a dollar.

[Kathy Webber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book in an airport and it has provided me with entertaining reading for years. The experiences of being lost, horrible food, strange locals, being kidnapped by locals or worse are consistently intriguing and often hilarious. I keep this in my guest room.

[Katri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book. But it was a bit of a disappointment. The stories were too short and quite annoying. The only thing good that came out of this book was that it made my own travel delays (which ironically happened the day Ifinished this book) seem almost trivial.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

My pop was being a wiseass, so he gave me this book before I went on a trip because it's a tome of terrible travel experiences. I dug it.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great bedtime reading! ~

[Patience Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freaking hilarious!

[Batesharbuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun! Some of their tales make any travel woes I may have experienced look pretty tame.

[Shelley G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes it's more fun to remember the bad stuff.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had this book in my possession for many years and finally pulled it off the bookshelf to read. I don't want to say I was disappointed, but I thought some of the stories would have a humorous aspect, and there were absolutely none. While it was an intriguing read because I love to travel, (and my love of travel is the only reason I read it to completion) this collection of stories left me grossed out, sad or downright depressed. Not a bit of humor in the bunch, which took me by surprise. I suppose some of the stories might have been a bit humorous to the traveler who experienced them, but the way the stories were written did not reflect that.

Some of my favorite passages from the book:

"It's not easy to see these uncommon, wild creatures, and exotic growths - they aren't just hanging out at the side of the road waiting to sign autographs." (Lisa Alpine)

"When dawn came, rain was drumming down from a sky as dark as Costa Rican coffee." (Christopher P. Baker)

"I looked down and watched as a color wheel of pebbles passed beneath me like a cascade of hard candy." (Richard Bangs)

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best thing about this book is that each chapter is written by travel writers who have gained notoriety in their given fields, usually for longer novels or magazine articles. Those tend to not include "things that go wrong" so the book itself promises the reader to learn about how even seasoned travel writers experience hardship and unexpected bumps while on the road. However, for a lot of the stories one would be hard pressed to categorize them as a "worst trip". I mean one story is about how a lady did not know how to use the washing machine in her rented Paris apartment and it ran for twelve hours - not something which should have ruined a vacation nor constituted a horrible trip experience. The stories are a bit dated as well as the book was published in 1994 and many of the stories themselves took place in decades prior. However, it is light reading and each story can be read independently of the other so it is an easy book to put down and return to or read a story nightly before bed.

[Ingrid Spera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was definitely expecting something a bit more of a "hilarious" (as per the synopsis splurge) reading of people's worst trips and instead what I got what a very big roller coaster of humor and drama and introspection that I wasn't quite ready for. It was definitely a good collection though and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Several of the stories made me laugh out loud and one or two made me wish those had been MY worst trips! This is one we can appreciate for the realness of what it means to travel and to push ourselves out of our comfort zone!

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like any compilation, some of these stories were great and hilarious. Others were blah or amazingly entitled. Definitely a good read for anyone who loves to travel. I have had this book on my shelf for many years and remember attempting to read it when I traveled weekly for work. It was too much then. I love it when a book can sit and wait for just the right time to be consumed appropriately. As for the irony of the title, I started reading in a couple weeks before the world shutdown and finished it just as things were getting serious. At least it made me laugh a little.

[Denise Spicer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the subtitle is “The Worst Trips of Great Writers”, this 1994 Book Passage Press book with a few dozen short travel essays only boasts a few famous writers and even their contributions are mediocre at best. Some essays are mildly interesting , some mildly amusing, a few are gross, but none is really memorable.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short stories (for a person who doesn't like short stories) of travel adventures that went horribly wrong & sort of wrong. Makes me not want to travel to a few places mentioned but the book was excellent!

[Alison O'Leary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this book are fun to read, other chapters fall flat. Editing could have been stronger as these stories of travel gone bad are a dime a dozen. Still, a chapter or two at bedtime is a nice sedative.

[Sonja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this in my Little Free Library. It was kind of a fun read - nothing special, though. There were a lot of trips I was so glad I wasn't a party to - and I feel fortunate that most of my travel has been quite lovely, if the plane trips didn't take so long.

[Cameron Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic Travel writing

[Jan Yarnot · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kind of thought this would be more fun. As it is, only a couple of the stories were amusing.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of 2-3 page travel stories, some interesting, some not.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but too much of the same thing. Better read in short stints, like a bathroom book

[Bec · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Such wide ranging stories

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a bit outdated (I think it was published in 1995) but as a fellow travel writer it really resonated with me. It made me conjure up a few of my own travel misadventures ;)

[pdxmaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun read

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just OK