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The Best American Travel Writing 2012: Notable Selections from the Annual Series by Leading Editors
The Best American Series®
First, Best, and Best-Selling
The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected — and most popular — of its kind.
The Best American Travel Writing 2012 includes
Bryan Curtis, Lynn Freed, J. Malcolm Garcia, Peter Gwin,
Pico Iyer, Mark Jenkins, Dimiter Kenarov, Robin Kirk,
Kimberly Meyer, Paul Theroux, and others
First, Best, and Best-Selling
The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected — and most popular — of its kind.
The Best American Travel Writing 2012 includes
Bryan Curtis, Lynn Freed, J. Malcolm Garcia, Peter Gwin,
Pico Iyer, Mark Jenkins, Dimiter Kenarov, Robin Kirk,
Kimberly Meyer, Paul Theroux, and others
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 2, 2012
49 people are currently reading
436 people want to read
About the author
William T. Vollmann
100 books1,464 followersWilliam Tanner Vollmann is an American author, journalist, and essayist known for his ambitious and often unconventional literary works. Born on July 28, 1959, in Los Angeles, California, Vollmann has earned a reputation as one of the most prolific and daring writers of his generation.
Vollmann's early life was marked by tragedy; his sister drowned when he was a child, an event that profoundly impacted him and influenced his writing. He attended Deep Springs College, a small, isolated liberal arts college in California, before transferring to Cornell University, where he studied comparative literature. After college, Vollmann spent some time in Afghanistan as a freelance journalist, an experience that would later inform some of his works.
His first novel, You Bright and Risen Angels (1987), is a sprawling, experimental work that blends fantasy, history, and social commentary. This novel set the tone for much of his later work, characterized by its complexity, depth, and a willingness to tackle difficult and controversial subjects.
Vollmann's most acclaimed work is The Rainbow Stories (1989), a collection of interlinked short stories that explore the darker sides of human nature. His nonfiction is equally notable, particularly Rising Up and Rising Down (2003), a seven-volume treatise on violence, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Over the years, Vollmann has continued to write prolifically, producing novels, short stories, essays, and journalistic pieces. His work often delves into themes of violence, poverty, and the struggles of marginalized people. He has received several awards, including the National Book Award for Fiction in 2005 for Europe Central, a novel about the moral dilemmas faced by individuals during World War II.
Vollmann is known for his immersive research methods, often placing himself in dangerous situations to better understand his subjects. Despite his literary success, he remains somewhat of an outsider in the literary world, frequently shunning public appearances and maintaining a low profile.
In addition to his writing, Vollmann is also an accomplished photographer, and his photographs often accompany his written work. Painting is also an art where's working on, celebrating expositions in the United States, showing his paintings. His diverse interests and unflinching approach to his subjects have made him a unique voice in contemporary American literature.
Vollmann's early life was marked by tragedy; his sister drowned when he was a child, an event that profoundly impacted him and influenced his writing. He attended Deep Springs College, a small, isolated liberal arts college in California, before transferring to Cornell University, where he studied comparative literature. After college, Vollmann spent some time in Afghanistan as a freelance journalist, an experience that would later inform some of his works.
His first novel, You Bright and Risen Angels (1987), is a sprawling, experimental work that blends fantasy, history, and social commentary. This novel set the tone for much of his later work, characterized by its complexity, depth, and a willingness to tackle difficult and controversial subjects.
Vollmann's most acclaimed work is The Rainbow Stories (1989), a collection of interlinked short stories that explore the darker sides of human nature. His nonfiction is equally notable, particularly Rising Up and Rising Down (2003), a seven-volume treatise on violence, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Over the years, Vollmann has continued to write prolifically, producing novels, short stories, essays, and journalistic pieces. His work often delves into themes of violence, poverty, and the struggles of marginalized people. He has received several awards, including the National Book Award for Fiction in 2005 for Europe Central, a novel about the moral dilemmas faced by individuals during World War II.
Vollmann is known for his immersive research methods, often placing himself in dangerous situations to better understand his subjects. Despite his literary success, he remains somewhat of an outsider in the literary world, frequently shunning public appearances and maintaining a low profile.
In addition to his writing, Vollmann is also an accomplished photographer, and his photographs often accompany his written work. Painting is also an art where's working on, celebrating expositions in the United States, showing his paintings. His diverse interests and unflinching approach to his subjects have made him a unique voice in contemporary American literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
March 5, 2013
A collection of travel essays written by a group of male travel authors. I guess women had nothing important to offer this year. I found a lot of these essays hit and miss, as the essays weren't traditional travel narratives by any means. Nevertheless, there were some key pieces that stand out in my mind. My favorites were:
Henry Shukman's Chernobyl, My Primeval, Teeming, Irradiated Eden - A rich tale of a modern-day Chernobyl and its decline into an ancient garden of oddities.
Elliot D. Woods Garbage City - The story of a group of people called the Zabbaleens, who have worked as Cairo's informal garbage collectors for the past 70 to 80 years. They support themselves by going from door to door to collect trash for no charge. They recycle up to 80 percent of what they collect by using their pigs to eat all the organic trash. Everything else is reused and recycled.
Robin Kirk's City of Walls - A terrific read on Northern Ireland and the IRA. I read this essay out loud to my husband while we were road-tripping and we were both fascinated with the history behind the piece.
Pico Iyer's Maximum India - Exloring Varanasi, the City of the Dead, in India. Located on the banks of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi is holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism and Jainism. Hindus believe that death at Varanasi brings salvation.
Luke Dittrich's Walking the Border - A hike along the US-Mexican border. What a great idea for a story!
Henry Shukman's Chernobyl, My Primeval, Teeming, Irradiated Eden - A rich tale of a modern-day Chernobyl and its decline into an ancient garden of oddities.
Elliot D. Woods Garbage City - The story of a group of people called the Zabbaleens, who have worked as Cairo's informal garbage collectors for the past 70 to 80 years. They support themselves by going from door to door to collect trash for no charge. They recycle up to 80 percent of what they collect by using their pigs to eat all the organic trash. Everything else is reused and recycled.
Robin Kirk's City of Walls - A terrific read on Northern Ireland and the IRA. I read this essay out loud to my husband while we were road-tripping and we were both fascinated with the history behind the piece.
Pico Iyer's Maximum India - Exloring Varanasi, the City of the Dead, in India. Located on the banks of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi is holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism and Jainism. Hindus believe that death at Varanasi brings salvation.
Luke Dittrich's Walking the Border - A hike along the US-Mexican border. What a great idea for a story!
November 18, 2012
Although labelled as travel writing, this year's edition - the first I've read in this series - more accurately consists of essays in which a sense of place figures prominently. Standout essays for me included: Monte Reel, How to Explore Like a Real Victorian Adventurer, on Victorian adventurers' how-to guides; Kenan Trebincevic, The Reckoning, a short but powerful piece on returning to visit a town from which the author's family was ethnically cleansed; and Luke Dittrich, Walking the Border, a hike along the US-Mexican border -- ultimately, fairly pointlessly uncomfortable, but good to know that someone has done it and written about it.
One of the most interesting pieces is the last, Aaron Dacytl, Railroad Semantics, a record of train-hopping in the Pacific Northwest, originally published in the author's 'zine. The first person account shares an experience very few readers will ever have and makes it really come alive - enduring miserable weather, dodging railroad workers (since the ride is an illegal trespass) - but the account is also skew - the sheer quantity of beer the author drinks means he must be traveling with a steady buzz, and the motive for the trip is never really clear (but not the point).
Overall, the collection is a pleasure for the breadth of places the essays cumulatively describe - in addition to the settings noted above, there's the Antarctic, a cave in Vietnam, rural Oklahoma, Cairo, Palermo, Varanasi, Chernobyl, cities in Bulgaria, and Northern Ireland.
One of the most interesting pieces is the last, Aaron Dacytl, Railroad Semantics, a record of train-hopping in the Pacific Northwest, originally published in the author's 'zine. The first person account shares an experience very few readers will ever have and makes it really come alive - enduring miserable weather, dodging railroad workers (since the ride is an illegal trespass) - but the account is also skew - the sheer quantity of beer the author drinks means he must be traveling with a steady buzz, and the motive for the trip is never really clear (but not the point).
Overall, the collection is a pleasure for the breadth of places the essays cumulatively describe - in addition to the settings noted above, there's the Antarctic, a cave in Vietnam, rural Oklahoma, Cairo, Palermo, Varanasi, Chernobyl, cities in Bulgaria, and Northern Ireland.
September 9, 2013
Overall, a very good collection. I'm surprised, actually, because I'm ranking this as highly as I ranked the 2008 edition, which I also just read and was edited by a favorite of mine, Anthony Bourdain. Vollman doesn't have QUITE the same taste as me, and there are a few in here I was not a fan of - I'm not much into Thomas Swick in this or in any of the other editions, and Aaron Dactyl's piece struck me as a bit misanthropic - but a few of them were absolutely incredible. Specifically:
-J. Malcolm Garcia's piece on Northern Ireland
-Paul Theroux's bit on Maine
-Peter Gwin's bit on Timbuktu
-Kenan Trebincevic's bit on going back home to the Balkans.
I've seen a number of complaints on Goodreads that the stories aren't generally speaking "travel writing," but are more pieces with a strong emphasis on the location of the piece, but I don't understand how this is a bad thing. Providing a historical or journalistic context for a location always makes traveling to it much more rewarding for me. And travelogues are often superficial and boring. Overall, a worthy addition to the series.
-J. Malcolm Garcia's piece on Northern Ireland
-Paul Theroux's bit on Maine
-Peter Gwin's bit on Timbuktu
-Kenan Trebincevic's bit on going back home to the Balkans.
I've seen a number of complaints on Goodreads that the stories aren't generally speaking "travel writing," but are more pieces with a strong emphasis on the location of the piece, but I don't understand how this is a bad thing. Providing a historical or journalistic context for a location always makes traveling to it much more rewarding for me. And travelogues are often superficial and boring. Overall, a worthy addition to the series.
July 26, 2013
Again -- where are the women travel writers? Is there really such a dearth, or is it that the type of things they focus on mostly don't capture male attention? Continuously bothers me about a series I always read, and mostly enjoy. I especially like to see the guest editors organizing the essays to flow a certain way (when they attempt to do that -- some just put things in abc order). Vollman does his shaping very astutely. An overview (Victorian travel writers), to political viewpoints, to slices of life in familiar places (Maine/Paris), to essays that speak to the past and the sense of "other," to actual journeys/explorations. Favorites were two of the political ones -- about northern Ireland and the morphing IRA, and about Chernobyl and its strange return to nature. Also liked the past/present juxtapostions in the essays about Bosnia (confronting an old nemisis) and South Africa (the fear engendered by aparthheid, where the undercurrent was about awaiting violence). And Pico Iyer (exloring Varanasi in India) is always worth reading. These are the ones that will stick with me. The tales of cave exploration and train hopping in the northwest were too insular for my taste, assuming a reader's knowledge a bit too much, containing little about really interacting with the people of a place (and oddly kind of self-congratulatory in a very male way -- I did this! I conquered this! Wow!) Contrast with Iyer -- big difference.
September 6, 2017
I've now read nearly all of these anthologies, and this one had--by far--the clearest editorial ethos. Vollman's explicit in his critique of the vagaries of writing for travel magazines, and the damage done by writing to an arbitrarily determined and commercially-driven word count. He also leans toward the spinach side of travel writing: these are not light-hearted adventures or pleasant tourist diversions. These are stories of parts of the world the reader will likely never see, and represent the experiences of people who found themselves in difficulty, or surrounded by danger and desperation, or just far from a context they understood.
Like all collections, I enjoyed some tales more than others. Also, not all of the inclusions made sense to me. While it's admirable to include self-published content, the final essay collapses under its own load of beer and sloppiness. One story about Northern Ireland would have been interesting, but two felt maudlin.
All told, it was worth reading, and it was definitely interesting to have the hand of the editor so clearly working behind the scenes, and not trying to render itself invisible. The only editor I've enjoyed more purely for their editorial work was Frances Mayes (an author I don't enjoy); the only other editor whose choices taught me as much was Jamaica Kincaid.
Like all collections, I enjoyed some tales more than others. Also, not all of the inclusions made sense to me. While it's admirable to include self-published content, the final essay collapses under its own load of beer and sloppiness. One story about Northern Ireland would have been interesting, but two felt maudlin.
All told, it was worth reading, and it was definitely interesting to have the hand of the editor so clearly working behind the scenes, and not trying to render itself invisible. The only editor I've enjoyed more purely for their editorial work was Frances Mayes (an author I don't enjoy); the only other editor whose choices taught me as much was Jamaica Kincaid.
June 2, 2013
I didn't request this for Chanukah/Christmas last year because of the reviews on Amazon. Finally got it out of the library. I've read a lot of the years in this book series and this is the one I liked the least. I'd have to say that in part it's because many of the articles aren't really about travel. If a reporter writes an article about people in another country, that's not really travel writing to me. Travel writing is a traveler writing about their observations as they travel. My favorite article in this collection is called "Amundsen Schlepped Here." It's about two men skiing some snowy, frozen area of Norway, following the path that explorer Roald Amundsen had conquered in the late 1800's. It's juxtaposed with the story of Amundsen's successful and well-planned race to be the first to the South Pole. That's one of the kinds of travel writing I like best - personal viewpoint with historical perspective.
August 11, 2014
Some fascinating articles:
A profile of the recycling industry in Cairo. Poor people with no training in economics whatsoever have put together and operate a complex model that divides labor and income among social classes with a subtle elegance that would make the Director of the IMF cry.
An article on how nature has evolved after humans suddenly disappeared. No need to go to the movies, folks. Buy a ticket to Chernobyl instead. Or better yet, read the article.
And some clunkers, such as an article on Paris that seems intended only to impress us with the author's cultural sophistication.
A profile of the recycling industry in Cairo. Poor people with no training in economics whatsoever have put together and operate a complex model that divides labor and income among social classes with a subtle elegance that would make the Director of the IMF cry.
An article on how nature has evolved after humans suddenly disappeared. No need to go to the movies, folks. Buy a ticket to Chernobyl instead. Or better yet, read the article.
And some clunkers, such as an article on Paris that seems intended only to impress us with the author's cultural sophistication.
November 9, 2013
This year's collection is good but as usual contains some hits and misses. I particularly enjoyed the pieces by Pico Iyer and Mark Jenkins, but wasn't as enamored of other selections such as Railway Semantics, which I feel turned what could have been a fascinating story about riding the rails into a boring stream-of-consciousness narrative that just wasn't interesting. Still, I enjoy anthologies like this because they contain a variety of styles and authors whom I'm unfamiliar with, and I plan to take a closer look at other works by several of the authors in this year's edition.
May 22, 2013
Most of these shouldn't even be classified as travel writing. Most of the pieces were also boring. This just seems to be a collection of essays and reportage set in locations foreign to the respective writers.
July 10, 2014
Like most anthologies a little uneven. Still, makes me want to TRAVEL. :)
May 3, 2018
The quality of writing in each of these travel stories was, as is usually the case with this series, of the highest caliber. However, the editing for the 2012 edition was exceptionally morose. That is why I only gave this edition three stars. Almost every story in this edition has to deal with death, violence, funerals, obituaries, murder, fear of murder, or conflict. If this was the only collection of travel writing that one was to ever read, they could be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that the world is a nasty, dirty, and violent place that is not worth going out and seeing for oneself. All in all the writing of each individual story was superb, but the collection as a whole resulted in a depressing letdown.
January 25, 2019
Usually I like this series of anthologies but not this volume. It irked me that nearly all of the entries were by men (in one case, one author had two different chapters--are there really no good female travel writers??), many of the authors were not American (or perhaps had been naturalized later in life, in which case, welcome and carry on), and "travel" writing was a bit of a stretch. For example, one person talked about being afraid of violence when growing up as a child in her native South Africa. How is that considered travel writing?
February 21, 2022
I know I read this 10 years after it was first published, but I was very disappointed by the lack of representation or cultural competency. A vast majority of the essays are written by men (16 out of 19), and many of the authors write from a place of immense privilege (male, white, wealthy, US citizen) without acknowledging it. I hope this collection has evolved over the last decade to be more diverse and self-aware.
July 29, 2022
There are a number of stories in this book, approximately 18 chapters worth. For me, there were only two or three that merited reading. I am sure there are those who would enjoy the others because they are all well written, just not at my own personal interest level.
January 14, 2018
I particularly liked essays by Pico Iyer and Lynn Freed.
November 4, 2018
Okay - hit and miss as usual. Some standouts but would have liked more narrative, more linear stories. I will check out other editions of this publication.
July 14, 2013
This was my first opportunity to read a year of the best american travel writing series. The two articles on northern ireland were important because i am planning to travel there. The segregation behind walls of belfast coupled with the criminal rather than revolutionary aspects of the current crop of ira gunmen have added to my understanding of the culture that continues to impede the resolution of the troubles. I enjoyed the view of the post apocalypse as expressed in the essay about chernobyl. Having watched specials on the quick trips in and out of the city, i was impressed with the folks who stay there particularly the radioecologists. of less interest was the wichita ceremony which moved me from oklahoma to distant points without much continuity. I will go back and find earlier years of the series.
February 4, 2017
Excellent collection of stories about places you're not likely to go but are interesting to learn about. Beginning with Jason Wilson's humorous story about travel with software translators and Monte Reel's story about Victorian travel guides and using their advice to explore a modern-day mall, the stories continue to impress: Henry Shukman on Chernobyl; Elliott Woods on the thriving recycling tribe of Garbage City, Cairo; Thomas Swick on the anti-mafia movement of Addipizzo in Palermo; several stories about Belfast, Northern Ireland including one about the walls that have been built to separate groups; Pico Iyer on Varanasi, a story about travelling the Mexican border fence, the Norwegian Arctic, and a Vietnamese Cave. I liked all but two stories and learned a lot from all of them. Kudos to the editor who found and chose these stories to publish.
April 6, 2013
I'm using this for my travel writing class but I liked 2009 better. First, there are hardly any women in here. It's atrocious. Really? You're telling me 90% of travel essays are written by men? I don't know how an editor gets away with that kind of disparity in 2012. And the themes were heavily masculine, as you might imagine. The essay on Tijuana made me wonder if Bryan Curtis has even talked to a woman during this millennium. Probably the most effective essay here is by J. Malcolm Garcia, and I'm not just saying that because I published an essay by him in Superstition Reivew. His essay is an excellent example of craft and I used it to talk to my students about style and tone.
February 3, 2013
It's really hard to give a "how many stars" rating to an anthology. Clearly, they vary from writer to writer. There were, as always a few 5 star pieces. (I particularly liked the Pico Iyer, Henry Shukman, and Mark Jenkins.
But I was disappointed by how many pieces this year were not really travel stories at all, but essays that feature a place in some way. Many of them were more politics than travel, and I happen to be burned out on the subject at the moment.
This certainly does not make them bad stories, but they were not what I think of when I am promised a travel story, so I felt a little cheated.
I do really like this series, and I read it every year. I just found myself skipping selections this year, which I generally don't do.
But I was disappointed by how many pieces this year were not really travel stories at all, but essays that feature a place in some way. Many of them were more politics than travel, and I happen to be burned out on the subject at the moment.
This certainly does not make them bad stories, but they were not what I think of when I am promised a travel story, so I felt a little cheated.
I do really like this series, and I read it every year. I just found myself skipping selections this year, which I generally don't do.
June 23, 2014
Vollman is among my favorite and most inspiring writers, and it's no wonder that I enjoyed his version of American Travel Writing more than, say, Elizabeth Gilbert's. This edition is almost comically intense, with visits to Chernobyl, the throngs of India, the post-war Balkans (to settle a score), hopping trains, a torture scene in Northern Ireland, and so on. This ain't your grandmother's idea of travel, unless your grandmother loves to flirt with death in horrifying slums. What I love about Vollman, and the authors he selects, is that he passionately sheds light on dark regions without (a) blandly pitying people or (b) turning into Vice magazine. Probably the best collection of BATW I've read yet, which is really saying something.
March 19, 2013
The Best American series is one I really enjoy. I picked up this copy on an Amazon Daily Deal a while back and held in in my "to read" collection until I had time for it. as with most others, I enjoyed some selections more than others. The preference was more due to my interest in the subject matter more that the how well written the story was. I particularly enjoyed:
Chernobyl, My Primeval, Teaming Irradiated Eden
Garbage City
My Days with the Anti_Mafia
city of Walls
Now Ye Know Who the Bosses Are Here Now
Maximum India
Walking the Border
Amundsen SchleppedHere
Chernobyl, My Primeval, Teaming Irradiated Eden
Garbage City
My Days with the Anti_Mafia
city of Walls
Now Ye Know Who the Bosses Are Here Now
Maximum India
Walking the Border
Amundsen SchleppedHere
May 19, 2013
A mixed bag. My favorite items were on traveling the mall Victorian style, Timbuktu, the return of nature to Chernobyl, Cairo and the Garbage City, the US Mexico border, Amundsen and Scott and the Norwegian traverse, and the oddities of Tijuana.
Other items included the anti-mafia in Sciily, ongoing troubles in Belfast, the IRA and the murder of Paul Quinn, the Maine Coast in winter, a Paris literature tour, Bosnian war reckoning, the longest running passion play, death in Bulgaria, the Hindu holy city, safety in post-Apartheid South Africa, Vietnam cave, and a train jumper.
Other items included the anti-mafia in Sciily, ongoing troubles in Belfast, the IRA and the murder of Paul Quinn, the Maine Coast in winter, a Paris literature tour, Bosnian war reckoning, the longest running passion play, death in Bulgaria, the Hindu holy city, safety in post-Apartheid South Africa, Vietnam cave, and a train jumper.
September 16, 2013
I've been drifting in and out of this for a few weeks now. Some of stories were like pulling teeth for me to get through (the one about garbage recyclers in Cairo comes to mind) but others were completely fascinating (Chernobyl and the skiing in Norway).
I think I'd probably be happier reading the imaginary book: "Best American Adventure Travel Writing".
The thing I like best about collections like this is being able to come to them when you need something to read but can't commit to a serious novel. This has been good bedtime reading for me this month.
I think I'd probably be happier reading the imaginary book: "Best American Adventure Travel Writing".
The thing I like best about collections like this is being able to come to them when you need something to read but can't commit to a serious novel. This has been good bedtime reading for me this month.
December 23, 2012
My favorite pieces from this volume:
Henry Shukman, "Chernobyl, My Primeval, Teeming, Irradiated Eden" (Ukraine)
J. Malcolm Garcia, "Now Ye Know Who the Bosses Are Here Now" (Ireland)
Bryan Curtis, "The Tijuana Sports Hall of Fame" (Mexico)
Dimiter Kenarov, "Memento Mori" (Bulgaria)
Luke Dittrich, "Walking the Border" (U.S./Mexico Border)
Mark Jenkins, "Amundsen Schlepped Here" (Norway/Antarctica)
Henry Shukman, "Chernobyl, My Primeval, Teeming, Irradiated Eden" (Ukraine)
J. Malcolm Garcia, "Now Ye Know Who the Bosses Are Here Now" (Ireland)
Bryan Curtis, "The Tijuana Sports Hall of Fame" (Mexico)
Dimiter Kenarov, "Memento Mori" (Bulgaria)
Luke Dittrich, "Walking the Border" (U.S./Mexico Border)
Mark Jenkins, "Amundsen Schlepped Here" (Norway/Antarctica)
April 10, 2013
Last year's collection was so great! What happened? Most of the pieces included didn't really seem to be about travel per se but more about a sense of place. Which is fine, but I really enjoyed the straight-up travel writing more. However, the two star rating is for the giant sausage fest 2012's collection was. Very few pieces of writing by women here. (I think the grand total was 2.) Really disappointing overall.
October 27, 2013
I'll admit that I have not read this entire book, but rather most of it. I skipped some stories out of frustration and boredom. I liked this compilation of stories. I didn't love any particular story, but did find them interesting and well-written enough to satisfy my armchair-traveling needs. I highly recommend the stories about Chernobyl, the anti-mafia movement in Italy, and "Maximum India", written by Pico Iyer (someone with whom I very much want to have a drink).
January 31, 2014
Part of the Best American Series where the editor selected 19 different short stories that had bee published elsewhere previously.
When I completed this book I felt as if I had just completed a "World Tour" from riding the rails in the great Northwest, to walking the US/Mexican border, to the Artic expedition to the south pole, covering all the continents , remote locations to bustling large cities.
I look forward to finding the 2013 edition.
When I completed this book I felt as if I had just completed a "World Tour" from riding the rails in the great Northwest, to walking the US/Mexican border, to the Artic expedition to the south pole, covering all the continents , remote locations to bustling large cities.
I look forward to finding the 2013 edition.
April 8, 2013
I love the series but not sure I'd call this "Travel" writing. Yes, these pieces took place in mostly foreign locales. But not many of them gave me that feeling of exhilaration that comes with journeying to a new place and seeing it with excited eyes. A good read, but it took forever and I'm glad it's over.
December 17, 2012
This was a really interesting collection. I'm even planning on using "How to Explore Like a Real Victorian Adventurer" in my composition class next semester. The only essay I didn't really dig was "Railroad Semantics". Interesting concept but I simply couldn't sustain reading about it for twenty pages.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews