- Paperback: 327 pages
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH); 1 edition (11 Oct 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0618582150
- ISBN-13: 978-0618582150
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14 x 1.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 949,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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12 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
my travel writting text book--and a good read too!
13 Jun 2007
Format:Paperback
It is a little bit hard to review this book because I have read most of the series and like them all. This is no exception and I thought that there are a few things that I can add.
As always a good/great selection of material and most/all are great reads. As has been stated elsewhere if you do not like one, you can skip it. However, I never skip a story. I sort of think that I might not finish one, but then I do and am glad that I did.
Not only do I like the stories, but I think of the book as a study guide for an aspiring travel writer. Thus far I have limited my travel writing by sneaking it into other nonfiction wrting that I do (I recommend this technique). I may never seriously go down the travel writting road, but the idea helps me notice things that I might not otherwise.
Here is a specific tip. Be sure to read the forematter of the book--the foreword and introduction. They are good reading too.
One small point. Compared to the others in the series that I have read, this edition would have to qualify for an R rating because of the story about prostitution in Costa Rica. I liked the story--and you can, of course, skip it if you do not like it--but I fell obligated to mention it. There was one other place (that I forget right now) that made me think the same thing about R rating.
As soon as I finished this book, I went out and bought one from the sports series!
As always a good/great selection of material and most/all are great reads. As has been stated elsewhere if you do not like one, you can skip it. However, I never skip a story. I sort of think that I might not finish one, but then I do and am glad that I did.
Not only do I like the stories, but I think of the book as a study guide for an aspiring travel writer. Thus far I have limited my travel writing by sneaking it into other nonfiction wrting that I do (I recommend this technique). I may never seriously go down the travel writting road, but the idea helps me notice things that I might not otherwise.
Here is a specific tip. Be sure to read the forematter of the book--the foreword and introduction. They are good reading too.
One small point. Compared to the others in the series that I have read, this edition would have to qualify for an R rating because of the story about prostitution in Costa Rica. I liked the story--and you can, of course, skip it if you do not like it--but I fell obligated to mention it. There was one other place (that I forget right now) that made me think the same thing about R rating.
As soon as I finished this book, I went out and bought one from the sports series!
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Not your ordinary holiday
31 Dec 2006
Format:Paperback
Travel writing, in this annual "Best of" series, has nothing to do with vacationing. Well, almost nothing.
GQ sends the very witty George Saunders to wallow in some of the most excessive luxury resorts in the most decadent and opulent city in the Middle East (the world?), Dubai. And the equally entertaining Calvin Trillin goes to Ecuador for Easter to eat the traditional Holy Week soup, fanesca, and practice his Spanish idioms.
But most of these lively, first person stories express only the most glancing acquaintance with "vacation" as we know it.
Some are profiles, like Kevin Fedarko's ride down the rapids of the Grand Canyon with writer, conservationist and outdoorsman Martin Litton, still an opinionated, controversial adventurer at 87.
Several deal with the specifics of air travel, including a typically hilarious, squirmy ordeal from David Sedaris, Sally Shivnan's lyrical view of flying cross country in a window seat and P. J. O'Rourke's humorous and informative portrait of France's Airbus A380.
Some are reflective, like Alain De Botton's appreciation of his native Zurich's essential, orderly bourgeoisie and Ian Frazier's journey from his small Ohio hometown to a hitchhiking epiphany when "I quit living in Hudson and began to live in the world."
Many take us to places we're unlikely to go. Qaddafi's Libya, for instance, where venturesome Kira Salak follows loosely, and sometimes nervously, in the footsteps of Scotsman Hugh Clapperton who explored Libya and crossed the Sahara in 1824, when it was rather a different place. Or Papua, New Guinea, where Michael Behar goes on a strange, uncomfortable tour to make "first contact" with undiscovered indigenous people.
Whether witty, clever, musing, or adventurous, what all these pieces have in common is an acute and reflective sense of observation and really good writing.
Like all the volumes in this series, the pieces are culled from a vast array of periodicals, including the Internet, but the final selection tends to be from major publications, like "The New Yorker," and "Outside." Series editor Wilson chooses his top 100 and the guest editor (Cahill) winnows it down to the last 25 or so. Cahill, a founding editor of "Outside" magazine, emphasizes "literate writing" and storytelling in his approach and the result is a provocative and fascinating portrait of some of the more interesting corners of the world.
-- Portsmouth Herald
GQ sends the very witty George Saunders to wallow in some of the most excessive luxury resorts in the most decadent and opulent city in the Middle East (the world?), Dubai. And the equally entertaining Calvin Trillin goes to Ecuador for Easter to eat the traditional Holy Week soup, fanesca, and practice his Spanish idioms.
But most of these lively, first person stories express only the most glancing acquaintance with "vacation" as we know it.
Some are profiles, like Kevin Fedarko's ride down the rapids of the Grand Canyon with writer, conservationist and outdoorsman Martin Litton, still an opinionated, controversial adventurer at 87.
Several deal with the specifics of air travel, including a typically hilarious, squirmy ordeal from David Sedaris, Sally Shivnan's lyrical view of flying cross country in a window seat and P. J. O'Rourke's humorous and informative portrait of France's Airbus A380.
Some are reflective, like Alain De Botton's appreciation of his native Zurich's essential, orderly bourgeoisie and Ian Frazier's journey from his small Ohio hometown to a hitchhiking epiphany when "I quit living in Hudson and began to live in the world."
Many take us to places we're unlikely to go. Qaddafi's Libya, for instance, where venturesome Kira Salak follows loosely, and sometimes nervously, in the footsteps of Scotsman Hugh Clapperton who explored Libya and crossed the Sahara in 1824, when it was rather a different place. Or Papua, New Guinea, where Michael Behar goes on a strange, uncomfortable tour to make "first contact" with undiscovered indigenous people.
Whether witty, clever, musing, or adventurous, what all these pieces have in common is an acute and reflective sense of observation and really good writing.
Like all the volumes in this series, the pieces are culled from a vast array of periodicals, including the Internet, but the final selection tends to be from major publications, like "The New Yorker," and "Outside." Series editor Wilson chooses his top 100 and the guest editor (Cahill) winnows it down to the last 25 or so. Cahill, a founding editor of "Outside" magazine, emphasizes "literate writing" and storytelling in his approach and the result is a provocative and fascinating portrait of some of the more interesting corners of the world.
-- Portsmouth Herald
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Great selection of excellent travel articles
18 April 2007
Format:Paperback
I bought this book to supplement a travel writing course. I read many of the travel articles and found them interesting and well-written. It was especially helpful to read these articles without the pictures that must have accompanied many of them -- the writing for the most part was superb.
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