Travel Blog: Life of a Travel Writer
Bhagavad Gita, Quran Join Gideon Bible on Hotel’s ‘Spiritual Menu’
by Michael Yessis | 04.09.08 | 12:53 PM ET
That’s not all that’s on the spiritual menu at Nashville’s Hotel Preston. It also offers versions of the Bible, the Torah, the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, the Book of Mormon and other spiritual texts in an effort to “make everyone feel at home when they’re away from home,” writes one of the hotel’s bloggers. “Yes, even you Scientologists out there!” I’m writing this post from a Hilton in Los Angeles, and this story is making me feel spiritually underfed.
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Yahoo! BuzzDon George: A Q&A with Jeffrey Tayler
by Michael Yessis | 04.03.08 | 3:33 PM ET
The two travel-writing heavyweights talk about, among other things. expat life and “the meaning of it all” in the latest issue of Recce. In the World Hum archives, we’ve also got Q&As with Tayler and George. And, of course, Tayler wrote our latest dispatch.
Rick Steves, Drug Policy Provocateur
by Jim Benning | 04.01.08 | 1:42 PM ET
When I interviewed Rick Steves last summer, he touched on how his travel experiences in Europe have soured him on America’s drug war. “People in America think you’re either hard on drugs or soft on drugs,” he said. “They say Europeans are soft on drugs. I think you’re either hard on drugs or you’re smart on drugs, and I think Europeans are smart on drugs as opposed to waging war on drugs.”
‘Strange Travel Suggestions’ and the Art of Telling a Good Tale
by Jim Benning | 03.31.08 | 12:38 PM ET
Travel stories are usually told in writing, or on film, or over a meal. But Jeff Greenwald is the rare travel writer who has turned his tales into a one-man stage show. It’s called “Strange Travel Suggestions,” and I caught it at last year’s Book Passage travel writing conference. I found it funny, fast-moving and surprisingly compelling. Judging by the enthusiastic response from others in the audience, I wasn’t the only one. In the show, Greenwald celebrates adventures in far-flung places. Even better, with audience input, he captures that addictive (and often elusive) sense about travel that anything can happen around your next turn.
An Expat in Athens: A Life Abroad, as a List
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.28.08 | 11:01 AM ET
Photo by riting on the wall via Flickr (Creative Commons).
If lives of expats can indeed be boiled down to lists, Marie Claire has some good ones. The magazine spotlights five American women living abroad: an author in Paris, a nonprofit worker in Beijing, a photographer in Cairo, a communications consultant in Tunis and a yoga teacher in Hamburg. They have all found things to love about their new homes but still long for their old ones.
Pico Iyer to Appear on ‘Fresh Air’
by Michael Yessis | 03.26.08 | 9:37 AM ET
If our interview with him only whetted your appetite for Pico, listen to him speak with Terry Gross today on “Fresh Air.” They’ll be talking about his new book, “The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama,” and “how the Dalai Lama is responding to the current uprising against Chinese rule.”
Related on World Hum:
* Pico Iyer: On ‘The Open Road’ and 30 Years With the Dalai Lama
Out Today: Pico Iyer’s ‘The Open Road’
by Jim Benning | 03.25.08 | 1:58 PM ET
The timing is remarkable. After Pico Iyer spent five years working on his new book about Tibet’s spiritual leader, The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama hits bookstores today—at a moment when Tibet is making headlines around the world. If nothing else, it assures Iyer’s work will find an audience beyond armchair travelers and Tibet admirers. We’ve just posted an interview with Iyer in which he explains why travel is at the heart of the book. Elsewhere on the Web, reviews and related Dalai Lama profiles are beginning to trickle in.
Next Jan Morris Book to Come ‘From the Grave’
by Michael Yessis | 03.21.08 | 11:23 AM ET
We won’t get to see Jan Morris’ last book until she passes away. It will be called “Allegorizings,” and it’s already finished—except for one chapter. The legendary 82-year-old writer told Publishers Weekly that the book revisits her “lifetime’s preoccupations—place and animals and all the things that have interested me. ... But, of course, I’m also looking back at them from a peculiar vantage point. There is a theme, which I suppose may remind the audience that even the most superficial writers can have a thread of more serious philosophical thoughts going through your mind.”
Peter Hessler Nominated For National Magazine Award
by Michael Yessis | 03.19.08 | 4:21 PM ET
Hessler’s China’s Instant Cities, a story we noted last June, has been nominated for a National Magazine Award in the Reporting category. Also nominated in the category: William Langewiesche’s Vanity Fair piece City of Fear.
Q&A with Laurie Gough: Beyond ‘The Back of the Bus’
by Michael Yessis | 03.19.08 | 8:11 AM ET
In The Back of the Bus, our latest dispatch, Laurie Gough reflects on a classic travel experience: A bus ride through a developing country. That trip through Sumatra, as well as others to Greece, Thailand and beyond, form the core of Gough’s book “Kiss the Sunset Pig,” which recently came out in the U.S. I recently asked her a few questions via e-mail about the book, her favorite travel writers and how she knew she was destined to be a wanderer.
A Travel Editor Enters the Blogosphere
by Jim Benning | 03.14.08 | 10:53 AM ET
It seems like just yesterday we gave this upstart blogger his big blogging break. (Okay, it wasn’t exactly a break. We had to talk him into it. And with two books under his belt, he’s hardly an upstart travel writer.) Yesterday, South Florida Sun-Sentinel travel editor Tom Swick launched a blog on the Sun-Sentinel’s Web site. His first posts touch on “componetization,” the QE2 and Louis Vuitton’s “journeys” commercial—a fine start.
What ‘Leave Your Worries Behind’ Really Means
by Jim Benning | 03.10.08 | 2:37 PM ET
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has kicked off an entertaining discussion about the real meaning of travel writing cliches—including the kinds of promotional lines found in bad travel stories, brochures and advertisements. Example: “Life on the island goes on at a slumbering pace.” Writes Phil Kloer, “What it means: This may be the most boring place on earth.” A few readers have offered their own favorite cliches and translations. I like this one from a reader named Lily: “‘Leave your worries and cares behind’ means ‘we have your credit card number.’”
Related on World Hum:
* It’s Charming!
Travel Writer, Meet Your Translator
by Jim Benning | 03.03.08 | 4:41 PM ET
Travel writer Daisann McLane recently met the man who translates her National Geographic Traveler columns into Mandarin for the magazine’s Chinese edition. At Intelligent Travel, she blogs about meeting Mr. Michael Zhang, “Translator of Many of Your Articles.” The Beijing translator told her over a dumpling lunch in Hong Kong, “When I sit down to translate your column, before I do anything else I try to imagine that I am you, visiting all these wonderful places. And then the words start to come…”
A Life’s Travels, Six Words Only
by Julia Ross | 03.03.08 | 9:23 AM ET
Last month, the online magazine Smith published an addictive collection of six-word memoirs, titled Not Quite What I Was Planning. As you might expect, the project’s abbreviated life stories—contributed by Smith’s readers and a few well-known writers—cover a wide arc of joy, tragedy, heartbreak and fulfillment.
Travel Writer to Reader: Don’t Blame me if Your Vacation is Ruined
by Jim Benning | 02.25.08 | 3:57 PM ET
Why? Because Susan Glaser of the Cleveland Plain Dealer just won’t have it. She wrote a story about a visit to a Mexican beach resort. After her story was published, she learned that a storm washed away part of the resort’s beach. She wrote a follow-up, but not before a reader booked a trip. Then Glaser received the reader’s angry e-mail, implying “it would be my fault if her 15th wedding anniversary trip was ruined.”
