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The Best American Travel Writing 2009 (2009)

by Simon Winchester(Favorite Author)

3.68 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0618858660 (ISBN13: 9780618858668)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Mariner Books

review 1: *Eh.* I figured the editor was a douchebag while reading his introduction to this book, and he really only reaffirmed that opinion throughout the course of the book. Not only did his glorifying of colonialism rub me the wrong way, but his idea of travel writing and mine are completely different. For me, travel writing is the exploration of a place (or places) through the traveler who pays attention to the juicy details and also the impact of that experience on him/herself. For this editor, sometimes travel was just a history of a place; sometimes travel was people self-exploring while paying no attention to the PLACE they were, and sometimes they were just plain boring or confusing. My travel companions need adventure; I'm living vicariously through them--duh! The only gem... more in this book was "Hotel Rwandas."
review 2: Yes, I desperately need a vacation, but this entry in yet another series that I had been ignoring (at my peril) helped tide me over. Some favorite pieces: Seth Stevenson on the hidden meanings of Disney World, Jay Kirk on the precarious present of Rwanda, Caroline Alexander on a swamp full of hidden tigers in Bangladesh, Paul Salopek on the nature of the Sahel in Africa, and Mark Schatzker on the surprising differences between cruising the Pacific and the Atlantic. I liked this volume so much I'm following up with the 2008 volume. less

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