Before Borders Books closed their doors I picked up as many armchair travel books as I could find. At eighty percent off, the deals were just too good to ignore. The closeout sale helped expand my author base, too, since I was able to justify taking a chance on a writer I had never heard […]
To a Mountain in Tibet
Colin Thubron’s Shadow of the Silk Road has remained one of my favorite armchair travel books since reading it a couple of years ago. I have been looking for something new from him over that time. I could have gone back and picked up something else, which I’ll still do, but I wanted to see […]
The Places in Between
Sometimes I stumble upon good travel books in other sections of the bookstore. For instance, I found A Course Called Ireland by Tom Coyne in the sports section. And when I find such gems, it seems like I discovered the X that marked the spot with a small bundle of treasure. That was the case […]
The Ghosts of Christmas Past
I’ve been going through some sort of nesting phase that I can’t quite explain; cleaning has taken on a new meaning as dirt and dust have started to cower before my mighty spray bottle. Just a couple of days ago I ventured into the closet in my guest bedroom, which is actually more of a […]
America and Americans
John Steinbeck is quickly becoming my favorite author. I abhorred his writing in high school, but have become enraptured with his words since reading Travels with Charley. Every single thing I pick up by Steinbeck is absolute gold, including my latest forray into his work – America and Americans, and Selected Nonfiction. More of Steinbeck’s […]
A Guy’s Take on Eat Pray Love
For quite some time, I purposefully – and quite successfully I may add – avoided reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia. Before even picking it up, I stereotyped the book as a “chick flick” on paper. And to an extent I was right. It is, […]

