Tag Archives: travel

The Bicycle Diaries

Posted on November 3, 2018 by smellincoffee

The Bicycle Diaries: My 21,000 Mile Ride for the Climate© 2014 David Kroodsma428 pages The Bicycle Diaries combines travel and climate-change advocacy, both literally as a trip and throughout the book. As Kroodsma makes his way through Mexico, Central America, … Continue reading →

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Mirrors of the Unseen

Posted on May 16, 2018 by smellincoffee

Mirrors of the Unseen:  Journeys in Iran © 2006 Jason Elliot 432 pages Readers uninterested in the origins and history of Islamic art, metaphysics, or pigeons, should skip to the next chapter, here. In the late nineties, before Afghanistan was … Continue reading →

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Short rounds: things that are not Star Trek, like North Koreans and Aeneas

Posted on May 5, 2018 by smellincoffee

Believe it or not, I have been reading books without a Star Trek label appended to them this week. Just recently I finished off Don’t Go There, a short collection of travel pieces that interested me with its mention of visits to … Continue reading →

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House of Rain

Posted on February 17, 2018 by smellincoffee

House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest © 2007 Craig Childs 482 pages Throughout the southwest United States and northern Mexico there are ruins from a people long gone, people remembered as the Anasazi. The name … Continue reading →

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Country Driving

Posted on December 12, 2017 by smellincoffee

Country Driving: A Journey through China from Farm to Factory© 2010 Peter Hessler448 pages First things first: that statue on the cover intrigued me enough that I bought both books that used photographs of it.  Emperor Far Away made nary … Continue reading →

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The Emperor Far Away

Posted on November 30, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Emperor Far Away: Travels at the Edge of China© 2014 David Eimer336 pages The Emperor Far Away takes readers on a journey along China’s outer rim, beginning in the western steppes where the ‘Chinese’ are a minority,  and following … Continue reading →

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A Thousand Miles from Nowhere

Posted on October 1, 2017 by smellincoffee

A Thousand Miles from Nowhere© 1995 Graham Coster275 pages Great literature has been produced from travelers’ tales, from those who walked or rode trains or even drove — but none from a truck, says Graham Coster. In the hopes of … Continue reading →

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Cities of Gold

Posted on August 3, 2017 by smellincoffee

Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest in Pursuit of Coronado© 1992 Douglas Preston (Walter Nelson, Photographs)480 pages Sometimes, history has got to be pursued from the back of a horse.  Douglas Preston wasn’t sure what took him … Continue reading →

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The Lost Continent

Posted on June 27, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America© 1989 Bill Bryson When I read The Road to Little Dribbling, full of Bryson complaining and thinking murderously about people who so much as annoyed him, I returned it disappointed. “Bryson’s turned … Continue reading →

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Baghdad without a Map

Posted on June 14, 2017 by smellincoffee

Baghdad without a Map and Other Adventures in Arabia© 1992 Tony Horowitz285 pages So your wife is on extended assignment in Cairo, and you’re a freelance journalist without a regular gig. What do you do? Why not wander around northern … Continue reading →

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