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1.Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar by: Paul Theroux August 18, 2008
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $28.00 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $18.48 You Save: $9.52 (34%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $13.74
I have been reading Theroux's travel books for more than 30 years, and I have to say that they and he get better all the time. This latest book is the funniest, wisest, kindest, most beautifully written of the books. What the author has lost in endurance (he goes to sleep much earlier than ever before) and appetite (he stays pretty much away from the bars), he makes up for in humanness. Like all the great writers, he's a man on a mission, and the mission is to tell us that there are people in the world who deserve our love and admiration and there are people in the world who don't deserve anything because they are here to hurt us. He tells us this in such a way that we realize that the world isn't such a bad place and that it's a good thing to stick around a ... Read More

2.Playboy Best of Fiction, v5 (Best of Playboy Fiction) by: Paul Theroux, Ursula K. Leguin, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Andre Dubus, Lawrence Sanders, John Updike July 01, 1997
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $19.88
I purchased this book as a gift for my husband. It arrived on time, and the book was such a great read, my husband purchased another book from the same author as soon as he finished this one.

3.The Great Railway Bazaar by: Paul Theroux June 01, 2006
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $14.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $10.17 You Save: $4.78 (32%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $6.60
The book was in excellent condition when it arrived and it arrived in a timely manner. No complaints here!

4.Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown by: Paul Theroux April 05, 2004
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $15.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $10.85 You Save: $5.10 (32%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $2.74
In his odyssey from Cairo to Cape Town, Theroux ventures through the best and the worst that this fabled continent has to offer. And if there's one overriding message that comes through it is that Africa is doomed. It is fading back into the bush and you get the feeling that perhaps that is the only answer to it. Make the continent a nature preserve and forget about it. Theroux is unstinting in his descriptions of the good and bad things he encounters in Africa and his fearlessness in getting behind the story is journalism at its best. It's also travel writing at its best and the reader comes away feeling he has personally accompanied the author on this epic journey. Theroux has done a heroic job here and his efforts and ordeals should be rewarded with the broadest readership.

5.The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas by: Paul Theroux November 07, 1979
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $15.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $14.35 You Save: $1.60 (10%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $2.01
You may find Thoreaux's openness and directness refreshing, or you may find his brashness, arrogance, condescension, and hypocritical judgementalism revolting. If the latter is true, take heart that this book actually becomes enjoyable once you get past the first hundred pages or so... Maybe others will better appreciate Thoreaux's attempts at humor, but the first hundred pages of this book could arguably compete for the most off-putting intro ever written. Before even beginning to prove a thing about himself (unless he's relying on an established reputation?), he devotes a few pages to trashing the state of current travel literature as being formulaic and overly focused on the destination vs. the journey. Beginning his story, he immediately picks a couple of confrontations with fellow passengers: ... Read More

6.The Mosquito Coast by: Paul Theroux June 01, 2006
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $14.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $10.17 You Save: $4.78 (32%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $2.53
Im 28 and I just finished reading the Mosquito Coast last week. I LOVED the story and the writing but another thought crossed my mind; I would have hated to read this book in high school. Im POSITIVE that somewhere in the good ol' USA, some english department is dishing this word puppy out to the kiddies for a nice brain bender of exam questions. The Mosquito Coast marries Social Commentary and symbolism together like Peanut Butter and Jelly. This novel may well join the ranks of The Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men, and The Cather and the Rye in "Classic Classroom Literature"; if not ...well the story has the muscle to do so. Enjoy this book (I did)...and if you have to read this book for an exam...kick some butt.

7.The Elephanta Suite by: Paul Theroux September 18, 2008
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $14.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $9.11 You Save: $5.84 (39%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $2.91
Im 28 and I just finished reading the Mosquito Coast last week. I LOVED the story and the writing but another thought crossed my mind; I would have hated to read this book in high school. Im POSITIVE that somewhere in the good ol' USA, some english department is dishing this word puppy out to the kiddies for a nice brain bender of exam questions. The Mosquito Coast marries Social Commentary and symbolism together like Peanut Butter and Jelly. This novel may well join the ranks of The Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men, and The Cather and the Rye in "Classic Classroom Literature"; if not ...well the story has the muscle to do so. Enjoy this book (I did)...and if you have to read this book for an exam...kick some butt.

8.The Last Place on Earth (Modern Library Exploration) by: Roland Huntford September 07, 1999
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $15.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $10.85 You Save: $5.10 (32%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $1.45
This book is so good and so changed the hero worship apologist views of Scott that, all by itself, it spawned a whole set of NEW apologist rebuttals. Some of these books just can't accept the truth, and perhaps the only one that deserves a response is the work by Susan Solomon, a meteorologist, who contends that Scott may have made errors, but was basically the victim of "bad weather". First, it's entirely unsurprising to expect a certain amount of bad weather at the South Pole(!), but the contention is that that the weather was even worse than what should have been expected. Perhaps, but the uncomfortable truth remains that Amundsen and his crew completed the journey (and gained weight on the return from the Pole), while Scott literally froze and starved. What accounts for the difference? Aside ... Read More

9.Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds by: Robert Coover, Maureen Gibbon, Jay McInerney, Daphne Merkin, Robert Stone, Paul Theroux November 22, 2007
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $500.00 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $360.00 You Save: $140.00 (28%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $232.45
This is a wonderful book and a steal at the Amazon price. It has been as low as $150 but now seems to be climbing again. Don't be fooled and wait for the new edition coming out in October for $50 ($31.50 at Amazon). The new edition features approx. half-size reproductions of 12"x6" as opposed to the FULL-SIZE reproductions of the original gatefolds from the magazine (approx. 22"x11") in this pricier first edition. As a subscriber since the late 60s, this is a great trip down memory lane as well as a wonderful nostalgic look at the playmates that were before my time. It's a revelation to see those Playmates as they appeared for the first time full-size. And what a treat to have the ones I was familiar with and pasted on dorm room and bachelor apartment walls now preserved fold and staple free in a durable hardback format.

10.Sir Vidia's Shadow: A Friendship Across Five Continents by: Paul Theroux January 08, 2001
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $15.00 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $10.20 You Save: $4.80 (32%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $2.37
What began as a mentoring relationship between established novelist V. S. Naipaul and Paul Theroux, a young writer working on his first novel, went on to endure as a "friendship" for thirty years as both writers traveled the world but remained in touch. They met when Theroux was a young ex-Peace Corp worker teaching in Uganda at the university in Makerere in 1966, and Naipaul, nine years his senior, became "writer-in-residence" there, though Naipaul hated teaching and mocked the writing of his students and the Makerere faculty. He did, however, recognize Theroux's talent, and he did help and encourage him to get his novel published. Theroux, in turn, was an astute reader of Naipaul's work, and both benefited from the relationship, at least at first. From 1967 - 1977, Theroux published ten successful novels and short story collections, ... Read More

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