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1.Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by: Robert M. Pirsig June 19, 1999
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: $49.95 Prices subject to change. Used Price: $2.00
For those who are unfamiliar with philosophy, this is a very accesible book with some nice insights. It reads like a train (although you might want to pause once in a while to think about some paragraphs). It is a bit outdated, and I have some personal remarks concerning a few topics.

2.Assassination Vacation from: Simon & Schuster Audio March 29, 2005
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $4.75
I just finished Sarah Vowell's Assasination Vacation and found it to be more interesting and cohesive than Partly Cloudy Patriot. Vowell wit and inquisitiveness are endearing and the book is a page turner more to find out her next reaction to something rather than to find out what she is actually doing. That said, her leftist, wackily liberal politics get in the way EVERY time she inserts them. And also, despite standing up and shouting her atheism, I don't buy it. I see some inner conflict being worked out on the written page, especially the last chapter. Those criticisms aside, I think it would be fun to take a trip with Vowell, staring at unread plaques or looking at a statue and being the only person within a mile in any direction who knew who it was of. Vowell does a ... Read More

3.A Walk in the Woods by: Bill Bryson 1998-09
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $89.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $61.54 You Save: $28.41 (32%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $20.50
Having fell in love with the audio version of Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, I decided to give A Walk in the Woods a try. This audio is also read by the author. Bill Bryson moved to Hanover, New Hampshire, and soon after realizes the the Appalachian Trail, at least part of it, is close by. After doing some reading about the trail, he thought it would be pretty cool to hike the trail which runs from Georgia to Maine. He solicits friends and family to join him, and even puts notes in his holiday cards inviting people to hike "the trail". The only person to respond to his invitation was an old college buddy, that he never got along with too well...Steven Katz. The two of them are like the "odd couple". Bryson is very prepared, having shopped for all the ... Read More

4.Blue Highways by: William Heat-Moon November 01, 1991
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $8.99
A little over twenty-five years ago William Trogden, who took the name of his Native American ancestors and called himself William Least Heat Moon, set out on a journey across America in what was basically the ancestor of the modern SUV, a small truck which he named Ghost Dancing. Initially he did this because he had lost his job and his wife in the space of a month, but his journey turned into much more than just an attempt to forget. It became a classic search for and journey into the heart of the country. This is not a trip into the weirdness of America, although Least Heat Moon encounters plenty of strange sites and people on his journey. It is more of a trip into the heart and soul of the country - figuratively as well as literally. There have been many books written ... Read More

5.I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away from: Random House Audio May 04, 1999
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: $25.95 Prices subject to change. Used Price: $3.95
A collection of essays on Bryson's experiences and views of America, sometimes annoyingly pretentious and pedantic (especially in the beginning), but more often clever, funny, and perfectly balanced between critical and appreciative of American culture. For me, part of the thrill is that Bryson is a local writer. Great, though slightly dated, but beautiful and humorous and original collection chronicling nature, American commercialism, American communities, and American personality and nostalgia. Grade: A-

6.The Lost Continent (BBC Radio Collection) by: Bill Bryson January 04, 2000
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $23.46
I am a fan of Bill Bryson. I simply loved his Short History of Nearly Everything and In a Sunburned Country. Just awesome stuff. Reread both several times. I liked several other of his travel books, as well. But this...this is just...bad. I mean seriously bad. He makes fun of darned near everything from his youth from his family on, and not in a funny, teasing, but affectionate way like Gene Shepherd had the sense and talent to do, but in a really nasty and distateful way. And it's just not funny. Nasty satire can be a guilty pleasure...like the old National Lampoon magazine managed from time to time (remember the Teddy Kennedy Volkswagon ad?), but this stuff is just...bad and boring. I guess Mr. Bryson is just not talented as I thought, and hoped, he was.

7.Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe from: Random House Audio Voices March 02, 1999
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $25.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $19.72 You Save: $6.23 (24%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $4.62
I'm not much of a traveller, but this book is one of the most delightful romps I've ever been on. Bryson is not only a very funny guy, he has a keen eye for detail, especially the traits that make us all human in our own particular, regional way. I've already started another Bryson book. AW

8.The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by: J. Maarten Troost June 01, 2007
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: $54.95 Prices subject to change. Used Price:
I had my own picture painted about what I thought life on a remote island in the Pacific would be like. This book is far from my picture. This book is written in a way that gives you a really interesting idea of the reality of remote island living from an outsider's perspective. The author talks about the troubles that he and his girlfriend have adjusting and dealing with such a new type of life. And it's funny. It is really funny. The book is a great escape. You kind of feel involved in the story in a light-hearted way. I recommend this for a good read to just relax with.

9.China Road by: Rob Gifford June 01, 2007
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $32.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $26.03 You Save: $6.92 (21%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $19.99
I read this book while teaching school in China Summer 2008. It was a very interesting depiction of the dichotomies in China today - on the one hand the official word and on the other the curiosity and interest of the people in everything western. It was a book that made me think a lot about what I was seeing and what my students were saying. Gifford very accurately and clearly points out the options that face China in the near future and manages to give what seemed to me an unbiased view of both sides of each option. Gifford travels to both known and little known places so it's a travelogue as well. The book is very well written and well worth reading if you have any interest in China at all. When I finished reading China Road, I passed it along to another teacher at the school who has travelled throughout China ... Read More

10.Notes from a Small Island from: Random House Audio May 04, 1998
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: $25.95 Prices subject to change. Used Price: $1.29
Judging from his best-seller about Australia, In a Sunburned Country, you can expect Bryson to be a witty but irreverent surveyor of the tourist scene wherever he goes. In this case, having lived and worked in Britain for about 20 years, he decides to return to his native USA but not without first doing a sentimental farewell lap around the "small island" that is the United Kingdom. He sets out to revisit places that he loves, places that he has always meant to visit, and places that he has just read about (often because of their past but now faded glory). His trip, done mostly by public transit and just walking or hiking, takes him about seven weeks, long enough to get him a bit tetchy. Because he is playing tour guide to our armchair traveler, we want him to be in a good mood as he shows us the sights--and his eye and ... Read More

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