pickI wasn‘t really sure what to expect from this memoir/travelogue! My first experience with the author, this came out over two decades ago & it would be interesting to see if life on Karabati, a remote equatorial island has changed much. Troost balances coming in with paradise-like expectations & coming to see the somewhat literally sh*tty reality of island life. Watch out for the island dog chapter, but otherwise a truly fascinating listen!
bailedI was excited to come across this book, plus there was a sequel on the shelf written something like 30 years later, but... The sex. I couldn't handle all the writing about prostitution and fellow travellers talking about their sexual adventures in these countries. I'm sad that I wasted 4 days of reading time before realising it was just going to get worse.
so-so2.5/5
On the fence... It's written well enough, but during my reading I kept wondering what was the purpose of this book, what was the objective of the author.
Also, I guess the subject matter didn't captivate me: a homeless man traveling around the US in a kayak... Yes, he's a colorful man doing something quite unusual and impressive, but reading about him for 250 pages?!
An insider's travelogue, originally written in English in the nineties (and published later). Ma Thanegi, an artist from Yangon, goes on a pilgrimage bus tour around Myanmar, and tells us about the people she meets, the food she eats and the places she sees. I learned a lot and it's also a good springboard for further research (because my knowledge of #Myanmar was abysmal). The photos in the French version were well chosen.
pickThanks to an incredible Audible sale, I recently purchased all of Neil Peart‘s nonfiction books. In this one, Neil joined a group through African villages for one month on his bicycle. The ride itself was physically and mentally challenging, and Neil shares the struggles of bike repairs, long rides up steep hills and treacherous terrain, and searches for food and drink.
Full review at https://abookandadog.com
pickThis is the low end of the pick scale for me. I liked it better than his book about China, a place he actively seemed to hate. Headhunters is different than his usual travel books, however; here Troost is following Robert Louis Stevenson‘s trip through the South Seas while also dealing with his own alcoholism, so this book is less fun than some of his others.
pickThis one was a little more serious than Troost‘s other books. Having faced his alcoholism and completed rehab Troost takes on another adventure- this time following the steps of Robert Louis Stevenson in Oceania. I actually appreciated his introspection and enjoyed this one more than Sex Lives of Cannibals. (He seems to pick his titles at random. They have nothing to do with the books.) #ReadingOceania24 @BarbaraBB @Librarybelle
panTravel Asia by train! Enjoy the way a white writer chooses to detail the many flavours of poverty, squalor, bureaucracy, civil unrest and corruption it has to offer! 🤦🏼♂️ The author then seems to be dismayed that things are not messy when he gets to Japan. 🤷🏼♂️ The part on Russia seems to devolve into a (really cold)fever dream, but I admit I was skimming towards the very end. 1/?
