Fern's comments (member since Jan 20, 2009)

Fern's comments from the Travel Literature Makes My Heart Beat Faster.. group.

John wrote: "I am just wondering if I am the only person in the world who does not care for the works of Bill Bryson. I have never been able to get more than 50 pages into a book of his without wanting to put ..."

I don't like everything he's written, but from my experience, most people find him to be easy to read, so I often suggest him to people who want to read travel lit for the first time. I think he has a nice balance between providing background info and his own observations. When an author does almost exclusively one or the other, it seems more likely that the book will be hit or miss. But a good balance of the two seems to appeal to most people.

I don't know that I would start out in travel lit with Theroux. He tends to have a negative perspective and it can get exhausting after awhile. Just my two cents. But if you find that you don't like Theroux's book, don't dismiss the whole genre. Someone else suggested Bryson, and that's where I would start.

Check out A Secret Map of Ireland by Rosita Boland. It's written by an Irish journalist.