Gail Pool's Blog, page 10

Travel Quotations

From The Tao of Travel by Paul Theroux, a book of commentary on travel that includes interesting quotations, many from Theroux's own work: Literature is made out of the misfortunes of others. A large number of travel books fail simply because of the monotonous good luck of their authors. ―V. S. Pritchett, Complete Essays On that trip it was my good fortune to be wrong; being mistaken is the essence of the travelers tale. ― Paul Theroux, Riding the Iron Rooster

Review: Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff

Down the Nile: Alone in a Fishermans Skiff By Rosemary Mahoney. Little, Brown, 2007, 268 pp. Walking the length of Japan, bicycling through Irelands nasty winter, following in the frigid tracks of great Arctic explorers: the things travelers do for the sake of adventureor perhaps for the sake of writing a travel book. Rosemary Mahoneys quest was to row on the Nile. Not the length of it, of course, just from Elephantine Island to Qena, in Egypt, enough to feel that I had traveled, enough to se...

Review:Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff

Down the Nile: Alone in a Fishermans Skiff By Rosemary Mahoney. Little, Brown, 2007, 268 pp. Walking the length of Japan, bicycling through Irelands nasty winter, following in the frigid tracks of great Arctic explorers: the things travelers do for the sake of adventureor perhaps for the sake of writing a travel book. Rosemary Mahoneys quest was to row on the Nile. Not the length of it, of course, just from Elephantine Island to Qena, in Egypt, enough to feel that I had traveled, enough to se...

Piazza Navona

"Piazza Navona is not only the most exquisitely beautiful square in Rome, it's also the beating heart of the city." ―William Murray, City of the Soul: A Walk in Rome (Crown), not an essential book for the visitor, but an engaging, informative stroll through the city, written by someone who has lived there, as a child and an adult.

Excellent, Unusual Novel

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, by Dominic Smith--highly recommended.

Scott Expedition at the Pole

Robert Falcon ("Con")Scott, Dr. Edward ("Uncle Bill") Wilson, Henry Robertson ("Birdie") Bowers, Lawrence Edward ("Titus") Oates, and Edgar ("Taff") Evans reach the South Pole in March 1912 to find that the Norwegian Roald Amundsen has beaten them to it. A painful photo, illuminated by Beryl Bainbridge's novel, The Birthday Boys, which I've reviewed below. And while I'm on the topic of the Scott expedition, another book I'd recommend is The Worst Journey in the World, by Apsley Cherry-Garrar...

Riveting Story of Fatal Scott Expedition

The Birthday Boys By Beryl Bainbridge. With a brief biography and photos of the author. Open Road Media, Digital, 2016. https://www.amazon.com/Birthday-Boys-... Many books have been written about Robert Falcon Scotts fatal expedition to the South Pole, but none Ive read is more gripping than Beryl Bainbridges novel, The Birthday Boys. From the outset, we know the conclusion: the five men on the final run will reach the Pole, will find that the Norwegian...

Zany Travel: TheSwiss Family Perelman

The Swiss Family Perelman By S. J.Perelman. Drawings by Hirschfeld. Penguin, 1950, 213 pp. There are travelers who write and there are writers who travel, and S. J. Perelman falls decidedly in the latter group. A humorist who, from the 30s on, wrote for many publicationsmost notably, the New Yorkerhe was known for his unusual, quite wonderful prose. Whatever pleasure he took in his adventures, which he generally described as hilariously miserable, he clearly loved to write about them, and his...

Review: The Endangered Species Road Trip

The Endangered Species Road Trip: A Summers Worth of Dingy Hotels, Poison Oak, Ravenous Insects, and the Rarest Species in North America. By Cameron MacDonald. Greystone Books, 2013, 216 pp. Dismayed that, after years of teaching, he has become an armchair biologist, a cut-and-paste biologist at best, Cameron MacDonald revives an old dream: to travel the continent to observe endangered species. But when he first conceived of the plan, he was single and childless. Now married, he has both a to...

Roughing It in the Bush

Roughing It in the Bush or Life in Canada By Susanna Moodie. With a New Introduction by Margaret Atwood. Originally published 1852. Virago/Beacon Travelers, Beacon Press, 1986. In the 1830s, thousands of peoplelured by promises of fertile soil, a mild climate, cheap goods, and minimal taxesemigrated from England to Canada. They thought that they had only to come out to Canada to make their fortunes, writes Susanna Moodie, almost even to realise the story told in the nursery, of the sheep and...