BootsnAll Travel Community

I've been re-reading old stuff in my library, kind of a one last romp before I sell them all off. I picked up Notes from a Small Island the other day...It's just as amusing now as it was when I first discovered it 10 years ago.

Recently finished Confessions of an Economic Hitman (very interesting - and in a way even though he doesn't say it as such, another interesting reason why travel for non-business/aid work is so valuable) and working on So Wrong for So Long about the US media on Iraq. Interesting but I wish it was more than just a collection of mainly previously published articles.

In between, novels that don't make me think too much!

Just started reading Three Cups of Tea last night. Am putting off all Sunday afternoon duties associated with being a teacher to keep reading.

Enjoying a very interesting travel journal by a guy unknown to me named Elliot Hester A good journal in the style of Chuck Thompson and Bill Bryson

Just finished 'The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana" by Eco. This one has sealed his fate - it's the third Eco book I have read and in each one he has put parts of himself into the characters. In this last one I read he put together all the characters from Foucaults Pendulum to create one character - Eco. I like some of his discussions, but the way the characters all repeat is a bit tedious.

Now I have decided to take the plunge with 'The Odyssey'. I've only gotten as far as the translators pre-amble though.

I am finally reading 'Walden'. Got it from the library. I am going to Boston soon so I'm hoping to get out to the pond. I am loving the book so far, right up my alley.

Currently I am reading the following:

1) To The Ends of the Earth, by Paul Theroux
2) Panic in Level 4, by Richard Preston
3) A Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley [re-read]
4) Simple Genius, by David Baldacci [re-read]

Varlam Shalamov's Kolyma Tales, a book of short stories based on the author's 17 years sentenced to the gold mines of northeast Siberia.

Anthony Trollope's The Small House at Allington, the fifth volume of the Barchester novels.

Lord Kinross's The Ottoman Centuries because I want to visit Turkey and not make like an ignoramus.

Honoré de Balzac's Lost Illusions (for the second time).

Jim Paris
Los Angeles