Tag Archives: travel

On Rereading Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey

Not long ago I did some research and wrote up a list of books on solitude. I thought that if I could absorb some of the viewpoints of other writers on the subject I might find some clues on how … Continue reading

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Living Alone: An Anti-Primer

Let’s clarify this from the outset: I like being alone, but I dislike living alone. It’s an ideal situation for me when I can close myself up in a room and do my work, but when I open the door … Continue reading

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Unintended but Vivid Flashbacks

Recently my sister gave me an envelope full of memorabilia saved by my mother, who died decades ago while I was living in South Asia. Evidently she was quite a hoarder. As I perused the material, I came across class … Continue reading

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Books Make Great Gifts!

After Thanksgiving has come and gone, people commence a search for holiday gifts for family members, relatives, friends, acquaintances, in-laws, outlaws, colleagues, and sometimes total strangers. If you’re looking for fun, sophisticated, lively, intense, flamboyant, and otherwise variegated literary fare, … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Borges and Me: An Encounter by Jay Parini

This book appears to be and reads like a memoir, and in most ways it is; however, Parini explains in an afterword that the events, though true, took place fifty years ago, and though he had “a handful of notes, … Continue reading

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Book Review:  The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald

This work is presented as a novel, but it is not really a novel in the conventional sense. The plot is very thin. The narrator takes a walking tour of Suffolk, a county in eastern England. He describes what he … Continue reading

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A Journey into the Wasteland (of Downtown Seattle)

Downtown Seattle isn’t what it used to be. In my youth it was a wonderland, a special place to go for shopping and entertainment. It was safe enough that my parents felt comfortable dropping a group of us kids off … Continue reading

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Another Look:  America Redux: Impressions of the United States After Thirty-Five Years Abroad by John Walters

Update February 25th, 2023: The U.S. political and social landscape continues to quake, and this book retains its relevance. Update February 15th, 2020: For some reason I had a strong urge to repost this description of the memoir I wrote … Continue reading

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Book Review: A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith by Timothy Egan

I decided to read this book not because of its religious content but because I enjoy good travel memoirs. Egan has sound secular credentials: he writes for The New York Times, has won a Pulitzer Prize, and has published several … Continue reading

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The World Is Changing

The world is changing… If you are familiar with The Lord of the Rings you have come across this quote. In the first film, The Fellowship of the Rings, the elven ring bearer Galadriel says it in the very beginning. … Continue reading

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