Legacy of the Frontier : Day Trips to Historic Sites That Shaped the West, by Deborah Erickson

A quick read, this book centers chooses four historical sites within reasonable driving distance from Denver--Bent's Fort, Georgetown, Scotts Bluff, and Fort Laramie. As a travel guide, this is pretty useful, but as a reading book not so much. Sadly, I've only been to Georgetown, and didn't know enough about its history at that time. Still, to a certain degree its placement in this book is as a "sample" gold or silver boomtown. I've had plenty of experience with that elsewhere.

Colosseum Guide, by Letizia Abbondanza

A very short, but also VERY thorough history of the Colossum and the surrounding areas. Shoulda read this BEFORE we were there. Oh well.

Travels in Siberia, by Ian Frazier

What a great book about Siberia and the whole Russia experience. Frazier is right in saying that this is one of those places that gets under your skin once you've been there. Also fun from the standpoint of reading about other people's travel experiences, not all of which were pleasant. Enjoyable read.

Smile When You're Lying : Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer, by Chuck Thompson

I read this at work at lunch hours over the past month or so. Fun book, explores the difference between tourism and actually living in a culture. Actually, he talks about how travel-writing has become more or less a scam, filled with inane 'experiences' and some out-and-out lies in order to bring in the tourist dollars. The more interesting the story, the less likely it will make it into a travel book or article, according to Thompson. In this book, several of his interesting stories are on display, not all of which are horrible. In the end, though, what is a vacation but the stories you bring back from it? At least, that's his argument.

Traffic : Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), by Tom Vanderbilt

Eminently readable, full of fun research...and yet I didn't finish it. My brain is not in non-fiction mode right now.

Air Mail : Letters from the World's Most Troublesome Passenger, by Terry Ravenscroft

Indeed, this is not someone whose signature you want to see on a letter. Dude is way annoying, but it's intentional. I'm not sure if that makes him Class A Brilliant or just a really overpaid asshole. If I worked in the PR department of any of the airlines to whom the letters in this book are addressed, I'm pretty sure I'd vote for the latter.

Here's a question he doesn't address: how many letters did he sent that never drew a response of any kind?

I'm not sure why I finished this book, except that it was easy reading. My opinion: he's a jerk.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Country, by William Anderson

Beast bought this for me on one of his recent business trips; he stopped at the Walnut Creek site. It is, primarily, a pictorial view of all the places Laura and her family lived throughout her childhood, along with some holding-it-all-together text and quotes from Laura's writings. There are also some absolutely stunning landscape photos.

Basically, there's not a lot here that I didn't know, but the packaging is a little different.

Phaic Tăn : Sunstroke on a Shoestring (A Jetlag Travel Guide), by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, and Rob Sitch

Another in the series of fake travel guides that are VERY similar in look and feel to Lonely Planet and Footprint. I read Molvanîa a few years ago, and it was funny primarily because I've been in countries similar to it. Phaic Tăn, being very southeast Asian in feel...not so much.

It's an amusing book. The authors have CLEARLY worked hard on putting it all together from translating Welcome as Qac and populating the map with funny locations, e.g. the capital city, Bumpattabumpah, and provinces with names like Pha Phlung and Thong On. And the pictures...oh, boy. They alone are worth the price of the book!

Like any travel guide, however, reading it from front to back cover is a challenge. There is a payoff in the index however, and this is the very first travel book I've ever seen that contains a list of local lucky numbers.

Take a look at the Jetlag Travel website for a clearer sense of what is going on here.

Washington Schlepped Here, by Christopher Buckley (on CD)

So, this is a lighthearted, almost airheaded, tour of the major sites around D.C. Lots of fun details about different eras in history, nothing terribly heavy, told with a heavy dose of humor and obvious adoration.

I would recommend this to listen to only for people who have been to the capital or at least have a general map in their heads. Otherwise, it would be far better to have the printed version in order to flip through while wandering the sights.

One fact I hadn't heard before that struck me as very interesting: the man who designed the statue of Lincoln in the Memorial was interested in education of the deaf. If you look at Lincoln's hands in the statue, his hands are arranged (generally) in the initials of his name: his left is A, his right is L.

The real question I have is why this sort of thing sticks to my brain....

Things You Get for Free, by Michael McGirr

This is from my Books to Read list, and I can't remember where I heard about it. It is the story of the author and his mom traveling to Europe, but also the story of his relationship with his father, who died when he was 12.

McGirr was, at the time of the trip, a Australian Jesuit priest, and that colors some of his comments about the trip in a way I hadn't considered, especially in England. Ostensibly, this is a travel book. In reality, however, it is about traveling one's own history, and that of one's parents. It's not a particularly deep book, but it has a few insights, and the reader gets to know and appreciate the author. His mom is finely drawn primarily because of the amusing comments she makes. She is at once fiercely practical and daringly satiric.

The book ends with McGirr's return to regular life, but the flap says he's a "former priest" so I'd like to know what happened between the trip and the publication date. Time to do some research.