Tuesday, April 29, 2008

#13 - Gullible's Travels

Every now and then I hit a book like this one. It sounds like a lighthearted, fun, travelogue of sorts with a well known/humorous/"celebrity" author Cash Peters. It managed to make me laugh out loud every 100 pages or so, which left stretches of 99 pages where I wanted to just give up on it. It also had my personal kiss of death, copious use of footnotes for no reason. I HATE to be drawn down to microscopic print at the bottom of the page in the middle of a tale for no reason at all, let alone 2-3 times in as many sentences. Like I said there are a few truly funny comments and observations, but too few to carry this mess of a book. Not Recommended.

Monday, April 14, 2008

#12 - You Know You've Been in Japan Too Long...

Quirky is a word that frequently comes to mind when thinking of Japan. I have been into Japanese culture, food, and tea for quite a long time now which has brought to light a number of these "quirks." Some are almost incomprehensible to a westerner, a "gaijin," and some are hilarious. You Know You've Been in Japan Too Long... is part comic book, part social commentary, and also written in both English and Japanese. While some of the content is truly meant for westerners who have lived in Japan, most of it can be appreciated by anyone who has had a fair bit of exposure to the people and culture. For the right person it is Recommended.

Friday, April 11, 2008

#11 - Panic Rising

As you can probably see by now, I love a good tale of survival. Panic Rising is a recounting of a number of other people's true stories about their brushes with death at the hands of nature. I was a bit skeptical about the retelling of a survival story, since I tend to like to read it straight from the source. You lose a lot of the psychological and inner-thought of such a traumatic experience when it is interpreted by someone else, and this is precisely the main shortcoming of the book. The other issue is that all of the tales are similar and many come from the same region and maps are given early on in the story which give away too much detail. There is nothing inherently wrong with the book, but there are much better stories out there. Not Recommended.