Travel Books > by Edition

Follow the Journey

Advantages: Real emotion behind the words
Disadvantages: Not for those not interested in bike trips or the two men

Long Way Down – An African Adventure by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman is the companion book to the TV series of the same name, which saw Charley and Ewan travel from John O Groats to Cape Town on motorbikes. I got my dad the book for Christmas after spotting it for a bargain price and he really enjoyed reading it. This combined with how I had enjoyed watching the television series I decided to give it a go myself and I am really pleased that ...
...The book itself is written as a day-by-day account of events on the journey. That doesn’t mean however that the book is written in diary form as this just wouldn’t have suited it. The book actually flows like a complete set of prose yet is broken up into sizeable chapters which are again broken down into different sections written by Charley and Ewan alternatively. This alternation of author means you often get to see both sides of the picture, both ...

MI9to5 11.04.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Long Way Down - Ewan McGregor

Never been to the States but Bill makes me feel like I have

Advantages: Bill's style of writing even makes "boring" subjects interesting
Disadvantages: none

I've been as far north as the Isle of Skye, as far west as Dublin, as far east as Durban and as far south as Cape Town, but I've never been to America. Yet, reading this book, Bill Bryson's descriptions of his return to his homeland after twenty years or so in Britain, I feel as though I could have been there with him. This book, so I read at the start, was a compilation of the first eighteen months of a weekly column Bill wrote for the Night and ...
...I don't think I ever read the original columns but I could read this book over and over again. In each chapter Bill tackles, in his own inimitable fashion, the complexities and problems, dilemmas, frustrations and emotional bits about going "home again". In fact his first column discusses precisely this - he has come back to his homeland after doing every adult thing he ever did (buying a house, getting a mortgage, acquiring DIY items etc) in Britain ...

KateHurst 19.05.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Notes from a Big Country - Bill Bryson

A Walk on the Wild Side

Advantages: Enjoyable romp through the Appalachian wilderness
Disadvantages: None

...moved with my family to a small town in New Hampshire, I happened upon a path that vanished into a wood on the edge of town." The previous paragraph is the first step in Bill Bryson's description of his journey hiking the Appalachian Trail as chronicled in his book, A Walk in the Woods. The Appalachian National Scenic Trail is the longest continuous marked footpath in the World, and stretches from Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia ...
...is my reply. Although possibly a big fat advance from his publisher might have just tipped the balance. After doing a little research about the AT, and more specifically the number of bears that inhabit the wilderness surrounding it, Bryson looks for a companion to share the journey with. Very sensible, as anyone who knows anything about bears will tell you - a bear will only attack solo hikers...... aye right! Of course bear attacks don't happen ...

proxam 11.04.2009 · Read full review
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Review of A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson

Merde!!!

Advantages: Easy page turner
Disadvantages: Made me want to go back to Paris

...I have only just read a book that was first published in 2004, which I myself purchased in about 2006, and then finally read in 2008. Despite the obvious reflections about life in 2003 (the year that the story was set in, just to add further confusion to my readers) which have the effect of dating the text somewhat, it was a very funny read and I found it a real page turner of a book. The book in question, is A Year In The Merde, by Stephen Clarke. ...
...offered a year's contract by a French business man he had previously met in London. The current businessman's interests were meat products and offal. The business man, Jean-Marie Martin, wanted our hero, Paul West, to help him diversify into setting up English tea shops in Paris, to bring tea drinking to the nation of Coffee drinkers. So, Paul gives up his life in the UK, and throws himself into the Parisian lifestyle at the beginning of the year ...

orlando 28.12.2008 · Read full review
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Review of A Year in the Merde - Stephen Clarke

Must Read.

Advantages: Very interesting
Disadvantages: There is none

...watching the TV programme of By Any Means by Charlie Boorman i thought i just had to read his book. I am interested in travelling so the book seemed right up my street. Once i started reading it i couldn't put it down. It was so interesting reading about all the different countries that Charlie, Russ and Mungo travelled through. Also, because they were travelling "by any means" the book was even more absorbing as you get a true picture of each country ...
...you also get comedy in the book as Charlie writes about funny things that happened on the way. Some of which you didnt get to see on the TV. I loved the book so much that i went to see Charlie Boorman talk about his journey, such a nice guy! If you liked Long Way Round and Long Way Down with both Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor then this read is definitely for you. ...

S.wait 29.12.2008 · Read full review
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Review of By Any Means: His Brand New Adventure from Wicklow to Wollongong - Charley Boorman