Book review: “On Travel and The Journey Through Life”
This collection On Travel and The Journey Through Life (published by Eland Books) is clever, funny, provoking and confrontational by turn. In a pyrotechnic display of cracking one- liners, cynical word play and comic observation, it mines three thousand years of wit and wisdom: from Martha Gellhorn to Confucius and from Pliny to Paul Theroux.
It also offers practical tips to make the most of your trip, ranging from advice on cleaning a wound to tethering a camel. And it proves that travel – far from being an indulgent escape – is real preparation for the journey through life. This little book is designed to do just that. Dipping into it, you will find thoughts from our earliest recorded history and from yesterday, from European writers and from aboriginal peoples. Many are exhortations to live consciously.
Echoing through the book is a carpe diem, a call to pay attention to the details of the journey rather than focussing on the destination.
“It also offers practical tips to make the most of your trip, ranging from advice on cleaning a wound to tethering a camel. ”