barney2@cix.compulink.co.uk typed:
> In article <8uOdnfNkS8NsHunYRVnyuA@eclipse.net.uk>, donotspam@anywhere.uk
> (JohnT) wrote:
>
>> *From:* "JohnT"
>> *Date:* Mon, 4 Dec 2006 20:24:15 -0000
>>
>>
>> "mini Mini" wrote in message
>> news:Xns988FCA08FF52Emininospamateasycom@212.40.5.54...
>>> Mike Rocket J Squirrel wrote in
>>> news:0TWch.63184$si3.33391@tornado.socal.rr.com:
>>>
>>>> We live in California and have offered a trip to Europe to our 18
>>>> year-old son with air fare, Eurail pass, spending money, and a
>>> backpack.
>>>> He's intrigued, but hesitant. We would jump at the chance if someone
>>>> made US the same offer, but we've been there and he hasn't. He enjoys
>>>> reading and liked a couple of books from my collection (Night Train
>>> to
>>>> Turkmenistan, The Lost Heart Of Asia, and others), and I thought if I
>>>> could find a book or a collection of essays about travel in Europe
>>> from
>>>> the viewpoint of a young man, it might familiarize him with what it's
>>>> all about. Recommendations?
>>>>
>>>> -- mike and jacquie
>>> Bill Bryson's books are amusing and quick to read.
>> But they are wildly inaccurate.
>
> Yet the OP is looking for books that give the flavour of European travel
> rather than guides to particulars, and Bryson isn't too bad at that
> (provided you realise he's prone to exaggerate for comic effect).
>
> Having said that, to me Bryson comes across as an old curmudgeon so his
> might not be the most appealing viewpoint for a teenager.
>
> The young man seems to enjoy the more literary travel writers - people
> like Thubron and Raban.
>
> So you could try Paul Theroux's "Kingdom by the Sea" (about Britain).
> Patrick Leigh Fermor's "Time of Gifts" describes the travels of a very
> young man through central Europe - but it's set in the 1930s. And then
> there are various Mediterranean rhapsodies by people like Norman Douglas
> and the Durrells, but once again they're all quite old (both the books and
> the writers!).
>
> Does he read fiction? If so, what genres does he like? It might be that
> he'd get a better flavour of different areas in Europe from some current
> novels.
He's presently working his way through three of the seminal post WWII
WWI novels: Slaughterhouse 5, Gravity's Rainbow, and Catch 22. I
personally don't find Bryson to be as funny as his publisher seems to
think he is, and our son shares my sense of humor, so that's out. We
hope to avoid narrowly ethnocentric presentations of Europe as an odd
place filled with quaint and bizarre peoples, a la "Eurotrip," as not
being very helpful to our goal. As we mentioned in the initial post, he
enjoyed The Lost Heart of Asia, so Thubron is a good choice as a writer,
but it's unlikely that either he or Raban has found tame ol' Europe
exciting enough to write about.
--
Mike and Jacquie |