“What I appreciate about this book is that it’s a personal travelogue, it’s got info in it, but it’s more centered around Steve and his humor than it is around the destinations.
I guess there is an audience out there for cold travelogues with facts and figures, where the writer removes themselves from the narrative as much as possible.
But I don’t see the point of that. In the early 1900s, sure, that makes sense. It’s not like I’m going to make my way to Bolivia from Wisconsin in that time, unless that’s basically my life goal. In order to get even a shred of info about a place, I’d have to turn to travel narratives.
Now, you can read Wikipedia, look at images, hell, you can jump on Google maps and take a virtual walk down the roads in just about every country explored in this book.
What I’m saying is: that information-dense sort of thing is out there, it’s easy to use, it’s free, and to me, the point of a travel narrative in the 21st century IS to see a trip through the eyes of someone else, to have someone next to you saying, “Hey, look at this! And here’s what I think about it…”
I don’t know that I could read a travelogue without a personality to it these days. It’d feel hollow and boring.
So, when you pick up a travel book like this, maybe it’s best to think about the writer as opposed to the destination. Sort of the way traveling in real life is really more about who you’re with than where you go.
I have friends who’d make going anywhere fun. I went to Pigeon Forge with a group of friends, and it’s about the most fun I’ve ever had on a trip. Going somewhere more incredible or beautiful or something (though that’s hard to imagine, Dollywood is fucking dope) might be great, but I’d rather go to the Milwaukee State Fair with those friends than to The Louvre with someone boring. I was stranded with my partner in the middle of nowhere, Utah, for two days, and we had as much fun as I’d have going somewhere spectacular with an asshole.
I think I’d enjoy traveling with Steve Hely. He’s funny, he seems easygoing, he seems fairly well-informed about the places he goes, enough that I’d be interested, and at the same time, he knows how to have fun on a vacation.
Maybe Steve’s not your speed, and that’s okay. I mean, you’re objectively wrong, but that’s your right.
Instead of looking to travelogues based on the places profiled, find writers you like, and go with them.
Do the same thing with your real-life trips. Find someone you’d like to travel with, and go with them. Oh, and try and BE the person someone else wants to travel with. Mark of a good person.”