Travel the World by Book

Whether in an airline seat or couch I love reading about the world. My work gave me the privilege of visiting many, but others seem to know almost as well, courtesy of my books.

Like many others, I spend many hours of the day in front of a computer screen and I get a lot of my daily dose of information in this way, but still nothing like a book. It can be a handheld mass market or antique leather bound, but for me I print on paper is something special. I take myself to other places in the world. I immediately transported without the hassle of the airport.

Great travel writers put me in contact with the ground and introduce myself to people in cities far from both emanations of the traffic in the streets and glass cages high concrete towers capitals. But much more than travel books have played important roles. Economists have introduced me to the challenges many countries to survive in a highly competitive world (and sometimes grotesquely unfair) face. Novelists have based their plots in fascinating places and painted the background to your action. Historians have taught me how events and experiences of the past have shaped the present. Biographers have shown me the lives of remarkable men and women, and their impact for good or ill in their countries and the world. With or without illustrations their words have conjured sights, sounds and smells.

Travelers, economists, novelists, historians, biographers; Other writers might add, geographers, botanists, ecologists, missionaries, athletes, politicians, explorers, journalists; the list keeps rolling. Any specialty in itself would have created partial and possibly biased perceptions. Overall, however, in their own way, contributed to a diverse stream interdisciplinary information, ideas and hope that over time, understanding the very different world areas and peoples of mine and never actually saw my eyes. I am deeply grateful.