Friday, December 03, 2010

Beware, Nancy Pearl Has Written a Dangerous Book

Let me warn you guys right now.  Book Lust to Go is going to cost you some money, some research time, and hours of reading.  This little book of 271 pages will likely become one of your permanent desk companions, a book you will be mining for new reading material for years to come.

I am only half-way through the book right now - which brings me to the section on Liberia - so this is not meant to be a formal review.  But as I work my way through Nancy Pearl's hundreds of title suggestions for "travelers, vagabonds, and dreamers" (arranged, for the most part, alphabetically by country) my TBR stack or, in this case "lust list" is growing by the dozen. 

Already this morning, I placed three titles on my hold list at the county library, two of them from Pearl's Australia section: Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, a Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature (Tim Flannery) and The Broken Shore (a thriller by Peter Temple) and the other from the section on Arizona, Territory (a supernatural take on the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral by Emma Bull).  And those are just two of the "A" sections.  I'm afraid to count how many others I've already marked for future reading - and I'm having to force myself not to mark some others that are almost equally as tempting.

I'm probably going to be doing a formal review of Book Lust to Go one day next week.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

6 comments:

  1. I loved this book too!! I should probably buy my own copy so I can make notes in it!

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  2. I have a girl-crush and her name is Nancy Pearl.

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  3. Hi Sam -- wow -- this sounds like a terrific book. I'm going to look it up as soon as I am done this coffee, as I am writing this from inside a mega-bookstore. [In a Starbucks].
    I don't travel much [really I don't... I usually travel within Canada]... but I am always wondering what to take along when I go on a trip. I'm going to go find this book in the store and see what Pearl recommends for travel in Canada.

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  4. Staci, I can't imagine not owning a copy of this book for permanent reference. I've finished it and it is pretty well marked up now with yellow highlighting and removable stickers. I plan to read heavily from its recommendations next year.

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  5. Susan, you have good taste. Nancy Pearl is definitely the rock star of librarians. :-)

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  6. Cip, I am still fascinated by all the new material this book is leading me to...just don't know how in the world (pun intended) I'm going to be able to make a dent in my list.

    BTW, I just finished a great mystery by Louise Penny called "Bury Your Dead." It's the sixth book in a series she is writing and combines two interesting murders, a tragedy that the Chief Inspector suffered right before taking on one of these new cases, and a healthy dose of Canadian history (especially that of Montreal). It touches on separatist politics and the founding of the city, etc. I loved this one and can't wait to go back and find the first five.

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I always love hearing from you guys...that's what keeps me book-blogging. Thanks for stopping by.