The Tao Of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road by Paul TherouxMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is not a narrative of travel, instead filled with quotes and excerpts from many different travel writers. Early on I decided to not be disappointed with this format, but to use it as a way of discovering travel writers I was not yet aware of, particularly women.
Made the mistake of trying to read the book in audiobook form. The beginning of the book has the most short quotes, as Chapter 1 is “Travel in Brief” and switched frequently from various people and topics, which made it very difficult to follow along in pure audio format. So I switched to a print book and my enjoyment increased. The audio format may work better later in the book when the passages are longer.
This is a personal anthology of Paul Theroux. He curates the quotes and excerpts, adding a short paragraph or two. Each chapter is organized around a particular topic such as length of time traveling, or travel as an ordeal. In between some chapters a particular author is featured with their “travel wisdom”.
The format is one that lends toward sampling or reading bits here and there. This is not the type of book I tend towards, but I was able to take something out of it.
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