New books for armchair travelers to India and Europe (including Paris and that hotbed of crime, Venice)
Europe - What a cool concept: take an old Frommer’s guidebook (a 1963 edition) of ‘Europe on $5 a day’ and see what happens when you rely on it for a journey across Europe today. I was born too late to travel around Europe on anything less than $50 a day, and that was pushing it. But author Doug Mack gave it a try, and the result is what promises to be an amusing read, Europe on 5 wrong turns a day: one man, eight countries, one vintage travel guide. Check out this interview with the author, and this short essay on what $5 currently buys you in a few top European cities, both featured on World Hum.
Paris, France - Sticking with Europe, how many people travel there only to return wishing they could someday call it home? There are loads of memoirs by people who either had that dream and made it a reality, or else ended up there by chance, love, or a job transfer. Rosecrans Baldwin, author of the new memoir Paris, I love you but you’re bringing me down, is a lover of Paris who ended up living there by way of a job opportunity. Based on this excerpt in GQ magazine, Baldwin has written a humorous, honest account of his time in Paris, which will certainly shatter the illusions of some readers, while passages like the following will entice others to book a plane ticket tout de suite:
“But what a marvelous evening to be outside in Paris! Never-ending light. The buzz of apéritifs. Cafés full of disheveled girls smoking cigarettes and their boyfriends fluffing their hair once they’d set down their helmets.”
