World Hum and Nine Subversive Travel Novels Made my Day

I had lunch today with myself and an old copy of Paul Theroux’s The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas. I read it years ago and have kept the book over many moves. After recently returning from Patagonia myself I wanted to get his take from years ago. I have several travel websites that I frequently love checking out and World Hum is one of them. They had a wonderful piece by Thomas Kohnstamm, Nine Subversive Travel Novels , that thrilled me. One on the list was Chatwin’s In Patagonia; I read that while on the boat from Chile to Argentina, another rare book that has traveled with me for ages. After I returned from PNG a friend recommended that I get a copy of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, I seem to be the only travel writer who has failed to read it. On the list was also one of my favorite books of all time— Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter Thompson, I laughed aloud insanely in my dorm room when I read it the first time. Truth be told, perhaps I was most likely as gonzo as my pockets allowed. After a day of following the unbelievable stuff going on in Haiti, I needed to laugh a bit. I put on “Southern Cross” by Crosby, Stills and Nash and thought about the nights not long ago I went topside to check out the skies; it all helped.