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Rating: 
Summary: Better still, don't even get out of bed
Review: The principal attraction of I REALLY SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME is that its collected tales of road woe happen in non-exotic places to Ordinary Joes. I've been entertained in the past by compilations of such stories, some of which might perhaps stretch the credulity of those whose idea of a journey is flying to Phoenix to visit the mother-in-law or, at best, spending a couple of weeks on a package cruise of the Med. You know the kind of stories I mean: road warrior loses laptop to headhunters in the Amazon outback, spelunker falls into pit of bat guano in a remote Siberian cave. I mean, whom do you know does this stuff? In this book, whether it's being seated on an international flight in front of someone secretly carrying an eye-wateringly stinky package - durian, in this case - or stupidly parking the car on the tram tracks in Brussels and bringing city traffic to a complete halt, I can relate without too much a stretch of the imagination. Then there's the story by the man whose experiences in a provincial Vietnamese hospital having sea urchin spines removed from his foot remind one of medieval torture. Or the one about having to chaperone "Ugly Californian" relatives through the backwaters of Central Europe. The first chapter relating a couple's encounters with various creepy-crawlers, including a scorpion found in a hanging shirt, during a trip to Costa Rica is particularly relevant to me because my wife wants to visit the country. (Oh, sweetie, come and read this!) I won't pretend that all of these 43 stories are terrific. The monodrone - not a proper word, but it ought to be - by the college professor congratulating himself on having resisted the persistent sexual advances of a female student enrolled at the American University of Bulgaria was a piece of self-serving claptrap. And the one by the adventurer who decides to dribble a soccer ball across 15 miles of Colorado wilderness was simply contrived and silly. And a few more were just so-so. However, after finishing each chapter, I looked forward to the next with expectant curiosity and was rarely disappointed...
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty dull
Review: This book is a third sequel to a book of established writers' travel horror stories. Here, amateur writers share their travel woes. It is, clearly, an attempt to milk a cash cow. While the writing is adequate (certainly not great), it's the content of the stories that really makes this a useless anthology. They're the quality of story you might tell your friends at dinner, but are in no way deserving of publication. Examples include: I was on a plane that was delayed; I couldn't find my car after the Super Bowl; we rented a boat and wrecked it; the service at this restaurant in England was very slow; we went to a hotel and damned if it wasn't a fairly shabby hotel; we ate some food and got sick. There are a few stories as interesting as, say, getting hurt and experiencing Vietnam's standard of hospital care. But mostly this is very dull, and pretty close to worthless.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty dull
Review: This book is a third sequel to a book of established writers' travel horror stories. Here, amateur writers share their travel woes. It is, clearly, an attempt to milk a cash cow. While the writing is adequate (certainly not great), it's the content of the stories that really makes this a useless anthology. They're the quality of story you might tell your friends at dinner, but are in no way deserving of publication. Examples include: I was on a plane that was delayed; I couldn't find my car after the Super Bowl; we rented a boat and wrecked it; the service at this restaurant in England was very slow; we went to a hotel and damned if it wasn't a fairly shabby hotel; we ate some food and got sick. There are a few stories as interesting as, say, getting hurt and experiencing Vietnam's standard of hospital care. But mostly this is very dull, and pretty close to worthless.
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