Rating: 
Summary: Each story is better than the previous
Review: I've been a fan of Salon.com for about a year, particularly their dearly departed Travel section. One or two of the stories in this book, I remembered reading from the online column, but they were surprising and entertaining in a second read. A book of short stories by various authors should be diverse and each story should be somewhat different, but still cohesive enough to hold together under a single theme. This book manages to do that excellently through it's theme of wanderlust. The concept of wanderlust, of desiring to go on a journey that puts you outside your everday life and opens your horizons, is thoroughly elucidated in this work. Reading this book will make you want to travel to distant lands. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Travels along a normal distribution curve
Review: Like all other anthologies of travel stories, WANDERLUST's collected essays will each have a purely subjective appeal based on the predilections of the reader. For me, the thirty-some tales in this book follow a normal distribution curve. My criteria for judging any on-the-road reminiscence are that it be sufficiently descriptive to make me want to visit the place myself (or not), and preferably contain lighthearted elements. (If one can't see the humor in mishaps far from home, he/she will certainly go nuts.) Thus, a few are terrific; a few are positively dismal; and most are just OK. Therefore, my three-star rating. It didn't help that there's no table of contents, a fact that I found annoying for no reason that I can logically defend.First, let me mention some of the best of the lot. Susan Hack's lament ("Tampax Nightmares") on the pitfalls to finding tampons in Third World countries, and Yemen in particular, was hilarious. (Here, I guess I must admit to being an Insensitive Male.) The essay by Mary Roach ("The Last Tourist In Mozambique") on her interview with that island's President, during which transcendental meditation was discussed and practiced, left me with little doubt as to why that country is in such a wretched condition. Don George's recollection of the family vacation ("Conquering Half Dome") with wife and two kids simply reinforced my intention never to attempt the feat myself - I'm sufficiently afraid of heights. While reading Lucy McCauley's "Expatriate, With Olives", I could feel the sun in my face and the olives in my hand as she stripped the latter from their branches in southern Spain. When Simon Winchester drives a Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit across Europe ("Romance In Romania"), the reaction this magnificent car elicits in a young woman in a dingy Romanian border town is positively poignant. Laura Fraser's getaway to the island of Ischia ("Italian Affair") is, perhaps, what the rest of us can only dream about during a normal day's silent desperation. Of course, there's the other end of the curve. Wendy Belcher's treatise ("Out Of Africa") examining the opening lines and themes common to a number of travel books on Africa was so excruciatingly ho-hum that I couldn't finish it - the only chapter so dishonored. Barry Yeoman's overwhelming need ("Embraced In Spain") to be adopted by the local crowd in Cádiz, in spite of his nervous stutter and half-out-of-the-closet gay lifestyle, verges on the pathetic. (The fact that he was unconditionally accepted by a group of locals makes for a warm and fuzzy, politically correct ending. But, it was hard to care.) David Downie's record ("Philosophy Au Lait") of the low drama in a Parisian philocafé was so much trivial prattle. (But, then, my shallow character has never concerned itself with life's deeper meanings.) Finally, Karl Greenfeld's self-absorbed jaunt through angst ("Fear, Drugs, and Soccer In Asia") left me hoping he would just snap out of it. There were quite a few "just OK" chapters, but I'll let you discover those for yourself. Indeed, someone else reading WANDERLUST will likely observe a distribution curve much different than mine - perhaps one skewed to the 1-star or 5-star end of the scale. For me, there was enough good stuff between the covers to make the book ultimately enjoyable. In the end, that's all I really ask.
Rating: 
Summary: overloaded on European spots
Review: No doubt this is a great compilation but too much on European destinations. Even so anything by Salon.com is going to be first-rate it's just disappointing the focus was not more on the Third World as there's always too much on Europe in this field anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Armchair travel at its very best
Review: Salon's "Wanderlust" section was always my favorite part of Salon -- even more so than "Sex":). This book is a marvelous collection of authentic writing, and answers the kinds of questions good travel writing asks -- what is it like to be drinking absinthe in Spain? to be penniless and in love in Paris? to be a cynic at Club Med? to try to stay sober in Thailand? This is armchair travel at its very best.
Rating:
Summary: Armchair travel at its very best
Review: Salon's "Wanderlust" section was always my favorite part of Salon -- even more so than "Sex":). This book is a marvelous collection of authentic writing, and answers the kinds of questions good travel writing asks -- what is it like to be drinking absinthe in Spain? to be penniless and in love in Paris? to be a cynic at Club Med? to try to stay sober in Thailand? This is armchair travel at its very best.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book--Wanted More
Review: This book, like everything that comes out of Salon.com, is fun, has a youthful vibe and is full of interesting essays. The only reason I didn't give it a five is that, as an inveterate traveller, the essays were too short, and there were too few places covered. But the writing is HOT. And the stories are memorable.
Rating:
Summary: Salon.Com's Wanderlust
Review: This is is a must-have for anyone who likes traveling and the halarity that usually goes with it. Each of the stories takes a different direction so it never becomes tedious. The writing is diverse but usually very good. The item about African writing is an excellent source for other books, new and old, of memoirs of traveling in Africa, not travel guides.
Rating:
Summary: GHOST STORY TERROR!
Review: Travel books are the only books I make time to read these days and I read about 30 of them a year. I've just finished this one and have put it on my top ten list. I used to read Wanderlust in salon all the time and was sad to see it go. I was thrilled as hell to see an anthology of the best of Wanderlust. Pico Iyer and Laurie Gough are my favorite in this collection. I don't think I'll be able to sleep for a week after Laurie Gough's ghost story in Greece. The question now is, should I go to Naxos to find out if her story's true?
Rating:
Summary: fantastic collection
Review: what a wonderful variety of locales and voices don george has assembled in this collection! again and again the essays share an enthusiasm for travel and a love of place that made me remember my favorite trips and has me planning anew.
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