Rating: 
Summary: Funny how an editor chooses stories written in his style
Review: If you like Bill Bryson's writing (and I do), you'll enjoy this book. The stories are, for the most part, light, entertaining and enjoyable. My favorite was the one about hitchhiking through Cuba! It wasn't until I moved on to the 2001 Best American Travel Writing edited by Paul Thoreau that I realized how much the stories reflect Bill Bryson's writing. As I worked my way through the book, the writing seemed to be uneven, but I did enjoy the book on the whole and do recommend it to anyone who's into travel literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Travels well
Review: My wife and I came across this CD in preparation for a very long drive to northern Michigan over the July 4th weekend and I am thoroughly pleased with this most-random selection. Aside from David Halberstam's self-absorbed "Nantucket" which barely passes as travel writing let alone good, let alone fresh (it may have helped if he read this piece) the selections were excellent and varied. Bryson's reading of "Winter Rules" nearly had us off the road southbound on US 127 near Midland, and Adamson's reading of the the thoroughly politically/socially incorrect (and excellent) "Weird Karma" nearly put us into a barrier near Ann Arbor on US 23. Thank you Mr. Bryson et al for that travel moment.Best yet, the table was so wonderfully set by Bryon himself with his reading of "From the people who brought you the killing fields" by Patrick Symmes. I can only express my appreciation of this selection in the memories it brought back to my days in the 1980s and the wonderfully in-poor-taste song by the Dead Kennedys "A Holiday in Cambodia." Wonderful writing does that to you. We look forward to reading and hearing the 2001, 2002, and 2003 editions.
Rating:
Summary: More than Just Travel Tales
Review: The title is right: this is some of the best travel writing I have encountered. It's a collection of short stories, with travel as a common theme. Few are what I'd call tourist guides. Some of the first few stories stories are about sailboat racing, surviving a night in New York's Central Park, bus riding in Uganda, trucking in tropical Australia, selecting the Panchen Lama, and documentaries about wine and food. There's plenty of variety. These stories are like good meals: satisfying, pleasant and easy to digest. But they are not lightweight reading. One learns about places and practices that are strange and sometimes disturbing. It's a book to read in short sessions. I read it at home, in the evenings, but it would be a great to take on a trip.
Rating:
Summary: More than Just Travel Tales
Review: The title is right: this is some of the best travel writing I have encountered. It's a collection of short stories, with travel as a common theme. Few are what I'd call tourist guides. Some of the first few stories stories are about sailboat racing, surviving a night in New York's Central Park, bus riding in Uganda, trucking in tropical Australia, selecting the Panchen Lama, and documentaries about wine and food. There's plenty of variety. These stories are like good meals: satisfying, pleasant and easy to digest. But they are not lightweight reading. One learns about places and practices that are strange and sometimes disturbing. It's a book to read in short sessions. I read it at home, in the evenings, but it would be a great to take on a trip.
Rating:
Summary: Armchair adventures for the timid
Review: The title of this book is THE BEST AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITING 2000. OK, ok, so I'm obviously a tad behind on my reading. (I only just recently got around to the fine print on my birth certificate which lists the warranty exclusions.) "To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar that it can be taken for granted." Perhaps the spirit of the statement is hard to realize nowadays when even Ulan Bator boasts (?) a McDonalds. However, its author, travel writer Bill Bryson, has, as this anthology's editor, pulled together twenty-six tales that will transport the armchair traveler far beyond the well-trod tourist paths. And I say this as one whose wimpy idea of adventure is to dine on a scorching curry in one of London's Balti houses after an afternoon exploring the book stacks at Foyle's. The only journey in this volume that's personally appealing is the one to Bhutan described by Jessica Maxwell in "Inside the Hidden Kingdom". (That was until I searched the Web for Bhutan tours and was faced with the eye-popping cost of such a trek. Winning the California Lotto will be a pre-requisite, I'm afraid.) Otherwise, scouring France and Spain for the perfect first alcoholic drink of the day, or attending the World Ice Golfing Championship 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland, isn't a trip I'll queue for. Neither is spending the night in the depths of New York's Central Park, searching for the remnants of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia's remote highlands, traveling by donkey into Morocco's Atlas Mountains, picking-up hitchhikers in Cuba, or journeying down the Congo River on an over-crowded, squalid, passenger barge. I admire those who do such things, and it makes for great storytelling, but I'm way too soft. In all the modern travel essays I've read, even if they're about trips to hell and back, nobody is ever permanently hurt. That fact is what makes so horrific "The Last Safari" by Mark Ross, a former safari guide, who tells of the time he and several clients were kidnapped in Uganda by border-crossing, machete-wielding rebels from the Congo. This tragic and shocking narrative is alone worth the price of the book. All of the contributions to THE BEST AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITING 2000 are off-beat by a little or a lot. That common element is what makes the whole worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Promising, but ultimately disappointing
Review: This collection at first seemed like it would be stellar, with thought-provoking forwards by Bill Bryson and Jason Wilson, and the promise of travel articles that would transcend your standard Sunday paper travel section fare. And indeed, almost all of the articles are extremely well-written, exposing parts of the world that are seldom heard of with a good mixture of humor and introspection. However, while these articles are mostly exceptional if standing on their own, the collection is poorly edited. Rather than arranging the articles in any particular topical or geographical order, they are arranged in alphabetical order of the authors' names. Towards the end of the collection, there is an overabundance of glaring typos. For fans of travel writing, there are some real gems here that make it worth purchasing. Just don't expect the collection to be any greater than the sum of its parts.
Rating:
Summary: " Honey, let's pack."
Review: This is the textbook for an aspiring travel writer. It is a book that chose me. I have been on the road for two years. I have finally figured out what I can be now that I'm grown up. I can't wait to tell my partner. We have moved sixteen times since we left San Diego. " Honey, it's time to pack."
Rating:
Summary: Some of the Best travel Writing
Review: While the book has a diversity in destinations it has one quality that remains story to story. Vivid discriptions of unique travel experiences. I must agree with Bill Bryson (Editor) when he states that "travel writing is a genre whose time as come". While many of the names are well know, some of the new names in the collection are pulled from magazines not on my usual reading schedule. A mistake I will correct. But for now I have some new places to look for great travel writing. Lard is Good for You is one example. Alden Jones wrote the piece for Coffee Journal, it is something I may never have read but am mighty glad I had a chance.
| 
