Rating: 
Summary: A gem
Review: I had my doubts when I picked up this book. Principally I was sceptical about how one begins to cover in any substantial way travels though 45 countries in one year. Within the first thirty pages it became clear to me that the author was searching for and painting a comparative picture of our world. In my opinion the book's prime attraction is in Haffar's skill at distilling cultures, societies, and entire countries into their essential elements. And he does so with humour, occasionally irreverent but never crass. This is brilliant, entertaining reading for anyone, traveller or otherwise, who is curious about the world we live in.
Rating:
Summary: Away From My Desk
Review: I loved it! It's funny and engaging and kept me interested beginning to end. I've been to some of the places in Europe described in the book, but there were many other places that I had not visited. I found myself either chuckling at reminiscences of my own trips, or fascinated by the stories from destinations unknown to me. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud parts as well. It was a good read and really took me away from the cares of everyday life.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: I loved this book. This book routinely invoked in me prolonged, swept-away-with-mirth, out-loud laughter. This book made me laugh so long and loud that more than once when my husband and I were curled up in bed at night with our respective volumes, he suggested that I go find another part of the house in which to read.
The book chronicles a year spent traveling around the world, often but not always on a motorcycle. The author, Rif Haffar, and his girlfriend, to whom he aptly refers as Tracy the Lionhearted, undertook this adventure on fairly short notice after a corporate reorg left Haffar with time on his hands. The semi-spontaneous nature of the trip's inception remains a thematic element in the story that unfolds: these are people who are brave enough and joyous enough to seize opportunities and absorb experiences as they present themselves, to not be rigidly dependent on schedules or itineraries, to navigate the many frustrations and pleasures of travel with ongoing good humor. This book is not (nor does it purport to be) a definitive travel guide to any of the many places visited (though there are plenty of historical and cultural factoids to keep things interesting). It does not pretend to be a manual on riding or maintaining a motorcycle. Nor is it, by any stretch of the imagination, a book about how to travel on a tight budget. Haffar obviously has the means to travel comfortably, and part of the beauty of the book for me was the fact that he was unabashed about alternating sleeping in tents, in campers, in huts with staying in the occasional four-star hotel. It is this aspect of the book that I imagine will or does appeal to a segment of the traveling population that is slightly older and slightly more affluent, yet retains the thirst for newness and adventure they began to satisfy way back when Europe still could be done for $5 a day.
Haffar has so many stories to tell here, and they are all told with an intelligence and an incisive wit that surprises and delights. At the same time, he does not pull punches when he runs into circumstances that he finds frustrating, ridiculous, or unpleasant, and refreshingly does not adopt the banal and vaguely disingenuous tone of guidebooks whose charter it is to be polite. Thus, although his humor can at times seem a little sharp, it is so clearly and fortunately co-mingled with a fundamental attitude of respect and compassion that it rarely, if ever, truly stings. He describes doing things that I will never, ever, ever do: bungee jumping for one, swimming with sharks for another, and also describes a whole host of things that any of would count ourselves fortunate to experience. This book rekindled my never-very-dormant travel lust, and the unrealistic notion that on my next big travel adventure I will take Haffar along to keep me in stitches.
Liz Adams
Seattle WA
Rating: 
Summary: Delightful!!!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this creative travel journal. He had me laughing out loud with some of his witty descriptions of the places they traveled through,and the people they encountered. I highly recommend it!
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe 'Away from my desk' but NOT away from his ego
Review: I was lucky to have bought a copy of AWAY FROM MY DESK before embarking on a flight from Beirut to New York via Paris. Haffar's flowing style and wit made me forget the tedium of the long journey. Sometimes I felt as if I was the one riding behind him through Spain, the South of France and on to points east, then back to the west. So much so that when we landed I was suprised to find myself in New York.
I enjoyed every minute of it, and I recommend it to all book lovers.
Rating:
Summary: Superb!
Review: I was lucky to have bought a copy of AWAY FROM MY DESK before embarking on a flight from Beirut to New York via Paris. Haffar's flowing style and wit made me forget the tedium of the long journey. Sometimes I felt as if I was the one riding behind him through Spain, the South of France and on to points east, then back to the west. So much so that when we landed I was suprised to find myself in New York.
I enjoyed every minute of it, and I recommend it to all book lovers.
Rating:
Summary: DON'T AIRLIFT YOUR BIKE VIA BOMBAY!
Review: I've just completed Away From my Desk after spending two exhilarating nights revisiting several countries I thought I'd experienced previously, but now realize that I hadn't. This book is for those who enjoy adventure and excitement beyond that which is found in conventional travel books. It falls somewhere between a travel book - a venture to 6 continents and 45 countries by motorbike, air, camel, and elephant - and a personal account of the people, whims of travel, customs and images gained from his uncommon insight. This book is quick-witted and candid, but forgiving - an account of the fulfillment of the author's dream of dumping corporate life as Vice President of a major telecommunications company and journeying around-the-world by motorbike. Such a venture exists only in the imagination of most travelers. Haffar has the remarkable gift of creating the sense that `you are there'- he opens new vistas in the world of motorbike touring. Alas, my wife forbids me from getting on one of those things. Which makes the book even more valuable.
Rif Haffar describes the art of travel in some unusual places where only the bold venture, as well as providing tips on accommodations, pitfalls, and humorous vignettes of problems, e.g.,loss of Honda to Customs in Bombay, that many would experience if they dared such an adventure. The book doesn't tell you where to go, as much as what to expect when you get there. It is reminiscent of the somewhat more Herculean trip taken in 1936 by Peter Flemming and his companion, recorded in his classic book `News From Tartary'. Haffar prefers clean hotels to tents and yurts. He has a wry wit and a rare talent for telling a good story, as well as providing information that saves the trouble `... of staying in lousy hotels, eating bad food and getting bitten by exotic bugs of varying nationalities'.
If you wish to experience an exciting and humorous odyssey in your armchair, journeying from Lisbon, across Europe to the Middle East, then to Asia, Oceania, South and Central America, then this is a book you will enjoy. If you are courageous, and plan such a trip by motorbike, or otherwise, `Away from the Desk' is essential reading.
One minor disappointment was the small black and white photos - would they have been in color! On the other hand, I suppose this would add substantially to the book's price.
Rating:
Summary: Great find, great read!
Review: I've read many travelogs but none quite like this one. Most of the time I was amused and amazed by Haffar's witty and informative account. Occasionally, I was mildly shocked by the graphic and perhaps too honest descriptions of certain places and people. Great read!
Rating:
Summary: Stay Home and Read this Book - It's Safer!
Review: I've spent the past 18 years of my life traveling around the globe on a shoe-string budget and I hate reading travel books, because they are always WRONG! Rif Haffar's humourous look at world travel and adventure was a refreshing thrill to read. I recommend it to everyone who is stuck at home, and longing for a road trip. This is not some know it all writer telling you how to do it Mr Right's way. Instead, you experience the joy of accidentally discovering a perfect spot along the way and the
disappointment of visiting a well know tourist site that's clearly over-rated. Somehow, this book rang absolutely true to the traveler's experience. At some times I felt I was reliving one of my own travel adventures; at others I was inexplicably JEALOUS that in all my years of backpacking around this crazy planet I never stayed the night in the suites at the Hilton and enjoyed those "fluffy white towels"! Kudos to this traveler who was unafraid to do it all his own way without fear of telling it just like it was - with a quirky smile on his face. A joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Utterly wretched
Review: If you are a long-distance motorcyclist, as I am, stay far away from this awful book. This guy is not a rider -- he takes a leisurely ride aboard an ST1100 from Lisbon to Istanbul and that's it. Haffar didn't even know what a carnet is! So his bike -- which any rider guards with his or her life -- gets stuck in Bombay, and he evidently lacks the wherewithal and ingenuity to extract it. Travels thru the Middle East, Asia, Oceania, South America, Central America, and the U.S. are accomplished via publilc transit, plane, and rental cars. Yawwwwn. Worse still, this book is worst variety of insipid amateur travelogue -- unless you like tedious crybaby complaints about bad tea, inadequate restrooms, and tepid showers. Ugh! Don't look here for insights into culture, or conversations with locals. Haffar is too busy looking for his next cup of tea, about which he is bound to offer some banal observation. The little good that can be said of the regrettable work is that Haffar will occasionally spin a pleasant phrase. Other than that, this self-absorbed loser of a book annoyed the bejeepers out of me. Grade: F.
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