Tom Bodett, humorist, radio star, and pitchman for Motel 6, lives and writes in Homer, Alaska, the little town in the blue Northwest where America stops, carwise. "If you got into your car in New York, " he said, "and wanted to take a nice long drive, I mean the longest drive you could without turning around or running into a foreign language, this is where you'd wind up." It's a place of moose and salmon and spectacular sunsets, but, Bodet insists, it's also small-town America, a place not all that different from the Michigan town of his youth. That's why he's made it his everyday, for the rigors of the outdoor life and the mundane joys of the family circle. "As Far As You Can Go Without a Passport, " Bodett's first collection of casual essays, contains pieces on eveything from trapping, tree cutting, and halilbut fishing, to soap operas, lost socks, and sleeping in. It's guaranteed to please both the renegate and the homebody in every reader.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Browse the best books of summer including blockbusters, beach reads, and editors' picks in our Summer Reading Store. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
From the isolated town of Homer, Alaska, Bodett, a 30-year-old building contractor and National Public Radio commentator, collects thoughts and anecdotes about such things as the doubtful joys of halibut fishing and compulsive supermarket buying. PW noted that the book was distinguished by its "good-natured and self-deprecating humor."
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Bodett, a building contractor working in Alaska, writes with honesty and good humor of ordinary, everyday events. The book is made up largely of commentaries he contributed to Na tional Public Radio's All Things Con sidered on such themes as reaching the age of 30, trying to grow a beard, and cooking during his wife's pregnancy. The topics Bodett writes about run pleasantly through the mind, leaving but slight trace of their passage. This is not entirely a defect; it is simply indica tive of the sort of popular magazine-ish category to which they belong. Kessler also submits material to All Things Considered (and to ABC News Nightline ) under the name Ian Shoales. His commentaries are an odd mixture of cynicism, idealism, humor, and sat ire. His prose has a certain man-of-the- world strut, and his pages are full of urbane malice. Sometimes it is not easy to decide whether the satire is con scious or unconscious. The reason for the uncertainty is probably that Kessler is at bottom an idealist and, as is com mon with the breed, a bit shy of appear ing so. He has provided an amusing book full of sly chuckles as he mimics and mocks people and objects badly in need of a good drubbing. A titillating collection for sophisticated palates. A. J. Anderson, Graduate School of Li brary & Information Science, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The deadpan yet revealing humor of a man literally at the end of the road
December 25, 2007
Format:Paperback
The best comedy writers often use their own experiences to generate their material. If their subject matter is a particular lifestyle or area of the country, then they must have lived it and generally stay within it. Bodett lives in Homer, Alaska, and a place that I quite frankly had to look up on a map. His real life is that of a building contractor, and his deadpan delivery made him very popular on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
In this book, Bodett puts forward a series of short "observations" about life in small town Alaska. He talks about hunting, fishing, having and raising a child, a reclusive trapper with his sled dogs and other natural things found in that area of Alaska. He also talks about other annoyances that all other adults can relate too. Socks getting lost in the laundry, cooking a meal that smells like a pile of long neglected laundry, the perils of Christmas shopping and the universal junk drawer containing a "required" set of worthless materials. Bodett puts it all down in a matter-of-fact style as if these situations are a natural part of the human condition. His attitude is that since we can't do anything about it anyway, we might as well take it in stride. For some people, comments and comedy are one and the same and Bodett fits well into that group.
In this book, Bodett puts forward a series of short "observations" about life in small town Alaska. He talks about hunting, fishing, having and raising a child, a reclusive trapper with his sled dogs and other natural things found in that area of Alaska. He also talks about other annoyances that all other adults can relate too. Socks getting lost in the laundry, cooking a meal that smells like a pile of long neglected laundry, the perils of Christmas shopping and the universal junk drawer containing a "required" set of worthless materials. Bodett puts it all down in a matter-of-fact style as if these situations are a natural part of the human condition. His attitude is that since we can't do anything about it anyway, we might as well take it in stride. For some people, comments and comedy are one and the same and Bodett fits well into that group.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Tom Bodett's glimpses of life in Alaska are completely entertaining. Great people and stories, along with lots of laughs.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By S Moore
Format:Paperback
I was born and raised at the end of the road. Homer, Alaska. Brilliant writing. Thanks for taking me home every time I open this book!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining
My husband and I listed to Tom Bodett on public radio many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed his story telling. Read more
Published 4 months ago by shopgal
5.0 out of 5 stars
As Far As You Can Go Without A Passport
Book was in excellent shape. Bodett did not disappoint. Felt like I was sitting at his kitchen table listening to him talk about his day. Read more
Published on March 22, 2011 by catnip621
4.0 out of 5 stars
Yes, yes, yes
Thanks Tom for making me snort laugh through my nose. I'll be searching out your other work now.
Published on July 21, 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't leave home without this valuable source
A passport is a really necessary item -- most of the time -- but as this book shows, you don't need one all the time. And, for certain places, a passport is not needed at all. Read more
Published on April 24, 1998
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
