Customer Reviews

The Size of the World

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First, I'm not real generous when it comes to giving a full "five stars" and have read easily over 100 travel essays. This book is the most enjoyable and enlightening I've read. I first read it over 2 years ago and have given copies out to several friends. Each one loved it.

I just picked it up again (a real rarity for me). It's every bit as good as I recalled. Insightful with respect to both the places he visits as well as the author's introspection. Wonderful imagery- articulate, adjective-filled.

Read this book.

I loved this book. It captured the real essence of travel---reminding us that a trip is not just about a physical change of place, but a journey into other cultures, worldviews and most of all, into places inside yourself.

Jeff Greenwald's trip was not always pleasant. It was often dirty, dusty and frustrating. But his accounts of even those moments were usually funny and full of insight. And when the trip was pleasant, he made sure you shared the pleasure. His account of drinking freshly-squeezed orange juice in Marrakesh was enough to make me put it on my list.

Be careful though. If you're in a comfortable but unremarkable place or point in your life, reading this book could shake things up. You might end up packing tomorrow.

If you have any wanderlust in your heart, you will love this book, especially if you live in the Bay Area. Just imagine circling the world, never leaving it's surface, and leaving by way of the MacArthur Bart station. I keep lending people this book and they love it.

This midlife-crisis-pilgrimage-travelogue is not as large in scope as its name implies. Still it is a very readable and entertaining assortment of short takes on an unorthodox trip around the world and through the author's restless mind. Greenwald so loves the Tibet region, though, that one feels he failed really to enjoy the the long trip through the rest of the big world in his eagerness to get there before dashing home. Ah, well, it was his kora, and we can only hope he takes us along on his next adventure.

This midlife-crisis-pilgrimage-travelogue is not as large in scope as its name implies. Still it is a very readable and entertaining assortment of short takes on an unorthodox trip around the world and through the author's restless mind. Greenwald so loves the Tibet region, though, that one feels he failed really to enjoy the the long trip through the rest of the big world in his eagerness to get there before dashing home. Ah, well, it was his kora, and we can only hope he takes us along on his next adventure.

I thought this book was going to be about a man who traveled around the world without the benefit of airplanes. What the first two-thirds seems to be about is a man who is trying to beat the clock to get to Nepal in time to join an expedition to Mount Kailas. The universe seems to be hell-bent on preventing this from happening. Once this situation is resolved, the rest of the book is much more interesting. And if you can overlook the fact that the author is trying to actually get somewhere on a certain date, his adventures are a lesson in ingenuity. I was disappointed that there were no maps in the book, sending me to my atlas on a regular basis. Not that there is anything wrong with a little self-education, but when you are sitting at a coffee shop, the maps would have come in handy. I admire Greenwald for undertaking such a arduous journey. I also admire his ability to meet and connect with such interesting characters along the way. Maybe traveling alone left him more open for these encounters. The book left me wanting to see those places he loved and avoid those he didn't, but I think I'll fly.

the reason that i didn't really enjoy "the size of the world" is because mr. greenwald seems more heck-bent on letting the reader know what a hip and happening guy he is than on actually, y'know, traveling and stuff. he tells us all about how he left his parents' east coast home at an early age, hitchhiking with something like five bucks and a dime bag of pot. how bohemian. there are also several other examples which i can't really remember right now, i remember him talking about his huge jazz collection when it was really inappropriate and unnecessary to the story for him to do so. also he spends the majority of the book pining over his bondgirl of a traveling companion (the best quote of the entire book is "if intellegence is an aphrodisiac then she's an oyster dinner" or something like that). he demonstrates remarkable journalistic restraint by leaving it to the reader to discover that she's totally out of his league. basically, "the size of the world" reads like a college indierock geek's diary, forced and heavy handed coolness and everything. that's forgivable if you're eighteen. if you're forty and a professional journalist its a crime against dignity and good taste. also its boring. you have to give him credit for trying, though. i'm just sitting here panning it over the computer. makes you wonder who's really the geek, huh?

come to think of it, any apparantly average forty year old who actively pursues a twentysomething knockout like he's brad pitt is pretty cool after all. i take all the bad things back.