Customer Reviews

Traveling Light

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

 

 

If not for the subtitle, I would likely have never read this book. On the other hand, if I had read it, I would have likely given it 5 stars. Confused? So am I.

The subtitle reads "A Year of Wandering, from California to England and Tuscany and Back Again." Although not noted in the subtitle, the author's year also included a journey to Oregon. I was raised in California, lived for many years in Washington and Oregon, have now returned to California close to where the author trod, and have enjoyed stays in both England and Tuscany. The subtitle spoke to me. I wanted to know what the author had learned while experiencing many of the places that I knew.

Instead, what I read was a series of snapshots. Lovely pictures of the places he had visited, pictures that reminded me of the reasons I loved the same places. I particularly recommend the chapters on the London pub and the Florence racetrack. But there was no sense of discovery, no sense of lessons learned in the author's wandering.

Perhaps the error was mine. Perhaps I read something into the subtitle that neither the author nor publisher meant. But I can't give 5 stars to a book that failed to meet my primary expectation for it.

Bill Barich's Traveling Light is a "reader friendly" combination travelogue and travel guide providing ten chronological chapters from a year of wandering from the Pacific Northwest to Tuscany and back to California. Barich travels around the world and adds wit and wry observation to a fine armchair read.

*THIS REVIEW IS FOR 'A FINE PLACE TO DAYDREAM' A Fine Place to Daydream: Racehorses, Romance, and the Irish

ever since reading barrich's 'laughing in the hills' a few decades ago, i have considered barrich one of the finest articulators of the race track experience. in this latest book, with the chapter titled 'revenge at golden gate' he continues to express the essence of a horse player's experience at the track with wit and insight.

I couldn't get into the first essay, so put the book aside for a while. I tried again, wasn't really into that particular story at any point, but kept on going with the book. Surprise - the rest of them were fairly interesting!