Hello Everybody!
What a wonderful first day of March! I’m looking forward to spring, especially to travel more! Even if I’m walking around the block, it’s traveling by pandemic standards. I’ve had traveling on my mind ever since I started reading this book:
Around the World in Eighty Days with Michael Palin by Michael Palin is the book companion to the 1989 BBC series of the same name. In the show, the Monty Python member-turned traveler circumnavigates the globe in the same amount of time as Phileas Fogg – the protagonist of the famous Jules Verne novel of the same name – and using the same modes of transportation that were available in Fogg’s time. Along the way, he describes his joyous and sometimes chaotic experiences.
Pandemic or no pandemic, seeing pictures of Venice and Cairo make me want to travel even though they were taken over 30 years ago. Palin offers hilarious insights into them. For example, in Venice, a photo depicts an older man faced down, and he muses that the mafia probably got to him (forgive me if I misremember the comment).
I also like how every page indicates which part of the world Palin and his Passepartouts (the film crew essentially) are in. For instance, on one page, it lists Day 5: Cornith Canal in Greece as the author talks about going through it. On the next page, it lists Day 5: Athens as he talks about his experiences in that city. It’s good to know that Palin wants readers to know where he’s at all times (in the book of course).
The travelogue makes me want to watch the 7-part BBC series, which is available in its entirely on Amazon Prime. I look forward to hearing Palin’s narrations since I hear his voice constantly while reading the book.
As for the other novel that I’m reading, I finished My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman, and I’m almost done with What Was Your Name Downriver?: Tales of the Shattered Frontier by Anthony Lowe.
We now come to the end of the eighth chapter of “What Am I Reading?”
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Book Reviews by a Chick Who Reads Everything 