Tag: Used Book Hunting

Alabama’s Gulf Coast is a popular tourist destination, attracting nearly eight million visitors each year.  But as these sunbirds flock towards the state’s beaches and casinos, they’re driving past a unique piece of American culture:  the historic district of Africatown, located just a few miles north of Mobile.   Africatown was founded by a group of 32 West Africans, all of whom had been transported to the United States during our country’s last known transport of slaves.  The United States had officially outlawed the trans-Atlantic slave trade by 1807, but due to the massive profits involved, human traffickers never really abandoned the treacherous Middle Passage.  That was the case in 1860, when a group of of Alabama landowners bet each other to see if they could evade federal authorities, and…

For those of us living and working in China, it’s been an interesting couple of months.  As the COVID-19 Coronavirus spreads its way around the world, we’ve seen communities, cities, and even entire countries go into lockdown mode.  Unprecedented travel restrictions have literally sprung up overnight, all in an effort to curb the spread of this new virus. It’s a challenging time for everyone, and not surprisingly, everybody has their own way of dealing with the stress.  For my part, I’ve been using any extra spare time to revisit my reading list.   I first heard about “An American Bum in China” on a Reddit discussion thread last year, and the crazy story instantly appealed to me.  This is the true story of Matthew Evans, a young man from Iowa without…

I’ve been to Paris three times now, and it’s safe to say that I’ve got a love/hate relationship with that city.  On the one hand, there’s no denying that the French people have made countless contributions to the world at large, including, but not limited to, French fries and that awesome Ratatouille movie.  On the other hand, I’ve noticed that after a while, Parisians can just be so… Parisian.  They all tend to exhibit a particular air, not so much an attitude of superiority, but rather a subtle form of humblebragging.  This personality trait manifests itself through a need to constantly remind you of their presence, like the way all those bicyclists whipping along the Champs Elysses never fail to ring their bells at you, even though you’re nowhere near…

When you live on the road, you quickly come to appreciate the sheer handiness of a used book.  It’s a quiet form of portable entertainment, one which never requires re-charging.  And whenever you’ve come across a good book for cheap (or even better, for free), there’s very little hesitation about passing it along to another reader once you’re done with it.  I guess that’s why, no matter where I travel, I always do my best to seek out the local used book store. Sometime in the last decade or so, this traveling circus that I work for had set me up in the small town of Winchester, Virginia for a couple months.  It was just short enough of a time so that I couldn’t really get settled in, but just…

If you had to cram Tony Horwitz’ writing into any category, I guess it’d be safe to call him a “travel writer.”  Most of his books involve seem to involve a lot of time spent on the road doing research, and my all-time favorite book of his, “Confederates in the Attic”,  is certainly no different.  This epic work of journalism goes off in dozens of weird directions as the author explores a unique and curious cross-section of American society:  the Civil War re-enactor. In “Confederates”, Horwitz travels deep below the Mason-Dixon line, through the heart of the American South.  Like many Americans, Horwitz shares a fascination with the only major war fought on US soil, and his writing explores how public interest in this conflict has grown over time.  But…

Recently, when I was passing through Washington, DC, I had the opportunity to visit one of my favorite places in the world:  the Library of Congress.  I’ve actually been here several times before, and I always try to stop in for the public tour whenever I’m in town.  But during this visit, my mission was slightly different.  I’d set a personal goal to obtain the ultimate prize, the Holy Grail of book nerds everywhere:  a researcher card from the Library of Congress. [caption id="attachment_585" align="alignnone" width="1296"] Back Camera[/caption] This idea first got stuck in my head about ten years back, during one of a few visits to our nation’s capitol in 2008.  I remember being absolutely blown away by the Jefferson Building’s architecture, although the public areas are basically limited…

There I was, off in the South Pacific island nation of Samoa for some reason or other.  I’d just arrived back in the outskirts of the capital city of Apia, my rear end stiff and numb after riding a rented moped out to visit the legendary To Sua Ocean Trench.  That day trip was an adventure in itself:  dodging wild pigs along the unmarked side roads; getting soaked through by a handful of sudden rainstorms; eating Sapa Sui in grass hut along a white-sand beach; and getting hijacked by a three-year-old in a Larry Bird jersey, who refused to get off my moped until I’d bought an overpriced coconut from him. What can I say, really?  Five tala sure ain’t cheap, but I respected the kid’s hustle. But I’ve got…