Travel Plans

I read an article recently where a columnist took the Eat, Pray, Love, travel-and-find-yourself concept to a new level. It seems her editors thought the way to rope in the fans of that book and its subsequent film was to send a willowy, blonde writer (not unlike Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the travelogue sensation) to a foreign locale (not dissimilar to, say, India or Italy) for some self-discovery. Sounds pretty familiar so far, but the twist in this case was that she wouldn’t know where she was going and wouldn’t have access to any travel guides or professional advice--she had to plunk down in the middle of some place chosen at random, rely on friendly locals for help and her own wits for navigation, and write about her experience at the end of her month in limbo. It’s certainly an intriguing proposition, but also scary as all get out in my opinion. I suppose many people would look at her interlude as an adventure--taking off into the unknown and carpe dieming the heck out of life. They would be right, of course, but I must be a bit too much of a homebody (or, more likely, control freak) to imagine undertaking such an excursion without having indexed and cross-referenced my own personal copy of the Lonely Planet Guide for the area. But not everyone is like me. In Susan Rich Brooke’s Elmo’s Colorful Adventure, Elmo takes off for far-flung parts on the spur of the moment. He sure is brave.

http://www.amazon.com/Elmos-Colorful-Adventure-Other-Reader/dp/1412701627

http://storyreaderbooks.com/