Book events and readings as a travel pursuit

by Jamie Rhein on

As a cheap entertainment option when traveling, head to a book store to catch an author talk or reading. While movies have approached $10 or higher in many cities, book store readings are usually free. If you’re in a college town or major city, your chances of a book reading happening during your trip are pretty high. I also went to book events in Singapore and New Delhi. Anywhere where there are book stores, there will be book events at one time or another.

Tonight, for example, I headed to one of the Barnes and Noble bookstores in Columbus to hear a talk by Washington Post columnist and book critic Michael Dirda. Earlier today I heard him on a local talk show, “Open Line with Fred Anderle,” thought he sounded interesting, didn’t have plans, so there I went. Dirda’s latest book is a collection of essays about the pleasure of reading classics called Classics for Pleasure.

Listening to writers read, talk about their work and answer audience questions stimulates me to think about my own perceptions of life and the world. I bought a cup of tea which cost $1.55 with tax and that was all I spent. I do normally buy one of the author’s books, but I have one of Dirda’s already and yesterday was a day of spending money elsewhere.

If you go on Barnes and Noble’s Web site, there’s a place where you type in a city, town or state, pick from a drop down menu what type of event you are looking for and it will let you know what authors are coming within a 25 mile range up to three months from now. There’s another option where you type in the name of the author and that author’s events will show up. Anne Lamott, one of the funniest, most poignant writers around, for example, has a few readings scheduled —one of them is at the Union Square Barnes and Noble. The store, pictured in the photo, has author events as a regular feature.

The Harvard Book Store also has several authors making appearances through the Author Event Series. If you’re going to be in Cambridge or Boston, head here.

What’s the dirtiest hotel in the U.S.? It has company

by Jamie Rhein on

TripAdvisor has just released its annual list of the dirtiest hotels in the U.S. I suppose this is akin to Mr. Blackwell’s Annual Worst-Dressed list aimed at celebrities. Who would aspire to land a spot on such a list?

The Hotel Carter, a 700 room architectural beauty in Manhattan is right at the top of the worst of the dirtiest. The photo on its Web site looks rather 40ish funky–perhaps it hasn’t been cleaned since then. At one time, the hotel was probably magnificent and the place to be. Perhaps, it’s in need of a real update. Whatever the reason, if you look at the travel ratings review chart, this place isn’t even recommended for budget travelers. Young singles might like it a tad better. Young singles without dates, or nowhere to go perhaps?

If all the complaints are accurate, it sounds like this could be named Hell Hotel with accuracy. Mice, lice, cigarette butts, prostitutes, police, blood, hair of various types everywhere, slow to fill tubs, paint peeling–you name it, this place has it. So, this is what the dirtiest hotel looks like? On the plus side, for the Times Square area, it’s price is a deal if you don’t have health or safety concerns. Patricking, who posted this shot on Flickr wrote that this is how he found his room when he arrived. The bag is the only additon. This was in April 2007. For other dirty of the dirtiest.

Check out these weird hotels:


Also on the dirtiest list:

  • Nashville – Days Inn Vanderbilt / Music Row, Nashville, TN
  • Ramada Niagara Falls – Niagara Falls, NY
  • Red Carpet Inn, Fort Lauderdale, FL
  • Regency Inn & Suites, New York, NY
  • St. Augustine Beachfront Resort, Saint Augustine, FL
  • Travel Inn Civic/Medical Center, Miami, FL
  • Eden Roc Motel, Wildwood, NJ
  • Days Inn Lancaster, Lancaster, PA
  • Pacific Sands Motel, Santa Monica, CA

    It’s too bad that those connected to Days Inn and Red Carpet Inn have such bad ratings. Since these are brand name hotels, it goes to show that reading about a hotel before you show up is a good idea instead of relying on the fact you have stayed in a perfectly fine Days Inn. I’d also double check to see if anything has changed since the last comments were made. Hotels and motels can go through transformations, however, in the case of the ones listed, there needs to be major, major improvements.

    For those of you traveling to the UK, TripAdvisor also lists the dirtiest hotels there. If a hotel has the word Eden in it, don’t be fooled in thinking it might be paradise. Regency, Manor and Resort also may not mean anything. Whoever thought up the name of some of these hotels had a way with words, even though they didn’t have a clue about how to run them.

    • This amusement park is depressing me: A scene from my wanderings around Prague

    by Aaron Hotfelder on

    The following was written a few years ago, so no, unfortunately, I’m not in Prague right now, though the following sentence may suggest otherwise.

    It’s my third day in Prague, and since my roommates are all at TEFL class from 9 to 5, I find myself forced to be my own tour guide. Staying in the flat for any substantial part of the day is wholly out of the question. There is no air conditioning, and I’ve decided that if I’m going to be stuck in 90-degree heat, I’m at least doing it outside under a tree rather than in my bedroom.

    I’ve been guided in my exploring by a couple of rules that seem to have sprung up on their own. First, and most importantly, have no idea where you’re going. Get lost a number of times, and scoff dismissively at that voice in your head when it tells you to check a map. Columbus didn’t discover the New World by relying on a Lonely Planet guidebook (they came a year later). When you get lost, just keep walking in the same direction for a while. Rest assured– home is probably not too much farther.

    Rule number two: walk everywhere. You don’t have a tram pass yet, and you don’t know how to get one either. Everything in Prague is within walking distance anyway, especially considering you have eight hours to walk.

    Rule three: Don’t spend over five dollars. Bring food with you, and don’t forget lots of water, like you did yesterday. You’ll end up spending three dollars on a bottle of Fanta, an orange soda you don’t even really like.

    In strict adherence to the aforementioned rules, today I find myself visiting Lunapark, an amusement park that simply reeks of desperation. Most of the rides look older than me, and despite it being a large place, and the weather outside being lovely, I don’t see a single paying customer in the whole place. A man sits in a plastic white chair just inside Lunapark’s gates, waiting in vain for anyone to purchase a ticket. Eventually, a child approaches, flanked by his parents. They stand still for a moment, absorbing the vast chasm between their expectations and reality. Their faces turn sour, and they put their hands on the gates of the park, like a prisoner grabs the bars of his cell. They look at each other for a moment; the father says something in German, and they walk away.

    It occurs to me that few things are quite so depressing as a deserted amusement park.The thunderous carnival music betrays its eagerness to please. “Come inside, children! It’s fun, really!” the park seems to say (though in Czech). “Lunapark, you have much to learn,” I tell it. “Though your intentions are pure, no one wants to ride a rusty roller coaster.”

    Top 10 places in 2008 for backpackers

    by Jerry Guo on

    What I love about all these lists you find online and in print is that they’re great for finding that one nugget you haven’t really come across yet. The truth is, most of the time, almost all of the places on these lists turn out to be duds. But I came across one list of relatively off-the-beaten-path destinations for this year, courtesy of BootsnAll.com, and now many are on my to-do list.

    • Buenos Aires – I’ve recently met several guys who’ve raved about how insanely fun the nightlife here is, and how surprisingly affordable it happens to be (especially when you compare it to its wealthy neighbor to the north, Brazil).
    • Morocco – I was actually choosing between going to Peru or Morocco this winter. Peru won out just because it was closer and the flights were less expensive (a relative term, to be sure). This was a good year for Morocco, with several movies filmed there. Looks like a good place to go for a dose of Islamic culture, without the violence. (Like Turkey)
    • Ethiopia – This one really caught my eye. Any other old list in all likelihoods wouldn’t have included Ethiopia as a must-visit destination, especially with the tensions flaring up in some parts of the countryside earlier this year. But the scenery looks beautiful–could be because of the lack of all those pesky tourists.

    The other places include Belize, Nepal, Jordan, Sicily, Queenstown (New Zealand), Chiang Mai (Thailand), and Budapest. Check it out!

    The modern couch potato

    by Jerry Guo on

    While I was backpacking across Peru the last couple weeks, I kept hearing about couch surfing. (And not the lazy TV-watching kind). Apparently it’s become the rage of late, traveling not hostel to hostel, but couch to couch.

    The most established organization–and nonprofit to boot–that connects you to complete strangers who will host you while you’re traveling is the Couch Surfing Project. We introduced it last year, when it was already a couple years old (but still considered in its infancy).

    Now it’s hit prime-time. Membership has apparently tripled in each of the three years it’s been up, averaging roughly 5,000 new members each month. The editor of Budget Travel, Erik Torkells, nicely sums up the reasoning behind the phenomenon’s booming popularity. “If I couch surf I could be on some cool ex-pat’s or local’s sofa. I’ve already leapfrogged barriers. It would take weeks under ordinary circumstances to get in someone’s home.”

    I think the next time I’m in South America, or anywhere else, I’m going to try being a couch potato.