One for the Road: How to Travel with a Salmon

by Kelly Amabile on

I realized after writing about foreign translations yesterday that I’ve actually read a few translated titles recently that are somewhat travel-inspired. First up is Umberto Eco’s How to Travel with a Salmon. This collection of witty parodies, published in 1995, gathers together a variety of satirical essays written by the Italian novelist between 1975 and 1991.

Eco’s short “diario minimos” have been translated into English by William Weaver, allowing a larger audience to enjoy his cleverly disguised complaints about the idiosyncrasies of travel, and life in general. These whimsical essays entertain readers with humorous advice on how one should eat in flight, travel on American trains, go through customs and take intelligent vacations.The chapter on how to buy gadgets might have some merit for travelers too, or at least keep ’em laughing.

One for the Road: Words Without Borders

by Kelly Amabile on

One of the groups involved with The Reading the World program I mentioned earlier today is Words without Borders, who have just revamped their website with a fresh new look.

Since I last spoke of WWB, the group has grown substantially and gained worldwide praise for its first anthology of international literature, a groundbreaking collection of stories from Iran, Iraq, Korea and other “enemy nations.” Now WWB has released Words Without Borders: The World through the Eyes of Writers (March 2007), which features the work of more than 28 writers from almost 20 countries.

Short stories, poems, essays and excerpts from novels all appear in this volume for the very first time in English. Writers such as Ha Jin, Cynthia Ozick, Javier Marias, Wole Soyinka and Günter Grass are included. The website contains info about the writers, as well as the editors and all important translators too. Without their treasured language skills, these stories would remain unread by many.

Reading the World

by Kelly Amabile on

For the third year in a row, June marks the beginning of Reading the World, a collaboration between publishers and booksellers to bring readers attention to a variety of global literary voices. Throughout the month, indy bookstores across the country will prominently display a selection of international books that have been translated into English. The forty books featured this year represent literature from Lithuania, Iraq, Norway, Chile and more.

I attended a session at Book Expo this year where I listened to the folks behind this program speak about the challenges of getting foreign translations published and available for larger audiences. Did you know that over 50 percent of all books in translation now published worldwide are translated from English, but only 6 percent are translated into English?! That’s a ton of stuff being written around the world that we just don’t have access to…unless we can read in other languages, of course.

Here’s the first part of an interview with the program’s manager, Chad Post. In it, he explains that the spirit of Reading the World is one that seeks to raise cultural awareness and showcase viewpoints and opinions from the international literature community, and does so by highlighting works originally written in a language other than English. Take a look at their list of suggested books, maybe you’ll find one written by an author from or about a place you may be visiting soon.

One for the Road: 101 Best Outdoor Towns

by Kelly Amabile on

A new book by Sarah Tuff and Greg Melville has identified a variety of unspoiled places to visit, live and play: 101 Best Outdoor Towns is a list of places not yet overrun by development or “fourth-homebuyers”. As the authors describe it, this is a guide for urban dwellers and suburbanites seeking a quick getaway to a small, breathtaking locale where a slower pace of life still exists.

Organized by US region, the suggestions include places like Bethel (ME), Ohiopyle (PA), Ellijay (GA), Rolla (MO), Red Lodge (MT) and Bishop (CA). They include info on lodgings, dining and activities for each town, focusing on the best that each place has to offer in terms of outdoor fun and adventure.

The travel-writing duo used census and commerce data to weed out locales that were too big, too pricey or too far from a major airport. That left them with a unique collection of locales they have dubbed ‘mostly undiscovered adventure capitals.’ Cool concept, but let’s just hope the publishing of this book doesn’t speed up the “unspoiled” nature of these towns too much!

One for the Road: Keep Austin Weird

by Kelly Amabile on

Did you hear the one about the librarian who once played a cadaver in a movie? No joke actually, and I got your attention now, right? In 2000, said librarian and Austin native Red Wassenich coined a phrase that stuck like glue. The locals embraced it and now he’s written a book to back up what has become a motto for the city: Keep Austin Weird: A Guide to the Odd Side of Town.

As he explained in this recent Library Journal interview, “It’s kind of a skewed version of a traditional guidebook to a city, as the subtitle says. Probably every town has two or three odd events. There just seems to be an inordinate number of them here in Austin.”

Wassenich serves as tour guide to some of the wackiest folks and things that make Austin such an oddity — events like the Spamarama and O’Henry Pun-Off; spots like the Cathedral of Junk and the Polka-Dot Lawn; and a whole lot of other weird stuff. Local bookstore BookPeople made the Weird guide too, and Wassernich will be there at 3 PM today chatting about the colorful people and places that make the Texas state capital such a terrifically bizarre city.