Acquire Grounded: A Down To Earth Journey Around The World Edited By Seth Stevenson Copy

de interesses: não gosto de escalas dea, porque cortam demasiadas zonas intermédias.
Duas estrelas em cinco é uma classificação abaixo delogo, negativa, e este livro não é um mau livro.
É apenas um mero "it was ok", como aparece na descrição destas duas estrelas à Goodreads,

Ora, como o título deixa antever, esta obra trata da viagem à volta do mundo, sempre sem utilizar o avião, que um jovem casal norteamericano decidiu empreender, largando para trás uma existência rotineira.
Não serão os primeiros nem os últimos a fazêlo e eu, que gosto de viajar e de literatura de viagens, só agradeço a que se vá escrevendo este tipo de relatos.


Na prática, e ao contrário de outros livros de autores mais "maduros", este "A Terra vista da Terra" lêse com grande rapidez, em parte pela escrita muito linear e quase desinspirada do autor que, contudo, tem algum sentido de humor.
É um livro leve, engraçado é como um aperitivo contra uma boa refeição completa,

Mas então o autor e a sua namorada não percorreram o mundo, sem nunca usar um avião Que espetáculo de viagem deve ter sido! Sim, acredito que foi uma viagem fascinante, mas isto, só por si, deveria render mais umas estrelitas na pontuação.
. .

E "A Terra vista da Terra" não me consegue levar mais que duas estrelas porque é demasiado comedido nessa arte de mostrar o mundo a quem está confortavelmente sentado a ler.
Por exemplo: o autor gasta muitos parágrafos a comparar o transporte aéreo com qualquer meio de transporte aquático ou terrestre.
É uma perspetiva interessante quando pensamos na evolução das viagens ao longo do tempo, mas rapidamente se torna maçador, como se estivéssemos perante um manifesto anti viajar de avião.
E, entretanto, já se perdeu imenso da Europa central, . .

Por outro lado, viajar à volta do mundo, que fantástico! Mas Seth Stevenson acaba por cair no cliché norteamericano do "que vida tão monótona vou largar tudo e partir".
Porque um ideia e oportunidade tão boas acabam por se reduzir a um cliché quando muitas vezes o passatempo preferido do casal foi, basicamente, ingerir doses copiosas de álcool noite após noite.
E, não raras vezes, o maior objetivo ao chegar a determinada parte do globo parece ser descobrir como sair de lá para "queimar" os próximos quilómetros.
E não consegui impedir de me perguntar: para andar sempre com tanta pressa, e frequentemente num grau maior ou menor de embriaguez, afinal qual foi a marca que ficou de uma viagem de mais dekm

Em jeito de resumo, este não é um mau livro e é, até, um bom entretenimento.
Mas passa totalmente ao lado de ser um bom livro de viagens, o que é uma pena, tendo em conta a diversidade de locais percorridos.
Threeline review: Fed up with their lives, Stevenson and his girlfriend, Rebecca, sell or store all their belongings and take off on an aroundtheworld trip in which all transportation must remain at ground level plane, train, bus, bike, etc.
. This sets the story up for a potentially interesting premise, only it turns out their goal truly is to travel around the world and not really spend any time in any of the places they pass through and when they are anywhere for any significant period of time whether that's on an ocean liner or waiting for their next train to leave, their chosen activity is to drink.
It was disappointing, uninspiring, shallow, and a waste of a journey, This is not the book I wanted to read, The book I want to read is the one written by Rebecca, Mr, StevensonÃââs girlfriend, who had to endure him on this trip, IÃââm not sure her book will ever materialize, so IÃââm stuck reviewing this one, This was one of those books that I grabbed off the shelf because of the writerÃââs intention to travel around the world without getting into an airplane.
I plan to do the same thing, but I hope and pray I am a lot more gracious to those around me as well as curious as

to where my travels take me.
Stevenson is a gifted writer, Although I often shook my head at his narcissism, he kept my attention as I quickly read the book.


Seth, a writer for Slate Magazine, and his attorneygirlfriend Rebecca quit their jobs, sold their possessions and set out to travel the world.
Throughout the book, Seth returns to his familiar litany as to why he hates flying, But then, he seems to hate most forms of transportation: container ships, cruise ships, trains, ferries and bicycles.
Despite his constant complaining, Seth does manage to fulfill his goal, This he achieves by ditching his girlfriend in Singapore when he finds a ship heading to Australia.
The ship is leaving port, so he calls her back at the hotel where she is gathering their possessions and tells her to fly to Bali where the ship will stop in a few days.
The only thing I can say about this stunt is that he should be thankful that his girlfriend didnÃâât fly back to the States or, once they reunited, didnÃâât treat him to a long distant swimming lesson off starboard somewhere in the Timor Sea.
Machiavelli Seth seems only to care about achieving his goal, He wasnÃâât even gracious toward the ship and crew that made last minute arrangements to take him onboard as a passenger and provided him the opportunity to fulfill his goal, referring to the British cruise ship as a floating nursing home.


The young couple travels start in Washington DC, They head to Philadelphia where they board a container ship to Europe, Then they travel by rail and ferry across Europe to Moscow and take the TransSiberian across Russia.
Next, itÃââs a ferry to Japan, then trains and another ferry to China, then trains and buses to Vietnam where they join up with a bicycling tour group to ride through much of the country.
From Saigon, they take a bus to Cambodia and a cab into Thailand, then buses and ferries the train crews were on strike to Singapore.
From there, he takes a small British cruise ship to Darwin, Australia, Rebecca joins up with the ship in Bali, In Darwin, they decide to leave the ÃâÅ“floating nursing homeÃâ early It was going to take them around Australia and drive a car to Sydney.
From Australia, they take another container ship to New Zealand where they land just hours before leaving on a plush cruise ship.
Arriving back in Los Angeles, they take Amtrak across the country, back to Washington DC where they began.


Throughout the book, Stevenson refers to Jules VerneÃââs classic, Around the World inDays.
He could have titled this book, Around the World onBottles of liquor, Drinking, along with some pills that he pops, is his way of coping with the hardships he experiences and helps him endure the discomforts do you get the sense I donÃâât feel sorry for him.
Along the way there are few comments about the beauty of the land or the people and the hospitality he encounters.
He seems to have little interest in the history or the culture of the area, He complains about all tourists, be they young backpackers or wealthy geezers, In fact, it seems to me that he generally dislikes people, The only person he cares for is Rebecca and he was willing to leave her behind!,

I assume that with a lot of his complaining Stevenson thought he was being funny like Bill Bryson.
However, with Bryson, I get a sense he cares about people, I know I wouldnÃâât want to travel with Paul Theroux, who often complains about other tourists, but I keep reading Theroux because I have a sense he cares about the cultures and the local people he encounters on his journeys and does a great job sharing what he learns.
Furthermore, Theroux admits that he likes to travel alone and on the ground so that he can experience other cultures.
Both Bryson and Therux provide insight into the world in which they travel, Stevenson gives very little of this, At best, he does have several interesting sections a few pages to each on the history of various forms of travel air, rail, container ships, buses, bicycles and cruise ships.
One place where I felt StevensonÃââs writing did show a bit of promise for interacting with local culture was during a break from the TransSiberian in the city of Yekateinburg.
Stevenson wrote about the murders of the Czar and his family there in, noting that the people didnÃâât capitalize on the tragedy like many New Yorkers had on.
But then, in the pages that followed, he makes two backtoback Jewish jokes that I found distasteful.
The first was referring to a popping sound that he thought could be the changing of an engine on the train or the shooting of Jews and wealthy land owners, but since neither involved him he could go back to sleep.
Then he noted that Siberia was ÃâÅ“like the Catskills, minus the billboards, the gas stations, and the Jewish summer camps.
ÃâÂOf course, tragically, many Jews and others were sent to ÃâÅ“campsÃâ in Siberia, On a positive note, Stevenson writes in a way that is easy to read, but then his writing is just not that deep.


I debated between giving the book two or three, Because it was so easy to read and I did learn a few things from it, I gave it the.
.