Books

Nepal 45: Howl

Daniel 3 Comments
Alan Ginsberg Howl

My search for breakfast again took me along the touristy Lakeside strip. I didn’t much mind though—after a month of having the “local experience” in Taiwan, I was more than happy to play the tourist for a little bit.

And the Nepali love tourists. Not in a snide, disparaging way like you might find in some other places— the Nepali genuinely love their visitors, and are happy to help them experience the culture and natural beauty of their country. This is the only touristic place I visited on this trip where I didn’t feel any sort of tension between the tourists and the locals. So if you’re going to be a clueless tourist looking for a piece of home, Nepal is as good a place as any to do it.

My search for familiarity led me to the Pokhara branch of Himalayan Java. I had spent some time at the Himalayan Java in Kathmandu.

Apparently it’s a chain, I thought to myself as I spotted the signs. Maybe not a chain, could just be a second location. After all, the Himalayan Java in Kathmandu hadn’t seemed particularly slick or reproducible. And although Nepal’s a wonderful country, there probably aren’t too many opportunities to open a western-style coffee chain. Kathmandu, Pokhara, maybe Chitwan, I mused as I crossed the road and headed to the coffee shop.

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Book Review: The Alchemist

Daniel 28 Comments
Paolo Coehlo The Alchemist Meaning Themes

“To realize one’s Personal Legend is a person’s only real obligation.”

These were the words with which Paulo Coehlo stole my heart.

My world is far too full of I cant’s, but’s, and if only’s. I hear these words all the time from friends, from lovers, and from family. I heard these words from the woman who introduced me to this book: “I wish I could do what you did and travel, but I need to work.”

Essentially, Paulo Coehlo’s “The Alchemist” pivots around this idea of “I can’t.”

This book exists to convince you: “You can.”

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This book will fill the “Game of Thrones” sized hole in your life

Daniel 5 Comments

With the stunning conclusion to season six of Game of Thrones, an embarrassingly large number of us are now left with nothing to look forward to every Sunday night.

Now that the series has finally, totally and truly eclipsed George R. R. Martin’s books, you can’t even fill the 10-month gap between seasons by reading those. Well, you could, but trust me: at this point, it’s better just to stick with the show. Books 4 and 5 weren’t all that good, and the wait for 6 will just make you angrier than you need to be, really.

Instead, pick up a copy of Patrick Rothfuss’ 2007 novel, “The Name of the Wind.”

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Book Review: Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer

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Eiger Dreams original cover

“Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains” was first published in 1990. Well before the cultural zeitgeist embraced the outdoors as the hippest, healthiest place to play, and long before #adventure became chic, Krakauer began his book with this epigraph:

“Having an adventure shows that someone is incompetent, that something has gone wrong. An adventure is interesting enough in retrospect, especially to the person who didn’t have it; at the time it happens it usually constitutes an exceedingly disagreeable experience.”

There’s something to be said here about the wisdom of your elders, but considering the name of this website, I’ll leave it hanging.

A collection of climbing and mountaineering essays and articles written for Outside Magazine and others, “Eiger Dreams” was the first book ever released by author Jon Krakauer, who would later go on to find literary fame with two heavy hitters: “Into The Wild” and “Into Thin Air.” By nature of being an essay collection, “Eiger Dreams” doesn’t demonstrate the thematic and narrative tightness of those later books; some essays are worth reading, others will likely have you skipping ahead to see how much longer until the next one.

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