Audrey Niffenegger was the author of that well-loved book ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ that made a huge splash a few years ago. Thus, expectations were pretty high on her second novel, ‘Her Fearful Symmetry’. Well, I wish I could say that she lived up to her 5 million USD advance, but no. Sorry. What [...]
The term ‘Cult Book’ is generously awarded to nice-selling niche books, most often by the author’s own publishing house. Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, however, is one of the true cult classics – a story that has managed to transcend its temporal and geographical setting and speak to multitudes of readers. By now, it has sold [...]
This book caused quite a stir a few years ago (actually it’s already 13 years), and people and commentators world wide loved to talk about it. Guns, germs and steel is a very ambitious piece that seeks to boil world history down to a few, hard baseline facts. The author, a scientist, argues that people [...]
The book reports we post here on Seatofourpants.com often deal with whatever books we happen to get our hands on – when traveling through non English speaking countries you often have to take whatever you get. This one is different – it’s a book report about a book about backpacking. In ‘Are You Experienced’, [...]
I first came to know Bill Bryson as a fellow travel writer, though putting myself in the same category is stretching it a bit. As I only write for this little website, which we can safely say won’t be my last job, Bryson has been incredibly prolific> He has written books that cover everything from [...]
After an unsuccessful hunt for a David Mitchell book I haven’t read yet, I happened on this classic: Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind. I’ve never felt that it was my kind of book but if I was ever going to give it a go, it was now. I certainly have the time, right? [...]
To put it mildly, Salman Rushdie caused quite a stir a number of years ago with his ‘Satanic Verses’, having the Iranian Ayatollah’s sicking death sentences on him and what not. That particular nastiness appears to have blown over now and Rushdie continues to be a productive author. I found his Enchantress of Florence to [...]
Gore Vidal’s Palimpsest – A Memoir With a cast that includes Tennessee Williams, the Kennedys, Eleanor Roosevelt, Truman Capote, Paul Newman, Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer and many more, Gore Vidal’s memoir was a surprisingly good read. Along with current day meditations (well, those from the mid-90′s, when he wrote the memoir), the book [...]
So, what was in that Poste Restante parcel? Why it was a copy of our friend Danny Wattin’s latest book Ursäkta, men din själ dog nyss. It is Danny’s third published book, and his second published novel. Having read the book in a rougher, earlier draft, I am looking forward to see how he [...]
Our official title right now might be Backpackers but, in all honesty, the title isn’t all that accurate. The truth is this: backpackers rarely ‘backpack’ anymore. With the abundance of available transportation options, it’s actually quite rare that you see a backpacker walking that far with their backpack on. That being said, our backpacking [...]
A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson’s attempt to explain, well, nearly everything. Starting with the Big Bang theory and moving through time, the book pieces together the existing theories from various scientific disciplines into a digestible, easy to read guide of our world. I’m going to admit something here – I’m [...]
Siri Hustvedt’s What I Loved. It’s a story told by an art history professor, living in New York. He befriends a struggling artist, after purchasing one of his early paintings, before the artist “makes it” in the art world. Their friendship and eventual friendship of their wives and children, is chronicled over the course of [...]
Definitely one of those books you would NEVER get around to reading when you’re home. Why would you want to sit down and read a 4700 year old epic, when you can do just about anything else? Like laundry, or watching Jeopardy? The Gilgamesh Epic deals with the adventures of one Gilgamesh, the [...]
You know the saying, “to fly by the seat of your pants?” Well, that's been our philosophy for most of our adult lives – before and after meeting, falling in love and marrying. We're now taking that idea on an extended round-the-world trip. Follow us as we share the good, the bad and the downright nasty of life on the road.
