I put some of Paul Theroux’s books, including “The Old Patagonian Express” and “Riding the Iron Rooster,” at the top of my list of favorite travel books. His latest, “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star,” is among his best. So I was happy to interview him recently for World Hum. Among other things, I asked him whether he reads much travel writing these days. His reply:

“I don’t. I read books by my friends. Now and then if a book comes along that’s a real ordeal, I read it. I’m not looking for a well-written book. I’m looking for a book about something that appeals to me, an ordeal appeals to me, a place I’ve never been that’s written about in a penetrating way. I’m not looking for someone just joyriding or a stunt, someone riding a bicycle somewhere or whatever it is. But people used to talk about the death of the novel. That’s a kind of normal reaction to too much of something. But there will always be travel books, as long as there are places to go.

–Sept. 1, 2008

I’ll be talking travel writing and the internet at the Sept. 20-21 conference.

–July 15, 2008

I’ll be teaching a three-hour introduction to travel writing workshop in San Diego on Saturday, June 21. Details at San Diego Writers Ink.

-May 19, 2008

Praise for World Hum in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune:

The tagline by itself–”Travel Dispatches from a Shrinking Planet”–is enough to cause severe wanderlust in even the most sedentary of souls. While not technically a new Web site, WorldHum has, as of late, evolved into something of an ultimate Weblog (or “blog”) for travel-related content that is devoted to the journey rather than the destination. Start by perusing the list of “Dispatches” from your country or region of choice, which tend more toward eloquent prose than most first-person travel narratives available today on the Web. The volume of content offered at the site is rather impressive, as even a search of Antarctica turned up nine entries (including a must-read entitled “Travelers Who Come Down with Hypothermia or Whose Ship Crashes into an Iceberg Will Pay a Surcharge”). Also worth a look is the “How To” area (accessible from the home page), where you can learn about everything from crossing the street in Rome to using a squat toilet.

Thanks, Trib!

- April 28, 2008

I’m looking forward to the 2008 Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference August 14-17. It’s not only the premier travel writing conference in the country, it’s a lot of fun. I’ll be on the faculty, along with many writers and editors I admire: Simon Winchester, Tim Cahill, Isabel Allende, John Flinn and Don George, just to name a few. Students at last year’s conference told me they found it illuminating and inspiring. Happily, several of them have gone on to contribute to World Hum. Book Passage’s website has details. Michael Shapiro blogged about the 2006 conference for World Hum. If you’re considering studying travel writing and want to learn more about the business as a whole, check out an interview I did with conference chair Don George. Don has decades of experience and a solid perspective on the joys — and, yes, frustrations — of the work.

-April 14, 2008