In 1956, French poet Raymond Queneau compiled a list of books favorited by several famous authors at the time into its own work titled Pour une Bibliotheque Ideale, or (via the Babel Fish translation service) “for an ideal library.” Among the authors featured was prolific American writer, Henry Miller, who contributed 95 of his favorite books.

Lena Friesen of Toronto typed up Miller’s list and posted it to LiteraryCritic.com for all to see. Sadly, I’ve yet to read a vast majority of the books in the lineup, but I’ll keep the list tucked away for that time when my ever-expanding list of books to read either grows tired or is reduced to nil.

LiteraryCritic.com: Henry Miller’s “Ideal Library”

[via kottke]

Slate’s “Dispatches” column recently featured a four part series from Rolf on the expat scene in Busan, South Korea, where he spent a few years teaching English in the late 90s. By day, Rolf covers the Pusan International Film Festival (one of Asia’s biggest), but as the sun sets he heads out into the expat-heavy nightlife district to discover what has changed in his eight year absence. Though he finds that much of the physical landscape has been updated, the familiar expat scene remains a thriving subculture in South Korea’s largest seaport city.

“Before long, I’m drinking a beer and chatting with a table full of Canadian English teachers. All of them, it turns out, are in debt from college, worried that they aren’t living up to their self-perceived notions of mid-20s success, and embroiled in a love-hate relationship with Korea.”

As it turns out, it is this backdrop that is center-story to director Wonsuk Chin’s new comedic film, Expats, about expatriate life in Busan—with a dash of crime and mystery tossed in, Hollywood-style. Several years ago, the then-researching Chin contacted Rolf after reading his Salon.com piece on expatriate life in Busan, and they’ve remained in communication ever since. Over the commotion of the festival, the two duck into a hotel to chat about the script in progress.

“The teacher expats who come here see Korea in a unique way,” says Chin. “They aren’t isolated like soldiers or businessmen; they’re working right in the middle of the culture. They’re young, and they’re going through a transitional time of life. They’re more likely to throw themselves into new experiences.”

These experiences, Rolf finds, are quite familiar (minus the crime, of course), and the introspective attempt to reconnect the dots of his past in Busan—complete with indoor fishing with a former student, and a quest for a set of Russian triplets—form the setting for the four part dispatch which made its debut early last week.

The final installment was posted on Friday, so head over to Slate.com to read in full.

“Expats in Asia,” by Rolf Potts for Slate.com in parts: [1] [2] [3] [4]

This week in Yahoo’s “Traveling Light” column, Rolf takes a nostalgic look at life before professional travel writing, when idle time was spent filling battle-scarred notebooks with muddled musings of far-away people and places. Reminiscing, of course, is the payoff. Leafing through the fragile travel journal of old memories extends the life of your trip indefinitely, and leaves you with that sense of familiarity only a conversation with an old friend can provide.

Admittedly, his time journaling has been severely reduced in lieu of note-taking on assignment, so he calls on Lavinia Spalding—author of the soon-to-be-released book, Writing Away: A Guide to Awakening the Journal-Writing Traveler—to offer advice to both the would-be journaler and veteran writer alike.

“On the most basic level, a travelogue is a place to record information … It’s a log of what not to forget. It can inspire writing to publish, or share with friends and family; serve as a confidant on solo journeys; store memorabilia such as stamps, ticket stubs, and wine labels, or provide a clean canvas for impromptu sketches. It can be a mirror of self-discovery along the way.”

The question-answer format of the article offers up a wealth of inspiration to those wondering whether room should be made in that already-stuffed pack for a notebook and pen. Or, if you’re already keeping a road journal, there’s plenty of advice to help improve everything from writing, sticking to a schedule, and staying aware of your surroundings.

Being more aware, Lavinia says, will not only improve your writing, but also your traveling. “[Journaling] demands an immediate stillness and awareness, and in doing so enriches the whole experience.”

The interview is surely just a tease of what’s to come—expect a book full of advice for journal-writing travelers from Lavinia in the near future. (We’ll keep you updated!) But for now, head over to Yahoo! and check out the interview.

BootsnAll—one of our favorite online resources for everything travel—has recently unveiled four new themed blogs (or “Logues”) as a part of their online travel guide network, LogueIt.

“Unlike traditional travel guides that are updated at best every few years, new information and accurate information is added to the logues daily. Logues helps the savvy traveler find the most up-to-date relevant travel information to make the best trip possible.”

The four new blogs, Adventure Travel, TEFL Logue, Business Travel, and Eco Travel, bring the running count to 24, with topics ranging everywhere from Las Vegas to Hong Kong—and there’s more on the way. A press released dated October 23 says they plan to debut “more than 20 travelogues in the next year …”

We’ll keep you updated on new logues as they’re unveiled.

The Society of American Travel Writers announced its annual Lowell Thomas Award winners late last week, and I was happy to learn that “Cycladian Rhythm,” my Greek sailing story from the Spring 2006 issue of Outside Traveler, won top honors in the Marine Travel category.

Of my Cycladian tale, the judges wrote:

This author regales the readers with Greek myth, geographic insights into the archipelago and descriptive language while reporting on a sailing vacation through the Cyclades. Readers not only feel the wind and water but also can easily understand the intricacies of marine travel.

Elsewhere in the contest, World Hum won a well-deserved gold in the Internet Publications category — its first, after several years as a runner-up.

Freelance writer Mark Ehrman has a new book set for release next month, entitled Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America (available for pre-order at Amazon).

“Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America (Process Books, January 2007) provides an informed consideration for all potential expats: where to go, how to get there, and how to live best outside the U.S.”

The book promises to teach you “the reasons, the rules, the resources, and the tricks of the trade, along with compelling stories and expertise from expatriate Americans on every continent.”

More information can be found at the website of publisher, Process.

[via BoingBoing]

“Travel is the only context in which some people ever look around. If we spent half the energy looking at our own neighborhoods, we’d probably learn twice as much.”
– Lucy R. Lippard, On the Beaten Track (1999)

I’m happy to announce that “Tantric Sex for Dilettantes,” my India travel tale from Perceptive Travel, was selected by Tim Cahill for inclusion in the 2006 edition of Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Travel Writing , which came out this month. This is the first time I’ve had a story among the main selections of The Best American Travel Writing since 2000, when Bill Bryson chose Storming ‘The Beach’ for the inaugural edition.

Other writers whose travel essays made it into the 2006 collection (which is co-edited by Jason Wilson) include Pico Iyer, P.J. O’Rourke, David Sedaris, Ian Frazier, Alain de Botton, Calvin Trillin, Tom Bissell, George Saunders, Mark Jenkins, Heidi Julavits, Tony Perrottet, Gary Shteyngart, and Patrick Symmes.

In the introduction, Cahill explains how all of the stories he selected “touched me in one way or another, changed an attitude, made me laugh aloud, or provided fuel for my dreams.” Cahill goes on to claim we’re in the midst of a “golden age of travel writing,” and emphasizes the importance of storytelling in a travel narrative:

My own opinion is that “story” is the essence of the travel essay. Stories are the way we organize the chaos in our lives, orchestrate voluminous factual material, and — if we are very good — shed some light on the human condition, such as it is.

I realize that there are many very good travel writers, people who interview this person and that, eliciting contrasting views in the manner of a good daily reporter, and those fine writers did not find their way into this book, due entirely to my own prejudice in the matter. Information is of immense value, but if I can’t find a story, I often feel I’m being beaten over the head with an encyclopedia. Stories are the sole written instruments that can bring tears to our eyes, or make us laugh, or even — God forbid — compel us to think, and thereby perhaps even take a position.

Additionally, they’re generally more fun to read. (In my entirely biased opinion.)

So in choosing pieces for this anthology, I’ve looked for the best stories I could find and was brutal in eliminating purely informational material. …In this book, our storytellers have blundered across the globe and come back with essays and articles that I hope will make you laugh, cry, think, and perhaps dream.

Considering the travel stories I wrote in 2005, I figured my satirical meta-essay for World Hum, The Art of Writing a Story About Walking Across Andorra, stood the greatest chance of landing in the best-of-the-year collection.

Thus, I was somewhat surprised when my self-deprecating Rishikesh tale “Tantric Sex for Dilettantes” made the cut instead (the Andorra piece landed in the ‘Notable Selections’ section in the back of the book).

In the introduction, Cahill explains that he chose my India Tantra story for the novelty of its sexual motif:

You don’t see a lot of erotica in travel writing. In fact, you don’t see any. My friend, Don George, the global editor at Lonely Planet, once asked various writers to contribute to a book he wanted to call The Erotic Traveler. Few of us were able to dredge up a suitable story. Nobody wants to get naked in front of several hundred thousand strangers, for one thing. For another, sexual encounters between well-heeled travelers and impoverished people in developing countries feels . . . well, wrong. This year, someone got it right, as you will see in Rolf Potts’s story about Tantric yoga for dilettantes.

For those interested in checking out this year’s travel-story collection, The Best American Travel Writing 2006 can be found in most bookstores, and is also sold online .

Of all the holidays, Halloween seems to be the most interesting one to experience at 35,000 feet, next only to April Fool’s, perhaps. I was lucky enough to be on a flight to Las Vegas last April 1st where the flight attendents conviced a majority of the passengers—amazingly enough—to shout their mid-flight drink orders into the overhead reading light. Halloween, though—you just can’t top the people-watching qualities of the airport on a day where grown men are moved to dress like women.

James Wysong (who also goes by the pen name A. Frank Steward) knows this. He’s spent the last 15 years as a flight attendent, and in 2003 he wrote “The Plane Truth: Shift Happens at 35,000 Feet” — a collection of oddball stories from his long career in the sky. Most recently, he has compiled a list of 10 costumes to avoid wearing if you plan on boarding a plane this Halloween.

“On Halloween, most airline crew members are allowed to wear a costume to work. Some costumes are elaborate and well thought out, while others look like a last-minute throw-together. Sometimes passengers get into the spirit and dress up as well. Every year there is someone — a passenger or a crew member — who takes dress-up a little too far.”

Here are a few costumes he reccomends you leave at home this year:

•Osama Bin Laden
•Drunken pilot
•Airline CEO
•Suicide Bomber
•Feminine hygiene product

Each one of the horrible ideas listed in the full article were actually worn by someone on a plane (the Bin Laden costume by a pilot, no less) as witnessed by Jason in his 15 years of flying.

To see his entire list of costumes, along with the context each was worn in and “the consequences that followed,” head over to Tripso.com.

In a recent email message, a Vagabonding reader from Wisconsin named Briana writes:

I am a recent high school graduate and have decided to delay going to college for a year in order to travel. I got a copy of your book as a graduation gift and have been busy planning and working ever since.

I’m very interested in the idea of teaching English abroad, but I see one major problem: my age. You mentioned getting certified before going to teach English abroad. As I haven’t even started college, that’s obviously not an option for me. However, I can’t help but wonder if there is a more informal approach to getting English-teaching jobs — perhaps not at a school but with a family? Do you know whether or not it’s possible for teenagers to acquire these sorts of jobs or should I simply try for the usual “grunt work” we “unskilled” workers end up doing? And if it is possible, do you recommend some countries over others?

This is a very interesting and apt question; I answered Briana as follows:

You are indeed correct in assuming that formal English teaching work is difficult to acquire without a college degree. But you are also correct in assuming that there are many ways around this. From volunteering with
individual classes, to formally teaching in smaller villages with less stringent hiring standards, to tutoring “under the table” in places like Korea and Japan, you still have lots of options.

Before you head off to teach English, however, I’d recommend getting some training first. You actually don’t need this training, technically, but having some training and strategies for tutoring English or teaching it in the classroom will make your job a lots easier and more enjoyable.

Thus, if your lack of college prohibits you from getting certified to teach ESL/EFL, you might look around for ESL teaching programs in your community. There, you can volunteer and assist in class and pick up teaching techniques that way. You can also volunteer with exchange students in your community — they usually just want someone with whom to practice their spoken English, and these simple conversations can teach you a lot about the needs of English students.

Training aside, one way to find English teaching work is to just go out and start traveling and meeting people. Invariably, if you keep your eyes open, you will stumble into a teaching opportunity. The best world regions for these kinds of opportunities are Central and South America, China, and Southeast Asia. There is a need for this kind of work in Eastern and Western Europe as well, but the competition is stronger, as lots of college grads (and British English speakers) seek work in this part of the world.