Jan 7th, 2013 at 11:00AM: What is travel writing? Is the genre defined by its commitment to true-to-life recounting of the people, places and cultures we have experienced and lessons to be drawn from them? Or is travel writing something more malleable, simply a style of writing, true or not, that utilizes places and people as vehicles for a good story? The tension between these two competing definitions is at the heart of ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
PicoIyer posts
Book Review: Lonely Planet's 'Better Than Fiction'
Jan 7th, 2013 at 11:00AM: What is travel writing? Is the genre defined by its commitment to true-to-life recounting of the people, places and cultures we have experienced and lessons to be drawn from them? Or is travel writing something more malleable, simply a style of writing, true or not, that utilizes places and people as vehicles for a good story? The tension between these two competing definitions is at the heart of ...Pearls of wisdom and wanderlust from Pico Iyer
Feb 29th, 2012 at 10:00AM: Last month the wonderfully thoughtful and eloquent author Pico Iyer published his 11th book, The Man Within My Head, an intriguing hybrid of autobiography and literary criticism that insightfully illuminates the life and work of Graham Greene – and of Pico Iyer. On his book tour, I've had the honor and pleasure of interviewing Pico on stage twice, the first time on Jan. 26 in an event ...Around the World in 80 Hours (of Travel TV): Part 2
Feb 22nd, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Where does the Travel Channel take us? Rolf Potts embarks on a
one-week gonzo experiment to find out
JACKASS COMMENTATORS AND DUBIOUSLY RANKED DESTINATIONS
Day 2, Hour 17: 9:04 am.
The first Travel Channel show of the day has already begun by the time I wake up and turn on the TV. As the picture tube slowly comes into view I can hear some jackass droning on about the gentle ...Pico Iyer: The surprising charms of Little Rock, AR
Sep 30th, 2010 at 3:34PM: Who'd have thought that Little Rock, Arkansas, would prove so diverting?
Paris, Rio, Kyoto: We know pretty well what we're going to encounter (or at least to savor) as soon as we set foot in any of those cities; part of their gift, polished over centuries, is for knowing how to play themselves to perfection and how to give every visitor just what she wants and expects. Such places are the ...Pico Iyer: The trip that changed my life
Jul 20th, 2010 at 12:00PM: Bangkok these days seems about as alien and exotic as its sister City of Angels across the ocean. Hollywood cop films are shot there, New York bars open their second branches on its back-streets and for many a kid just out of college in Seattle, the Khao San Road is as natural a first stop as once the Left Bank was, or North Beach. But in 1983, Thailand still seemed the far side of the universe. ...South by Southeast: The man from Kathmandu
Dec 1st, 2009 at 9:00AM:
Everybody wants to talk to you in Myanmar. Almost daily I was greeted by a welcoming committee of friendly taxi drivers, curious adolescent monks and mysterious jobless "men about town" wanting to shoot the breeze. In a country that restricts access to the media, it's not surprising the Burmese are eager to talk: they seem hungry for access to the outside world. For the most part, the ...Book give-a-way and travel read: The Open Road, the Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama
Mar 22nd, 2009 at 10:30AM: When Pico Iyer was growing up, his father was a friend of the Dalai Lama. That was the beginning of Iyer's own relationship with a person that many seek out as a spiritual rock star of sorts. In his book The Open Road, The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Iyer gives insight into what it's like inside the Dalai Lama's circle, as well as, what it's like being inside Iyer's life.
When ...Gadling Take FIVE -- March 14-March 20
Mar 20th, 2009 at 7:15PM: Happy first day of spring! This week we're having a book give-a-way. Pico Iyer's book The Open Road: Global Travels of the 14th Dalai Lama can be yours. All you have to do is leave a comment about a place that captured your attention at the end Iyer's Talking Travel interview. Two winners will be picked in a random drawing.
Mike just came back from his awesome trip to New Zealand and Australia. ...Talking Travel with Pico Iyer and a book give-away
Mar 16th, 2009 at 11:00AM: When I first read Pico Iyer's book Video Night in Kathmandu, I was hooked. Reading Iyer's words is a trip down streets that you may have traveled before but have not found the words to describe. When you read his prose, the tendency is to say, "Yes, that's it." For places one hasn't been, he draws you into the scenes as if you are there looking at the world through his perceptive eyes.
Seven ...Great American Road Trip: Travel books for the road. 1 of 4: Sun After Dark
Aug 5th, 2008 at 10:30AM: I'm one of those people who haul books when I travel. I am ambitious, imagining hours of page turning. Usually, though, I barely crack a book. One advantage of riding in a car across a good portion of the United States, as I have recently experienced on my family's road trip to Montana, is the hours for reading.
There are miles and miles and miles between Ohio and Montana, particularly if you ...Photo of the Day 7-30-08
Jul 30th, 2008 at 12:30PM:
The green first drew me to this photo and then the concept. This is a photograph turned into an artist's statement of sorts. Adam Baker, AlphaTangoBravo calls this shot he took in Granada, Nicaragua this past June "Dos Partes."
Even if Baker hadn't divided this into two color schemes, there would have been two images. The men on the scooter (?) and the woman walking--blurred and in focus. The ...Cities on film - five travel writers share their favorites
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Jun 21st, 2008 at 11:00AM: My favorite movie of all time is City of God, a violent but highly-stylized drama about the slums of 1960's-era Rio de Janeiro. As much as I like the film's plot and characters, what stands out most is the way director Fernando Meirelles imbues the film with a distinctly Brazilian "feeling" in its style and narrative construction. I feel literally transported to Rio every time I watch it, swept up ...Pico Iyer: Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Apr 6th, 2008 at 10:00AM: Pico Iyer, my ultimate favorite travel writer, has a new book out Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Whenever I see Iyer's name, it's like a laser beam calling me to read it.
The book chronicles Iyer's 30 year history with the Dalai Lama that that began when he first met him. This was back before fame struck either of them. As he told in an interview with World Hum, Iyer ...The 9 Commandments of Travel Writing
Sep 3rd, 2007 at 1:30PM: Aspiring travel writers take note: Pico Iyer (Sun After Dark, Video Night in Kathmandu) has compiled a list of nine "commandments of travel writing." But don't consider them your bible; each rule in travel writing is made to be defeated, "and is routinely broken by most of the travel classics," Iyer notes. Even if writing about your journey is an afterthought, the commandments remind you of the ...Travel Writing Contest: A Mongolia Connection
Jul 4th, 2007 at 1:38PM: If only I were a college student. Here's a travel/writing opportunity not to miss. National Geographic Traveler has paired up with the travel company Trovcoa to cook up a very cool essay contest. In 300 words or less, write about an experience that moved you, excited you or changed you. Easy, right?
If yours is chosen out of all the other essays they receive from college students in North ...
