1) On the way trails have made us what we are Trails can be found in virtually every part of this vast, strange, mercurial, partly tamed, but still shockingly wild world of ours. Throughout the history of life on Earth, we have created pathways to guide our journeys, transmit messages, refine chaos, and preserve wisdom.…
By Peter Hessler Originally published in The New Yorker, July 24, 2000 (an excerpt) “Do you want a big rat or a small rat?” the waitress asked. I was getting used to making difficult decisions in Luogang, a small village in southern China’s Guangdong Province. I’d come here on a whim, having heard that Luogang had…
By William Zinsser (an excerpt) Next to knowing how to write about people, you should know how to write about a place. People and places are the twin pillars on which most nonfiction is built. Every human event happens somewhere, and the reader wants to know what that somewhere was like. In a few cases…
By Jess Walter (an excerpt) 1. The population of Spokane, Washington is 195,526. It is the 105th biggest city in the United States. 2. Even before the recession, in 2008, 34,000 people in Spokane lived below the poverty line—a little more than 17 percent of the population. That’s about the same as it was in…
1) On the edifying mission of pre-tourism travel Before the development of tourism, travel was conceived to be like study, and its fruits were considered to be the adornment of the mind and the formation of the judgment. 2) On the aesthetic compromises of modern travel I don’t want to sound too gloomy, but there’s…
(an excerpt) FIRST GRADE My hair was too short and my U.S. Government glasses were horn-rimmed, ugly, and all that first winter in school, the other Indian boys chased me from one corner of the playground to the other. They pushed me down, buried me in the snow until I couldn’t breathe, thought I’d never…
1) On how quotidian life is like killing zombies Every zombie war is a war of attrition. It’s always a numbers game, and it’s more repetitive than complex. In other words, zombie killing is philosophically similar to reading and deleting four hundred work emails on a Monday morning, or filling out paperwork that only generates…
(an excerpt) Vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing. As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and…
1) On the psychic necessity of distant places We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it the life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis. 2) On the simple pleasures of the present moment For my own part, I am pleased enough with…
By Rolf Potts (excerpted from Forever Nomad) Years ago, while I was trying to finish writing a book about the philosophy of long-term travel, I ran into a problem while outlining the final chapter. My intention in this chapter had been to speak to the importance of — and difficulties inherent in — returning home…
(an excerpt) In the fifties I learned to drive a car. I was frequently in love. I had more friends than now. When Khrushchev denounced Stalin my roommate shit blood, turned yellow, and lost most of his hair. I attended the lectures of the excellent E.B. Burgum until Senator McCarthy ended his tenure. I imagined…
