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Travel Blogs, Mark Twain and me #1b140_2

Just when I begin to think I have a grip on who and what I am, someone like Mark Twain comes along and bursts my bubble.  It really makes it very hard to be me.

Me at the Alacazaba, Spain, 2001
another innocent abroad!
I have been reading Twain's Innocents Abroad this last week.  I was prompted to do so after deciding to follow 1 Book in 140 Characters (#1book140) on twitter.  It is a book club for people from around the world.  Their last read was Mark Twain's book.
Click image 
The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress is a travel book by American author Mark Twain published in 1869 which humorously chronicles what Twain called his "Great Pleasure Excursion" on board the chartered vessel Quaker City (formerlyUSS Quaker City) through Europe and the Holy Land with a group of American travelers in 1867. It was the best selling of Twain's works during his lifetime and one of the best selling travel books of all time. (wikipedia).
If you have ever taken a trip that you thought of as "a great adventure" you could relate to every word Train has written.  Everything from his description of the over zealous journal writers to the euphoria a traveler experiences when visiting a exotic foreign country for the first time...it is all there.  Nothing, really, nothing has changed since 1867.

It was the section on the "Old Traveler" that brought me to tears.  I didn't know if I was laughing because I thought it was funny or laughing because I might have recognized myself in his words.  He said:
But we love the Old Travelers....they open their throttle valves, and how they do brag and swell.... But still I love the Old Travelers, I love them for their witless platitudes, for their supernatural ability to bore, [and for] their delightful asinine vanity.... 
When Twain used words like asinine and vanity and their central aim is to subjugate you I realized that it could be that I love talking about my travels a lot more than you enjoy listening.  If that is true, it is not a good thing!

Still I need you to know I probably won't stop because talking about travel is part of my blogging journey. I may feel sorry for you just a little but it won't make any difference.  Just shoot me now!  Smile.

Please read this book if you have not already.  I is just a wonderful today as it was in 1867! You can download it free from Amazon or read it online.

b

By the way I went over 100,000 page views yesterday.  Now if just 30% of those people stop and read a few lines I will be happy.
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Comments

  1. Granny-GuruMay 29, 2012 at 8:22 AM

    So, now I'm going to be thinking about all the people I bore when I travel, sigh... What a delightful take on Twain and traveling. And, thanks for the intro to a book review site that makes you stick to 140 characters. What an interesting way to keep us from getting boring:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Barbara TorrisMay 29, 2012 at 9:30 PM

    thank you for stopping GG...I love to have a visitor that comments.

    b

    ReplyDelete
  3. Clay TelecomMay 31, 2012 at 3:48 AM

    Well written, Appreciate your point of view and the way you have presented yourself.

    ReplyDelete

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