Book ~ "There's No Toilet Paper . . . on the Road Less Traveled: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure" - Doug Lansky (2005)

From Amazon.com ~ Good travel writing is inspirational. It can inspire you to set off for unpronounceable capitals of wee, distant kingdoms, or, in the case of There's No Toilet Paper, inspire you to burn your passport and settle more securely into your comfy chair, feet up and eyes riveted to the next more-humorous-in-the-retelling-than-it-was-in-the-experiencing story. It also makes pleasant airplane fodder on your way to your own misadventure. Doug Lansky has collected a fine trove of comic (when it's not happening to you) travel moments, as told by the best in travel humor. Dave Barry writes eloquently about failing to learn any Japanese save for how to order beer (pronounced "bee-roo") and big beer (pronounced "big bee-roo"). Mary Roach points out that utilizing an Antarctic ice-sheet outhouse at the very moment that a seal chooses to use its opening as a blowhole is an inauspicious way to start the day. And Bill Bryson stumbles disconsolately about Paris, wondering "Why does everyone hate me so much?" There are 28 stories in all, by 20 writers who traverse the world and provide a great deal of amusement for those of us who aren't locked in a Dutch public bathroom without a handle or a light.

Some of the stories are funny ... some not so much.

Book ~ "Up the Amazon Without a Paddle" - Doug Lansky (1999)

From Amazon.com ~ This enjoyable collection of anecdotes recounts more than 60 of the author's fun-loving, hair-raising and off-the-wall excursions around the globe. His broad and balanced travel coverage takes many forms. One moment he's elegantly cruising the Caribbean on a luxury liner, the next sleeping under the stars on Mount Sinai. Any lover of adventure will enjoy accounts of blowgun hunting, 'gator wrestling, volcano hiking, and ostrich riding. Unusual experiences include test-driving a Ferrari, enduring a Chinese opera, and playing Finnish ice golf. Through Lansky's writing, one is rewarded with the pleasures of a novel, the excitement of a thriller, and the insightful information one would expect from a guidebook.

This is this second of his books that I've read (I also read Last Trout in Venice: The Far-Flung Escapades of an Accidental Adventurer) and I enjoyed it. He enbarks on many adventures and makes them sound very fun and interesting.

Book ~ "Last Trout in Venice: The Far-Flung Escapades of an Accidental Adventurer" (2001) Doug Lansky

From Amazon.com ~ Doug Lansky ventured from the peak of Kilimanjaro to Berlin's erotic Kit Kat Club to Sweden's 100 guest-capacity Ice Hotel (rebuilt each winter just north of the Arctic Circle) to a Texas cattle auction where the auctioneers "talk more and say less than a room full of presidential candidates" and lived to write Last Trout in Venice: The Far-Flung Escapades of an Accidental Adventurer. Some of his destinations are truly strange and, evidently for good reason, truly obscure though readers will definitely get a laugh from Lansky's tenure (one day) as a bellboy in Jules' Undersea Lodge (scuba access only capacity: four guests), 20 feet underwater.

Excellent book! His stories of his adventures are very funny. Much better than the Jennifer Leo series.