Posted by Jason Hussong on Thursday, January 5, 2012,
For quite some time, I purposefully – and quite successfully I may add – avoided reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and  Indonesia. Before even picking it up, I stereotyped the book as a “chick flick” on paper. And to an extent I was right. It is, as the subtitle suggests, one woman’s search for everything. But what I didn’t expect when I picked up my copy during the Borders Books close out sale was that I, as a... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jason Hussong on Thursday, June 23, 2011,
I'm not much of a listmaker outside of grocery shopping, packing for vacations, or - alright, I'm a listmaker, born and raised. There, I admitted it. I create lists and write notes down, only to feel the pleasure of crossing something off of them, for most anything I do. And it is no small wonder I haven't yet created any sort of list when it comes to travel writing. Well, that is until now.
I stare at my bookshelf in wonder and am amazed at the great number of fantastic sto... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jason Hussong on Friday, May 27, 2011,
Normally I am pretty good about remembering where and why I purchased a particular book. But, that is not the case with Colin Thubron's Shadow of the Silk Road. For all  I can truthfully recall, it just materialized on my bookshelf. And for that, I am quite glad, because it might just be the perfect story of travel, adventure and history. Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron is about his cross-country trip from Xian, China to Antioch, Turkey, retracing the path of the old Silk Road. A... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jason Hussong on Friday, March 4, 2011,
It's not often I get overly excited about a book and want to tell everyone how much I enjoyed it. Normally that only happens with Bill Bryson books. Sure, I write about a lot of books here, but not all  of them make me want to do cartwheels. I find myself content at the end of most of the books I write about here, no longer bothering to mention those I dislike, and smile as I place them on the shelf next to the others I've finished. But, when I cracked the binding of Peter Matthiessen's The ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jason Hussong on Tuesday, February 22, 2011,
A while back I was shopping at a budget book fair. I wandered through the stacks, all laid out on giant pallets as though the books would immediately be shipped off to another sale if they didn't find a home at this one. When I found the travel section I was  sadly disappointed because a lot of the books were destination guidebooks. I still use them on occasion, but I was hoping to find some good reading instead. And then, tucked away on the corner of one of the pallets, I found Brian Payton... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jason Hussong on Thursday, January 6, 2011,
I was capitvated with this book the moment I saw the cover on a book stand at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. I was nearing the completion of another book, so I picked it up and  threw it in my pack to read as soon as I returned to Denver. And then Ian Baker's The Heart of the World: A Journey to Tibet's Lost Paradise sat on my home bookshelf for a couple of years for a reason I can't really explain. I picked it up a couple of weeks ago, at the start of my Christmas break, an... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jason Hussong on Monday, August 16, 2010,
Shortly after walking into the store I spotted a book called American Shaolin. What attracted my attention was a monk on t  he cover walking away with a Burger King bag held behind his back. Many of my friends will joke that the bag caught my attention, but my interest was piqued, and I knew I had to have it, for really no particular reason other than I was interested in martial arts, and had just returned from a trip to China. I read Matthew Polly's book with great zeal, identifying myself...
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Posted by Jason Hussong on Tuesday, August 18, 2009,
I'm beginning to believe that it's just not possible for me to be a fan of Paul Theroux. I've now read three of his books and have  only enjoyed one, and that one only mildly. Ghost Train to the Eastern Star is the third book of his I've read, and it comes on the tails of reading The Great Railway Bazaar. And really the only different in the two books is a few countries and about 30 years.
In Ghost train to the Eastern Star Theroux attempts to retrace his route through Europe and Asia...
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Posted by Jason Hussong on Tuesday, August 18, 2009,
Paul Theroux's The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia has been said to be, by some, the quintessential travel novel. If ever there were one travel book to  read, this is supposed to be the one.
So, on the heals of the release of Theroux's Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar, a book that is essentially a sequel to The Great Railway Bazaar, I decided to pick up the first and give it a read before I got in the second.
I felt secure in my pu...
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