Day: March 14, 2023

In Patagonia – Bruce Chatwin
Chatwin’s work was the inspiration for so many other travel writers I’ve read over the years, so this piece has always been in the back of my mind. If you’ve ever purchased a Moleskine notebook and bothered to read the insert that came inside, you know that Chatwin documented his trips in notebooks similar to them.

I mention the notebook angle because that’s very much how this book reads: like a series of brushed-up notebook entries made while traveling through the South American region of Patagonia in the mid–70s. Some are the barest of entries. Others are extended vamps on things he experienced, or deep dives into the history of the region. Often one entry leads into the next with a set of ellipses. It has a very casual presentation.

Because of that it was hard for me to establish a reading rhythm. I can see how it would influence writers who came later. But I think I’ve read so many of those authors, and enjoyed their styles more, that this didn’t really resonate with me.

It was fun, though, to look at his travels in a relatively primitive technological time and imagine how different his travels were compared to someone making the same trip today.

Fairy Tale – Stephen King
So there’s a parallel world, with a portal between ours and it. There’s strange magic in said parallel world. There’s a quest through that world whose end result will have major ramifications in both worlds. There’s an unlikely friendship between a young person and an older person. There are creepy characters.

Basically it’s every note from the Stephen King greatest hits collection. And, as happens more often than not, it works. Not a classic but worth the 5–6 nights it took me to get through it.

The thing that really stuck out to me was how King spent over 200 pages on what amounted to setup for the real story. In some ways that felt like too much. But he tells that part of the story in such a compelling manner that it makes complete sense.

Walking With Ghosts in Papua New Guinea – Rick Antonson
This was an account of Antonson’s walk along the Kokoda trail in Papua New Guinea. It wasn’t just about his trek, but also about the battles that were fought along the trail during World War II.

That historical angle stuck with me more than the actual hike. It helped me to remember that there are so many stories from that war that are left out of its broader narrative, but which were insanely important to the people directly affected. Most of Antonson’s group was Australian, and many of them had family members who had served in PNG during the war.[1] They often had incredibly emotional responses to the stories they heard as they traversed the country.