A girl sitting next to me on a horrible American Airlines flight to Santiago de Chile, back in May last year, was reading this book. I decided to put it on my to-read list back then, but just didn't get round to reading it. This last Thursday, on a more or less ruined Koninginnedag, I decided to give it a go. The book is about a guy who used to work for lonely planet, exposes some of the corners cut in writing the LP Brazil plus gives some critiques of LP in general. The book reads a bit like How to Loose Friends and Alienate People or Ugly Americans, if you know them, mixed with the Beach. It is a travelogue in which the author's life starts off in stable, but a rather boring office setting but rapidly spirals downwards(?). Something he is proud of and likes to boast about too.
It is not the story of the author's life or the setting - travel adventures in Brazil :P -of the book that I like but rather how it describes how bad the travel guides industry has become. When you start to read a lot of them, you realize that they have become enthusiastic about everything, everything is a must see, everything is grande, beautiful etc etc. Reading the book, hearing the author make up reviews for places never visited, the freebies from hotel owners, seeing how rat-infested beaches get penned down as bohemian... brought back some memories: standing in Turkey looking at a small, sleepy village described as oasis of culture, gorgeous architecture, the next travel destination for Turks... and going yeah, right. Good read :)
