In October 2002, Elliott Hester sold his car, abandoned his apartment, and took off alone on a trip around the world, during which he drifted to over fifty destinations. Elliott's tales about his travels range from the bizarre to the hilarious to the flat-out shocking. Travel with him as he: · Chases off transvestites in the South Pacific · Gets drunk on Estonian moonshine at the maker's eightieth birthday party · Impersonates Samuel L. Jackson at the 38th International Film Festival in the Czech Republic · Ponders the Finnish tradition of sprinting from steamy sauna to plunge into the frigid Baltic Sea—naked! · And much more. Only an around-the-world excursion could produce such outlandish, hair-raising, hysterical adventures. And only Elliott Hester could make such vivid observations and write such vibrant insights about life---and people---on the road.

The pull of the land on the soul. The healing of the heart from the Source. For thousands of years, Red Rock Country has been a spiritual haven for the indigenous peoples of North America and settlers from across the world. Author Marianna Harris travels the Grand Circle of the Colorado Plateau to bring you the mysteries of the living landscape of the American desert southwest. Join a Continental Drifter on adventures filled with humor and insight in confronting the human condition as she uncovers the transformative, healing power of the spirit through nature. Feel the red earth, red rock monoliths, desert sun and summer rainstorms permeate your consciousness and soothe your mind and heart. Nature. Geology. Its not just science.

The story of the quest for a real-life Shangri-La in the darkest heart of the Himalayas– a century-long obsession to reach the sacred hidden center of one of the world's last uncharted realms. At the far eastern end of the Himalayas in Tibet lies the Tsangpo River Gorge, known as “the great romance of geography” during the nineteenth century's golden age of exploration. Here the mighty Tsangpo funnels into an impenetrable canyon three miles deep, walled off from the outside world by twenty-five thousand foot peaks. Like the earthly paradise of Shangri-La immortalized in James Hilton's classic 1933 novel Lost Horizon, the Tsangpo River Gorge is a refuge revered for centuries by Tibetan Buddhists–and later in Western imagination–as a sanctuary in times of strife as well as a gateway to nirvana. The Siege of Shangri-La tells the story of this fabled land's exploration as both a geographical and spiritual destination–and chronicles the discovery at the end of the last millennium of the truth behind the myths and rumors about it. Veteran journalist Michael McRae traces the gorge's exploratory history from the clandestine missions of surveyor-spies called pundits and botanical expeditions of naturalists in the early twentieth century to the recent investigations of scholars, adventurers, and pilgrims seeking the "Hidden Falls," of the Tsangpo, which purportedly rivals Niagara in size and serves as the gateway to paradise. Each explorer's narrative provides increasing evidence of why the gorge has been mythologized in Eastern and Western lore as one of the world's most alluring blanks on the map–and a supreme test of human will. Taking readers on a guided tour of the gorge's landscape, physical and metaphysical, McRae presents an insightful look at the pursuit of glory and enlightenment that has played out in this mysterious land with sometimes disastrous consequences. The Siege of Shangri-La is a fascinating journey through the inner recesses of a remote, mystical world and the minds of those who have attempted to reach it. From the Hardcover edition.

These short travel essays from around the globe get to the heart of what the words travel and adventure really mean. In Search of Adventure explores the good, the bad, and the ugly of what traveling the world has to offer. The “Trampled Underfoot” section features tales of woe on the road—the worst of the worst, or making the best of the worst. In “Global Issues & Viewpoints,” authors explore the changing world, oppressive governments, and the homogenizing of world cultures. From warm and inviting to raw and shocking, these nonfiction travel pieces present disparate viewpoints on the diverse world in which we live and leave no emotion untouched.

Adventure is just a book away as bestselling author Nancy Pearl returns with recommended reading for more than 120 destinations — both worldly and imagined — around the globe. From Las Vegas to the Land of Oz, Naples to Nigeria, Philadelphia to Provence, Nancy Pearl guides readers to the very best fiction and nonfiction to read about each destination. Even within one country, she traverses decades to suggest titles that effortlessly capture the different eras that make up a region’s unique history. This enthusiastic literary globetrotting guide includes stops in Korea, Sweden, Afghanistan, Albania, Parma, Patagonia, Texas, and Timbuktu. Book Lust To Go connects the best fiction and nonfiction to particular destinations, whether your bags are packed or your armchair is calling. From fiction to memoir, poetry to history, Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust to Go takes the reader on a globetrotting adventure — no passport required.

"If you look at a map, you will see that the island chain known as the Caribbean, or, to confuse you, the West Indies, lies between Florida and South America and resembles a string of gems or possibly drool." And so begins author Gary Buslik's tale of tropical adventure. Each chapter of this often hilarious and sometimes poignant travelogue recounts another island-hopping, culture-clashing crisis that pits the homesick author against falling coconuts, hospitals that remove wrong organs, insects as big and dangerous as stealth bombers, ticket agents that put him on hold for hours, mysteriously calculated currency exchanges, over-proofed rum, livestock, singing Rastafarians, garbage-bin sex, peanut-crazed children, Idi Amin, flesh-eating monkeys, dentists, cricket, steel drum bands, and the French. Fortunately, even when making fun of his West Indian hosts, the curmudgeonly author's essential good nature and devotion to his wife twinkle through, and in the end his stubborn geocentricity gives way to a heartfelt appreciation of his island hosts.

Every 3rd issue is a quarterly cumulation.

Fleeing the increasing pressure to settle down, a restless young man heeds the call of the road and sets out on a meandering four-month bus trip from Dawson, Yukon, to Key West, Florida. Continental Drifter is the record of that journey. Although a journalist by training, Dave Cameron is reluctant to play the role. He hopes merely to observe quietly, to collect experience. On the road he meets a variety of strangers, some more strange than others -- from the Dawson City gold miner in designer sunglasses, the evangelistic co-ed, and a number of alcoholics (some more recovering than others) to the owner of a shrine to Elvis, the Crocodile Lady, and the leathery pensioner intent on passing his days beneath the palm trees of Miami Beach. Collecting stories and mementos as he goes, by the end of his travels Cameron has also acquired a richer sense of the possibilities of his own life. Equal parts travel picaresque and coming-of-age memoir, Continental Drifter is at once an interpretation of many fleeting individuals and a gradual discovery of one in particular.