Do you speak Polish?: Book Review: 'To Travel Hopelessly' by ETX

Originally, I had nothing planned for this Sunday evening. Eat some pierogi, drink some beer, maybe enjoy the sun. When my copy if 'To Travel Hopelessly' by ETX arrived, I had designated it to the 'list of things to do Monday morning', but with a fresh printer cartridge in my printer, I decided to print out the book into 'hard' form and read it outside with a beer.

I finished the book in one sitting.

Not that it's some short, lightweight, book produced by 'just another blogger'. This is the real thing. I rarely find a book that captivates me enough to read it in one sitting, but this one did. For me it's up there with the first time I read 'Casino Royale'

I enjoyed the first ETX book immeasurably, and I regard it as an entertaining, yet valuable read for Teflers and non-Teflers alike but ETX's second book is definitely a clear step up in terms of general appeal and literary technique. This book will appeal to everyone. Ok, I agree, Expats and English teachers are naturally going to relate to the book but it's not to say that 'average Joe' won't connect and enjoy the sense of frustration, daring and the unknown that this book delivers. For me, I related to the aspect of being a world traveler, alongside the aspect of English teaching but most of all I related to the fact that here we have a 21st century international male talking about what it's like to find an identity in life after discovering that, by large, the world is merely 'samey' and homogeneous

All in all, I liked 'To Travel Hopelessly' so much that I've asked the wife to print a decent copy tomorrow at work. I might even get it binded so I can add it with pride to my book collection. I would heartily recommend it to all my readers and luckily it's available in many places on many formats-

Buy 'To Travel Hopelessly' Here!

Enjoy!

4 comments:

Eve23 May 2011 at 14:51
It's weird; there are so many damn useless books out there about traveling abroad and teaching abroad, but somehow, English Teacher X's stories have always stuck with me.

I'm going to read it sometime this week. Glad you enjoyed it. I have a feeling that I'm gonna be in for a treat as well.

There are very few books I have read in one sitting; I have a feeling English Teacher X's new book is going to be one of them.
Jeremy23 May 2011 at 15:23
It sounds an interesting read. Have you put to practice the last book in your lessons?
Tefl Secretagent23 May 2011 at 17:37
Maybe not put to practice but I definitely recommended it to a few of my more 'mature' students. I think mostly though they looked through the blog (which is also very good)

@Eve how are you managing to wait without reading it? :)
Eve24 May 2011 at 01:21
@SecretAgent - definitely going to read it this week. :)

Everyone is welcome to make a comment. It's a free world after all :) the only thing I ask is that if you're going to write something nasty please have big enough balls to include your name and email address.