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Happy Birthday Paul Theroux - traveller

Yesterday was Paul Theroux's (frequent guest on Rick's radio show) 81st birthday and he had a pithy take on the traveler vs. tourist debate:

“The difference between travel and tourism is the difference between walking in the hot sun to meet an angry person who is going to insult me and then tell me his amazing story, and lying in the sun sipping a cool drink and reading, say, Death in Venice. The first is more profitable; the second more pleasant. Both are enlightening.”

I remember picking up his book about hiking the entire circumference of England only to find that it was really about one's mixed emotions at entering middle age, and that made me a fan ever since --
The Kingdom By The Sea

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005UAI0NE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Posted by
3776 posts

Thank you Avi for the information. We can always count on you to give a an interesting history lesson.

Posted by
2378 posts

His books are wonderful. What a life he has lived!

Posted by
3200 posts

Love his books! I was such an avid reader of his for years that my daughter in elementary school confused Paul Theroux with David Thereau on a test…obviously my poor pronounciation. I have always felt a bit guilty about that ever since… ;)