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Memorial Day traditionally marks the start of the summer vacation
season in the United States. A lot of American travelers may be setting
off with a renewed sense of purpose this year, thanks to a best-selling
book with a lofty goal. Patricia Schultz is the author of 1,000 Places to
See Before You Die, which profiles a lifetime's worth of travel
destinations around the world: everything from the Great Wall of China to
a hot air balloon safari in Kenya to a drive-in hot dog restaurant in
Chicago. The book has been a U.S. best seller since it was first released
by Workman Publishing Company in 2003, and with publication rights sold in
some 20 other countries, it is also climbing best seller lists elsewhere
in the world.
Patricia Schultz says her book grew out of her life-long passion for
travel. She created a few hours of panic as a four year old, when she
wandered away from a family beach vacation, and she has been roaming the
world ever since. But if 1,000 Places to See Before You Die began as a
labor of love, even the author was not prepared for the publishing
sensation it would become. "In honesty, in the beginning if I sold a
couple hundred copies I would have been elated," the author says. "That we
would have two million buying this book to anxiously see where they should
go next, that has amazed me."
"The very concept of travel I
think is timeless, ageless. One of the most beautiful quotes I use now and
then is from St. Augustine, and it was over a thousand years ago, and he
said, 'Life is like a book, and he or she who does not travel reads just
one page.'"
"How did you get the idea for your book?"
"I've been writing
travel guides since the 80s,so in my own head, I had been growing
more seamless towards these places I've been to. As a travel writer,
people are always coming to me and saying, 'I'm going here, what should I
see?' Or 'We're thinking of going to Southeast Asia, but what country, or
in that country, what city, and in that city, what sites?' So I was always
bombarded, and I always had all these answers,
and now they're in this book. I did all the homework."
It took Schultz seven years to research and write her book. She
estimates she has visited about 80 percent of the sites she describes, but
she also read other travel books, talked with tourism boards, and
interviewed as many fellow travelers as she could find. She made her
selections based on whether they evoke some sense of what she calls "the
world's magic, integrity, wonder and legacy." India's Taj Mahal made the
list; so, too, did the covered bazaars of Aleppo, Syria; the Moscow subway
system; and whale watching on Mexico's Baja Peninsula.
"I think that the book shows it does not mean to be
extravagant and over the top. There are a lot of places around
the world, places you've never heard of, but there are just as many that
are here in our back yards or that are doable. You don't need to break the
bank, and you don't need a month to do it."
Susan Bolotin, Editor-in-chief of Workman Publishing, suggests a range
of other reasons for the book's ongoing popularity. "I think it's the
scope, and the really daring title, which is to acknowledge that we do all
die someday, but there is a lot of stuff you want to get in before that
happens. And if you are already a traveler, and if you are someone who
likes to keep track of things, there is this pleasure in this feel of
interactivity."
"I would also want to say that people are also responding to the
fact that the book is so well written. Rather than being just a travel
guide, this is really a travel book, so you can take it in your own
armchair and enjoy reading about places you know you may never get to."
While Patricia Schultz and her editors worked together to make sure the
entries reflected a balanced view of the world's great travel
destinations, Susan Bolitan acknowledges there has been inevitable reader
disagreement about the choices. Harder to argue with, however, are the
author's assertions that visitors should never forget they are guests in
another place--and that travel is not just what they see, but how they see
it.
"I think you need to go with a real sense of curiosity and with certain
expectations, or you wouldn't be making the trip happen in the first
place, but leaving your mind and yourself open to serendipity, because
it's the best tour guide in the end of it all." Schultz says. "You don't
want to be too rigid and restricted in these packaged tours where every
moment is accounted for. You want to get out there and wander and not just
physically, but to leave yourself open to different experiences, which
often times are the ones that stay with you for life."
As for her own most memorable experiences while researching the book,
Patricia Schultz says she had a thousand of them. "I can remember in Italy
the fellow who took a day off from work just so I could see Tuscany as he
knew it to be. I remember we got lost once outside of Malaga in the
countryside of southern Spain, and--were we crazy to get in some
stranger's car? Maybe, but he showed us tapas
bars and flamenco singing and 1,000-year-old caves that we never
would have known had we not relied upon the kindness of strangers. I got
ill once with typhoid in Africa, and it was one of the most positive
experiences of my life, once I understood I wasn't going to
die."
"It's all just one magnificent travel experience
waiting to happen, and it's the individual traveler I think who will
determine how."
1,000 Places to See Before You Die continues to generate new lists.
Next year, Workman is planning to publish a guide to a thousand places in
the United States and Canada, also by Patricia Schultz. And the original
book is inspiring a reality TV program, in which travelers set out to
experience first-hand a sampling of those 1,000 landmarks, adventures and
scenic wonders. |
