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Yikes, things are getting tense here on the Kickstarter front. Come to New Guinea with me, really: t.co/VZEVfa3i 2 hours ago

Was Michael Rockefeller killed & eaten by cannibals? Or did an isolated tribe create a mellenarianistic-like myth? t.co/VZEVfa3i 2012/09/07

The beautiful swirling, whirling, spinning ocean; I'm mesmerized: t.co/9esGyv8j (via @outsidemagazine) 2012/09/07

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Reviews, Radio and More

There’s a lot to catch up on.

Wrote a little piece for the Wall Street Journal’s blog Speakeasy about all the airline passengers stranded by the Icelandic volcano, which puts their plight in a little perspective, here: bit.ly/cO4A84

Appeared on Public Radio International’s Whadya Know? with Michael Feldman, a funny show out of Wisconsin, on April 10th.  You can listen/download it on iTunes here: bit.ly/9thRaX

The New York Times’ Armchair Traveler had this to say about Lunatic: “Anyone who has ever griped about freeway traffic or being elbowed on the subway should spend some time with the journalist Carl Hoffman’s book. The majority of humankind, it is sobering to remember, has little choice in modes of transportation as they commute to work, and every day an alarming percentage don’t make it home. …moments of calm and pleasure can be found in his travelogue.  I’m glad he made it back in one piece to write this tribute to the millions who every day endure what most of us don’t care to imagine.”  To read the entire review, click here.

A good, slightly different Q and A with me on Wired.com: bit.ly/cr9mET

Appeared on NPR’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, which was fun, here.

Reviews

Simon Winchester in the Wall Street Journal:

“It is a wise and clever book too, funny, warm and filled with astonishing characters. But it also represents an important exercise, casting an Argus-eye on a largely invisible but un-ignorable world. It is thus a book that deserves to be read widely. Perhaps in some airport in a blinding rainstorm in the Midwest, while waiting for yet another infernally delayed American plane.”  Read the whole review here.

WETA’s Book Studio:

“Hoffman, … could probably sell a book about pretty much anything thanks to his beautiful writing.” The whole review here.

A fun little review on a travel blog: “The Lunatic Express is a book I cannot go without recommending to any off-the-beaten-path travelers I know. From the superb writing and captivating storyline, to the chaos and intrigue of a world unknown, the reader will surely want more. Thank you, Carl, for sharing it all with us.”

Interview with me on World Hum here.

Interview with me by Rolf Potts here.

Advance Praise for Lunatic

This book is fabulous. The lean description, the weave of old and new perspective, the personalities, the real-people wisdom, and that the danger is as real as we don’t want to think it is.  The Lunatic Express is refreshing, liberating, and a paean to true Travel.  Hoffman opened my eyes to the off-the-grid traveler, clearly most of the world, and made me cry. The last pages struck home. The duality of escape
and harbor are the blessing and curse of life.

– Keith Bellows, National Geographic Traveler

“Throw away the luscious tour brochures, and drive into the malodorous undercarriage of travel. This is not transformation; this is transportation, in all its inglorious bastardry. Carl Hoffman has reinvented the travelogue as the supreme theater of paradox. At its most successful, his travels are a search for an unholy grail—something freakish; something dangerous; something authentic. Hoffman is a romantic and an adventurer who adhere’s to the great Cartesian principle: “what we perceive clearly and distinctly is true.” Like Sam Beckett, he explores the corrosive loneliness of being alive, and the courage it takes to continue, no matter the fallowness of the landscape; no matter the heavy sweat of movement; no matter the eructable smells; no matter the clanky haulage. Hoffman is a great explainer, but his explanations are not reductive…he regroups both the unfamiliar and what we think we know about the world and makes the eye fresh. He stands for what is articulate, independent, exploratory, and for humanity as a work in progress. Forget the inoculations. Disregard protection. Take this ride, and find the way to interconnectedness, verity and understanding.”

-Richard Bangs, Producer/Host of the Public Television series, Adventures with Purpose.