Often hilarious, ultimately profound, Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment begins when Tim Brookes receives a phone call from his editor at National Geographic asking if he’d like to write an article on weather forecasting—an assignment that doesn’t go as forecast.
He embarks on an adventure that starts in a hurricane on an icy mountaintop in New Hampshire and takes him to India to watch the monsoon come ashore and write about the elaborate, almost mystical art of monsoon forecasting. When the rain begins, however, a series of misunderstandings finds him banned from every single office of the India Meteorological Department.
Before long, his journey turns into a cross-country road trip in search of the true meaning of the monsoon—a trip that takes him through the spice villages high in the Western Ghats, to a Hindu wedding at which all the main participants end up drenched, and leaves him ankle-deep in a holy river where the temple elephants bathe. He discovers the history of the umbrella, the bizarre ritual of rain-inducing donkey weddings, and for his erratic and dusty labors, he ends up being rewarded with a glimpse into the spiritual nature of water.

Anyone interested in a review copy should email me at timbrookes@burlingtontelecom.net.

Individual copies, signed and inscribed, can be purchased for $18.00 plus $2.50 for packing and mailing below (6.50 for International shipping).   I’ll be happy to sign your copy and add a personal inscription to yourself or to whomever you intend to give the book as a gift. Just enter what you’d like me to write here:

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In case you haven’t come across my writing before, my cult-favorite hitchhiking book A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow was selected as one of the Top Travel Books of 2000 by the New York Times and Booklist. You can get the complete picture from my multi-dimensional website.

Or, if you’re as wary about spending money as I am, click here to download Part I of Thirty Percent FREE and check it out for yourself.

Following on the heels of a wonderfully convivial reading at Brown Dog Books in Hinesburg, Vermont, back in late August, and a remarkably thoughtful and engaging interview with Ian Williams on WJFF radio (which also includes discussion of the Endangered Alphabets Project), comes a fine review from a highly selective source: Tim Leffel, editor of Perceptive Travel.
This site, which combines hitherto-unpublished travel stories with reviews of travel books, is well worth checking out. To see Tim’s review of Thirty Percent, click here.

But nothing could beat the drama of the reading in October during the rain-and-windstorm that was the tail-end of Hurricane Nicole. I was addressing the Elder Education Enrichment readers’ series in South Burlington, reading Thirty Percent and talking about the monsoon, when from outside came a loud crack, followed by a crash that shook the entire building. A vast dead tree had been snapped off just above the ground and had fallen within maybe six feet of the window behind me. Given the nature of the book–the spectacular and irresistible power of weather, the nature of uncertainty, and so on–almost everyone there accused me of having staged the entire event.