Packing a Sense of Humor

by

Lauren Roberts

One thing that never fails to surprise and fascinate me is the sheer number of books on any one subject. Take travel. There are where-to-stay-what-to-eat-and-what-to-see guides; historical guides that insist on giving you the complete history of an area; specialized guides for nudists, spelunkers, gourmets, trekkers, shoppers, divers, indeed, any interest group that you can think of; packing, driving and eating guides; language conversion, currency conversion and menu conversion guides; foreign customs, ecotourism and work-vacations guides; even coffee table books masquerading as guides. There are guides to everywhere there is a place and even to where there is not.

Perhaps the most interesting publishers of travel books is Travelers’ Tales. This company got its start in 1993 when two travel writers teamed up with one’s brother, a publisher, to “produce a new kind of travel book, one that would paint a portrait of a country through the experiences of many travelers . . . Reading each book would be like sitting in a café filled with fellow travelers swapping tales about the place you’re headed next . . .”

With 100 titles in print ranging from classic travel narratives to international bathroom guides, Travelers’ Tales is an excellent resource for guidebooks that goes beyond the practical, even beyond the expanded versions that bring in the historical and cultural aspects of a place. Rather, in a unique and enlightening vision of what travel really encompasses, they seek to prepare “the individual who has feelings and fears, hopes and dreams, goals . . . best achieved through other travelers’ tales, for we get our inner landmarks more from anecdote than from information . . . in stories we see more clearly the urges that bring us to wander, whether it's hunger for change, adventure, self knowledge, love, curiosity, or even something as prosaic as a job assignment or two weeks off.”

So what would a guidebook that did that be like? Well, it could be like Sand in my Bra and Other Misadventures ($14.95), an anthology of hilarious travel stories by witty women including Ellen Degeneres, Margo Kaufman and Sandra Tsing Loh. These women are excellent writers, but what makes this book so appealing is that the many of the experiences—not funny at the time—become the story that can be told over and over.
   
“Foreign travel does not always go smoothly,” notes editor Jessica Maxwell, “It can’t. There are too many moving parts . . . If you can make peace with the concept of travel as a comedy-waiting-to-happen, then almost nothing can rob you of the deeper thrill of it.”

And what a thrill this book is with its weird, funny and appalling stories by 29 different women who did make peace with their inadvertent adventures, which included being chased by a herd of 50 African elephants; cavorting across the sands of Black Rock Desert at the Burning Man festival (“I thought back to all the fond memories I had of this place . . . naked green men riding unicycles and chanting praises to pizza . . . a fire-breathing dragon that had a five-piece polka band on board . . . ”); losing underwear in the Muslim country of Abu Dhabi (“ . . . by the time I get to the door the ‘sail’ is way below half-mast, maintaining position due to an interesting walking style . . .”), hiking up a live volcano, and nightclubbing in Bangkok’s infamous Red Light District.

The stories move between weird, funny and appalling, but they are never boring. One of the simplest yet most intriguing (because of its simplicity) is “Great in the Sack” which Suzanne Schlosberg opens this way: “My boyfriend . . . suggested I run around Yerington, Nevada, with a 50-pound sack of chicken feed around my neck.” Yerington, a town of 2,800 people, no stoplights and one supermarket is located at the southern portion of the state where UFO sightings are often reported. It exhibits no great tourism features which is why, perhaps, every four years it likes to offer a foot race called the Great American Sack Race. This is no ordinary race, however. Begun in 1910 as a bet between workers and their boss, it offers a $1,000 prize to the winners of a five-mile race carrying a sack of chicken feed—100 pounds for men, 50 pounds for women. “I was intrigued,” she writes. “Surely this was not the wackiest idea along the Extraterrestrial Highway.”

Perhaps not. But still . . .  

She begins training with a 25-pound sack, and two months later they return. “Only three women besides me had signed up for the race, and, while they did not look like Bulgarian shotputters, each was daunting in her own way.” To her horror, she was summoned along with her competitors, to walk before the spectators so they could place bets—and silence ensued. But the greater horror was when she discovered her assumption that it was a walking race was wrong. Given a choice between listening to her boyfriend complain about losing $50 or giving it “her best,” she chose the latter.

What I particularly like about this book—and about many of the books Traveler’s Tales publishes—is their philosophy, that “one of the best ways to prepare for a trip is from the stories of others. . ..” To that end, they offer books that, among others, focus on women’s travel, spirituality, food, family and classics. Another positive point is their openness, indeed, their active solicitations for submissions.

What keeps each of these women in Sand in My Bra and Other Misadventures coming back for more is what keeps many of us traveling too despite such disasters: finding the humor in crazy situations and having the wherewithal to appreciate it because no trip comes with a guarantee except the one you bring: your positive attitude.
 

Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines have reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, 750 bookmarks and nearly 1,000 books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it