[.ca] How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays (ISBN 015600125X)

What is like to travel with Umberto Eco:
I knew Umberto Eco from his previous books like Foucault's Pendulum and The Name of the Rose. Both of them are very documented and serious writings and I have to admit I was a bit reserved at the idea of Umberto Eco writing humorous essays. But it was enough for me to read only the first story (How to Travel with a Salmon) and I decided I had to read the whole book. This is the book that will give you a nice feeling, sometimes will make you even laugh out loud, as it is written with a lot of wit and sense of humour. It is suitable for someone who wants a light reading and intelligent at the same time. I was pleasantly surprised to meet the playful side of Mr. Eco which resulted in light satires at the address of some social institutions, bureaucracy and habits that people have. It is a delightful reading that I bet, you don't want to miss.

The witty traveler:
This collection of essays combines travel with intellectual barbs. The book journeys from the surreal, such as the logistics of manipulating life-sized maps of a territory, to the all-too-real and malodorous such as the title story of the hotel with the broken computer, overly attentive housekeeping, and thus a slowly decaying fish. And the book will please word-fetishists, as the sentences are cleverly assembled.

Hysterical!:
Though some of the essays may seem a bit dated, they are ALL very clever and worthwhile. I suggest this lighthearted book to anyone, particularly to fans of Eco. I've read both _Foucault's Pendulum_ and _The Name of the Rose_, so I can fully appreciate Eco's genius, his careful research into topics, and his knack for expressing all the details in an interesting and captivating way. This book is COMPLETELY different than what I'm used to with Eco, and *I love it*!

Entertaining and intelligent:
The Italian author Umberto Eco has written several humorous articles in his career. This book is acollection of the classics. All articles are at least mildly entertaining, containing some all-too-true comments of the modern society, and a few even managed to put a smile on my face. It is a quick and fun read with pointed social criticicm and irony-filled sarcasm. A nice little gift idea.

Eco does stand-up comedy in a book...:
In this collection of short essays published in a span of over 30 years in various magazines, Eco takes all kinds of themes in a mood for parody and satire. Dealt with here are various modern day commodities (phones, gadgets etc.) as well as ...trains, buses, libraries, waiters, and in general themes that bear no connection with them .. Reading this book through is not much different than being engaged in conversation with a very witty person who's got an opinion on everybody and everything and has a very special way to deliver it on top of it. Some of the subjets of these essays may seem a bit out of time (times have indeed changed since some of these were written) but the humor is the prevailant factor here, a caustic humor characteristic of Eco anyway. If you've gotten to know this brilliant author and mind through his classics such as "Foucault's pendulum" and "The name of the rose" you might find yourself surprised with what's on offer on this book. It's a style you might've not expected, but this does in no way mean you'll be dissapointed. On the extreme contrary! Great book, reads through like a breeze, and so packed with hilarious lines/conclusion/observations that you'll surely return to it many times.