Book Review: To Travel Hopelessly

I've decided to put to use my love of reading by reviewing the books I read (for better or for worse).

Today we review: To Travel Hopelessly by English Teacher X (Subtitled Five Years of Teaching English as a Foreign Language).

                                                                

Rating: 4 out of 10

Pros: Well given he's an English language teacher, use of the English language in the book was good (well edited and good writing quality).  I found the work related stories entertaining.  And from what I can tell the book is always in free mode (although the hope of the author seems to be that you will buy his other books).
Cons: Stupid stories about women (who the author seems to view as almost objects).  Doesn't use his real  name which makes some of the stories perhaps questionable.  Needlessly crude.  Book gets depressing.

I started off enjoying To Travel Hopelessly,but by the end of the book I was eager for it to be over.  The book is basically endless stories about how everyone else is stupid and it is everyone else's fault (of course it is never the author's).  Most of the stories can be classified under one or more categories- bad work experience, bad drug experience, or bad relationship experience.  Some of the stories though are quite entertaining...others are just crude and pointless.

Now the bad work stories were kind of funny.  But just from reading the book I seriously doubt English Teacher X is an easy person to work with.  I can't imagine the drugs were helping the situation either.

The relationship stories were what truly drove me nuts.  Why English Teacher X thinks he is the gift to all women, I don't know?  Are all the stories even true or is this some barbaric male bragging?  And if they are if one has as many relationships implode as English Teacher X perhaps at some point they need to realize that they are the common denominator in all of those relationships; well if one can even call them relationships.  And perhaps the common denominator is treating women like sex objects.

Oh and if you are planning to go to Thailand, Cambodia, South Korea, Czech Republic or Russia you might want to use discretion in reading this book.  You aren't going to get a happy picture of any of these places from the author.   

But worst of all, the authors attitude rubs off against you and by the time you are done reading the book all the glasses look half empty.