Book Log 2007 #51: The Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux

I first read this book my sophomore year in college when it was assigned as reading for an introductory geography class. I don't know that it taught me much beyond the idea that Asia was the place to be in the '70s if you wanted to have sex with prostitutes of indeterminate age and/or gender. But I did enjoy the book, and many years later decided to give it a re-read.

This time around I still enjoyed it, and probably appreciated some of the more unique combinations of time and place better than I did the first time (most notable here was a visit to Vietnam between the Paris Peace Accords and the eventual fall of South Vietnam). Though I was slightly more off-put than usual by Theroux's depiction of his fellow travelers, which was odd given that they're not that different from the depictions in all of his train books.

So I'd still recommend it, but with the added suggestion of finding the version with the original cover. The collage-style front is superior to the one used now, and there is a period photo of the author on the back that would be fantastic if it were in color. I'm sure it's nowhere to be seen in the new printing.