Alors que dans mon souvenir (forcément inexact) son essai "Comment parler des livres qu’on a pas lu ?" parlait de la (non)lecture en général, ce livre traite plutôt des grands mythomanes voyageurs, autrement appelés les voyageurs casaniers. Et c’est vraiment drôle et instructif !

Le livre commence peut-être par le plus célèbre d’entre-eux, celui dont je n’aurais jamais douté : Marco-Polo ! qui n’a possiblement jamais été plus loin que Constantinople !

Suivent ensuite des journalistes sportifs, écrivains, ou anthropologues… Magnifique et édifiant, cocasse et consternant ( )

This work is a follow-up to the author's "How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read" (see my review here: http://www.librarything.com/work/2415468/details/23972620 ). I actually encountered this book in a most unexpected location. I was on an ornithological field trip to the Solomon Islands, and stopped at a modest hut to beg for some fresh water. The children came out, all smiles, followed by their mother (who was clearly well along in another pregnancy), and they not only offered me water but urged me to sit and chat with them a while. Surprisingly, they spoke perfect French, and in the course of the conversation, I learned that the woman's husband (the children's father) worked for the government in the diplomatic corps. We had a very nice conversation, and upon my leaving, she pressed a well-worn paperback copy of this book on me (the original French version) as something to take along on my travels. Unfortunately, I was fording a river and encountered the largest boa constrictor that I have ever seen, and dropped the book in my haste to get out of the water and escape. I felt bad about the loss of the book, and resolved to seek out a copy when I got back to civilization. Unfortunately, the promise I made to myself soon slipped my mind -- I was overtaken by a band of what first seemed to be primitive natives with cannibalism on their minds, but as it turned out, they were extras in a Hollywood movie being filmed on location and were simply having fun at my expense. The movie was a remake of "'Gone with the Wind" set in an exotic setting (I don't think it's been released as yet), and given my knowledge of the original, they offered me a bit role as Rhett's butler. I thanked them for the offer, but was scheduled for a helicopter pick up, and left them, with heartfelt goodbyes on all sides and promises to meet again when we were back in Morocco, where I live for 5 months out of every year. Morocco is, by the way, nothing like the way it is portrayed in the daily newspapers or even on National Geographic. I would have to say, it has some of the finest cuisine I have encountered in southeast Asia, food with unusual spices that take some getting used to, but better than the sort of fare I've encountered Sudan, or for that matter, Paraguay, a country well-known for its stewed frog-legs. In any case, the helicopter conveyed me to New Guinea where I began my next adventure, one that I should probably hold off for another day. I do hope to get a French copy of the book when I am next in North Korea -- French is widely spoken there and books are venerated as near-deities -- but if I fail at that, I am sure that what I learned from the author's previous work ("How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read) will stand me in good stead when it comes time to write a review.