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A review by hanrutous16
Ticket to Ride: Around the World on 49 Unusual Train Journeys: Around the World on 49 Unusual Train Journeys by Tom Chesshyre
informative
slow-paced
2.25
This book was bought for me as a gift - mostly because we love playing the board game ‘Ticket to Ride’ and the title sucked us in.
Sadly, it was far less entertaining.
Chesshyre is not a person I would like to meet in real life. His descriptions and judgements of people are unflattering, unkind and often unnecessary. He seems to have a bit of an obsession with describing the weight of overweight people and in Australia seems to rub everyone up the wrong way - which I believe is quite hard to do. His denial of being a train enthusiast whilst writing not one but three books about trains is either an overdone joke or a desperate need to not lump himself in with a group of people that he seems to entirely disdain. It’s hard to be patient with it when he’s rushing to the front of every train to get its details.
So he seems to dislike people, trains and people who like trains.
He does seem to enjoy the travel and alcohol, and that comes across in his chapter about France where he spends two thirds of the chapter talking about the visit and the alcohol he drunk, and barely any time focussing on the trains.
Was this travel writing? - maybe. There are some beautiful and thorough descriptions but to get to them you must wade through a lot of specific train information.
Was this a train book? - maybe. But don’t read it if you’re a train enthusiast because you will probably be offended at how he thinks of you.
Was this an interesting book? - in parts, yes, but my dislike for the author and the persona he adopted means I won’t go out of my way to read it or any other book by him, again.
Sadly, it was far less entertaining.
Chesshyre is not a person I would like to meet in real life. His descriptions and judgements of people are unflattering, unkind and often unnecessary. He seems to have a bit of an obsession with describing the weight of overweight people and in Australia seems to rub everyone up the wrong way - which I believe is quite hard to do. His denial of being a train enthusiast whilst writing not one but three books about trains is either an overdone joke or a desperate need to not lump himself in with a group of people that he seems to entirely disdain. It’s hard to be patient with it when he’s rushing to the front of every train to get its details.
So he seems to dislike people, trains and people who like trains.
He does seem to enjoy the travel and alcohol, and that comes across in his chapter about France where he spends two thirds of the chapter talking about the visit and the alcohol he drunk, and barely any time focussing on the trains.
Was this travel writing? - maybe. There are some beautiful and thorough descriptions but to get to them you must wade through a lot of specific train information.
Was this a train book? - maybe. But don’t read it if you’re a train enthusiast because you will probably be offended at how he thinks of you.
Was this an interesting book? - in parts, yes, but my dislike for the author and the persona he adopted means I won’t go out of my way to read it or any other book by him, again.