A review by buer
Poorcraft: Wish You Were Here: The Tightwad's Guide to Travel by Ryan Estrada
3.0
Poorcraft: Wish You Were Here is the cheap travel follow up to Trotman's previous book about frugal living.
It isn't great. The story works a lot better in this one than the previous one, but the actual information that is offered is pretty scarce. Poorcraft: The Funnybook Fundamentals of Living Well on Less was loaded with external resources with more detailed information, recipes, and information that felt more well-researched and less folksy. Poorcraft: Wish You Were Here had the kind of information I'd expect from a fellow hosteler who's been traveling for a little while. It could just be that because I travel similarly to the writer of the book most of the information seemed really basic, but the sources were also pretty disappointing. Wikipedia was one of the resources, along with Kayak.com and couchsurfing.com, which I think are all pretty resources. I did not count them (I kind of wish I had), but I don't think that more than 10 sources overall.
Regardless, it was a cute read and not totally without valuable information. For instance, I learned about the wallet twist (where you avoid pickpockets by putting your wallet deep enough in your pocket that you can twist it closed from the inside) and there were some good (very common sense, but still good) packing tips as well.
In summary, I would not buy it, but if someone has it sitting on a table somewhere, it's fun to page through.
It isn't great. The story works a lot better in this one than the previous one, but the actual information that is offered is pretty scarce. Poorcraft: The Funnybook Fundamentals of Living Well on Less was loaded with external resources with more detailed information, recipes, and information that felt more well-researched and less folksy. Poorcraft: Wish You Were Here had the kind of information I'd expect from a fellow hosteler who's been traveling for a little while. It could just be that because I travel similarly to the writer of the book most of the information seemed really basic, but the sources were also pretty disappointing. Wikipedia was one of the resources, along with Kayak.com and couchsurfing.com, which I think are all pretty resources. I did not count them (I kind of wish I had), but I don't think that more than 10 sources overall.
Regardless, it was a cute read and not totally without valuable information. For instance, I learned about the wallet twist (where you avoid pickpockets by putting your wallet deep enough in your pocket that you can twist it closed from the inside) and there were some good (very common sense, but still good) packing tips as well.
In summary, I would not buy it, but if someone has it sitting on a table somewhere, it's fun to page through.