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What book are you reading? Part 20


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  • 2 weeks later...
Got a lot of those little libraries around me.... always tempted to put some porn in one.

 

might as well, most of the books in them are romance novels....i did manage to pick up fight club, the glass castle, love in the time of cholera, and a million little pieces though.....there are 19 of these throughout my city, I need to make a day out of it and raid them all

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  • 2 weeks later...
still trying to bolster my knowledge of world history

 

Speaking of world history, do you guys read up on the history of a country before you visit? If so, is there a specific series of books that you read? I know that guy from PBS, Rick Steves, has a series of travel books. Also, I think I might have asked you this before a couple years ago, but what websites do you guys use to book your travel? I may have some free time coming up soon and would really like to travel.

 

Sorry about getting off topic.

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hey, no problemo

 

yes,i try to read up.

sometimes it's just looking at killinghope.com and seeing if the country has a chapter in there.

i usually try to check out the basic facts about the place at a bare minimum, like wikipedia shit

(wiki is pretty good for stuff like this imo, saves me trouble really.)

sometimes CIA world factbook can tell you other interesting stuff but i also look at what the state department is saying about places.

i never wanna be ignorant.

we also have a TON of travel books. mostly lonely planet but their quality is not as reliable as it once was.

those books almost always address some historical stuff to get the broad strokes.

 

to book,

i have tended to check kayak (and avoid weird 3rd party booking sites that they might have priced on there, like webjet. i've heard orbitz is dicey. expedia, travelocity and priceline are ok but i try to book directly with the airline)

i often come up with amazing deals.

these days i've learned that following theflightdeal on facebook can be good.

they tipped me off to a 1 day sale which got me $400 tix to korea.

 

stay flexible, and go where the sale takes you, is my advice to basically everyone. if you are close to or can easily reach multiple gateways, check them all.

 

for rooms, i look at booking.com for the deal and check the quality of the place on tripadvisor. TA has been where i've gone to book or find the (few) tours i've taken, and it's been fantastic so far

 

stay away from acapulco.

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to book,

i have tended to check kayak (and avoid weird 3rd party booking sites that they might have priced on there, like webjet. i've heard orbitz is dicey. expedia, travelocity and priceline are ok but i try to book directly with the airline)

 

for rooms, i look at booking.com for the deal and check the quality of the place on tripadvisor. TA has been where i've gone to book or find the (few) tours i've taken, and it's been fantastic so far

 

stay away from acapulco.

 

I've used expedia in the passed and was pretty satisfied. My girlfriend uses priceline and we've booked some nice minivacations through them (one of them being for valentines day)....Orbitz, I will never ever do again. I booked through them for a trip to Israel a few years back and the place was a fucking dump (but it was a 3rd party person who had posted his property on their website)....the pictures were not accurate of the property and Orbitz refused to refund.

 

I've been reading reviews from tripadvisor for everything lately...im trying to plan some trips in the next year or two.

 

why stay away from acapulco?....crime?...cartels?.....a couple friends of ours went to an all-inclusive resort in cabo san lucas a few years back (Riu Palace) and only paid about $300 each...we did a cruise to ensenada last december and it wasnt too bad.

 

once again.....sorry everyone for derailing the thread....symbols, you can pm me back if you want.

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I usually know a bit about the countries I go to as my work involves requires I stay abreast of things. If I need to go into pre-modern history I have to read and some one at work will usually have the good oil to give me. Some countries can be fun to go to without knowing a huge amount about and learning as you travel. I did that with Brazil but also had a bunch of friends there to show me around and fill me in.

 

Websites - well, this time I actually used a travel agent. We were so pressed for time that we just let some one else do the legwork. We'd saved hard for a while so didn't need to be overly conservative in spending. I used expedia and TA to look for stuff and read reviews. I use Webjet whenever I book flights otherwise, work, play, etc. It's always been fine for me. I do have to get into the habit of buying direct from the airline when I travel for play, though.

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all good cali. i'm not worried about thread derails with such limited traffic

 

acapulco is super dangerous and very dicey right now

drugs, cartel/gang wars.. i've heard some bad things and i'm not sure the risks are worth the good deals since there are many places suffering from drops in tourism that are so much safer.

 

buying direct with the airline gives you so much more power.

when i see the deal, i go right to the airline website

the other thing is that if so and so is offering a tickets hundos cheaper than the airline itself, something is wrong.

the sucky thing about places that travel hack (and priceline will do this) is that you might travel in multiple carriers and in that case, if there is a delay on any leg of a mutli-leg flight, you may be screwed whereas the same airline will help you move your way without tons of extra money

i know this can all seem like too much trouble, but when you travel as much as i do, there are bound to be problems at some point and it's worth trying to minimize the damage.

 

as for travel agents, if someone wants me to put together a trip for them, i will beat any travel agent's commission. :haha:

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all good cali. i'm not worried about thread derails with such limited traffic

 

as for travel agents, if someone wants me to put together a trip for them, i will beat any travel agent's commission. :haha:

 

^agree on the first point.....for the 2nd point, good side hustle!

 

when going from miami to argentina we took the now defunct Varig airlines....but there was a 4-5 hour delay in Miami and we missed our connecting flight in sao paulo....but since the connecting flight was also with Varig, they took care of us and put us up in a really really nice hotel in sao paulo...it sucks cause we lost half a day in buenos aires, but we did get a good rest before making the extra trek.

 

my girlfriend told me about a website called skiplagged...i havent tried them...it seems legit....have you heard of them?

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word, one of those that game the system.

i have not tried them

 

like i said, when i get the good fare, i usually try to book directly with the airline, and MOST of the time, it's worked out

even this last year, when i booked patagonia tix thru travelocity bc of an insane sale (7 hundo, round trip with a 3 day layover in Santiago)

priceline ended up 'exchanging' that fare (or some shit) such that i ended up with a reservation directly through LAN and United.

priceline isn't even involved in it anymore.

 

i also am usually flying internationally. i don't like to play games on those flights.

that said, i'll give skiplagged a look see... i am so hemmed up with travel plans ATM though, i can't plan anymore trips until some time goes by.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Couple Christmas' ago, the wife's mom got me The Road. That got me started on post apocalyptic type fiction, which lead to reading zombie novels. At this point, I've about read every zombie novel off Amazon with a 3 star rating or better. Actually thoroughly enjoyed the ones by the independent authors that are Kindle only.

 

That said, if anyone's looking for good zombie reads, check out the Gathering Dead series by Stephen Knight - The Gathering Dead (A Zombie Apocalypse Novel) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SYAY2S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_nKybybNGPCKDZ

 

Not zombies, but similar and an awesome fun read is the Purge of Babylon series by Sam Sisavath - The Purge of Babylon: A Novel of Survival (Purge of Babylon, Book 1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H9OT6K0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_rOybybKZ7ZV5M

Not for nothing, but Amazon Prime and the Kindle app for iPhone totally save my life during long nights when I can't sleep.

 

I'll dig through this thread later, but to speed it up... Anyone else into trashy zombie fiction?

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Just finished 1984. Had been meaning to read it for a hellova long time and finally got around to it. Whilst Orwell is an amazing author, quite reminiscent of Dickens in style, it's a fucking depressing read.

 

Been meaning to reread that and Animal Farm, but haven't gotten to it. Have also noted many complaint on Amazon that the versions being sold now are abridged and some of the more subversive concepts have been diluted of edited out. Almost seems like a pun, if not ironically Orwellian for big brother to edit a book like 1984.

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