The Tao of Travel．Paul Theroux 1

去英國最開心是買英文書，amazon.co.uk的價錢只是香港英文書局的2/3至1/2。但以科技之普及，相信再過兩三年，連我這些低科技之輩也會轉看ebook，以後也不用買書托書返香港了，省下的行李空間帶多兩件退稅特價名牌貨回香港。

這次帶了五本書、超過二千頁回香港，是未來半年閒書：
《The Tao of Travel》Paul Theroux
《India》Patrick French
《Pakistan．A Hard Country》Anatol Lieven
《Ox Travels》Michael Palin
《Flat Earth News》Nick Davis

The Tao of Travel的副題是Enlightenments from Lives on the Road。PT是英國的旅遊作家，這書是他的閱讀心得，節錄自己、其他旅行家／作家的觀察和智慧。我是從報紙的書評推介認識這本書，但Amazon讀者給它的評分很低，說是將作者的剩餘物資recycle，由雞雜碎變作麥樂雞。

麥樂雞未必有營養，但下午茶吃麥樂雞也不壞，在這裡抄錄一些些談旅行的精句短語，提醒一下自己之外，需要時引述也方便些。

'It is sometimes the way in travel, when travel becomes its opposite: you roll and roll and dawdle to a halt in the middle of nowhere. Rather than making a conscious decision, you simple stop rolling.'

'It is almost axiomatic that as soon as a place gets a reputation for being paradise it goes to hell.'

'No one has ever described the place where I have just arrived: this is the emotion that makes me want to travel. It is one of the greatest reasons to go anywhere.'

'All Travel is circular... After all, the grand tour is just the inspired man's way of heading home.'

'You go away for a long time and return a different person － you never come all the way back.'

’Travel holds the magical possibility of reinvention: that you might find a place you love, to begin a new life and never go home.’

PT說：旅行是啟蒙的開始，回到家後變了另一個人，甚至令你走上第二條路，跟舊的家告別。想到了哲古華拉的《Motorcycle Diary》之一句：

'The person who wrote these notes died upon stepping once again onto Argentine soil. The person who edits and polishes them, me, is no longer. At least I am not the person I was before. The vagabonding through our "America" has changed me more than I though.'

The person who edits and polishes them, me, is no longer. How true it is.