Although I generally love travel memoirs, this one was kind of exhausting. I don't think the author really learned anything about himself, mostly he was just trying to meet a goal. He wasn't very likable either, especially with his views about women. I wanted more depth from the travels rather than checking off a list. There were a few entertaining stories, so it's not totally without merit.

Unfortunately I didn't connect to this book and ended up not finishing it. I will not be reviewing it since my opinions aren't based on the entirety of the book and may therefore give wrong impressions.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 50 YEARS - Albert Podell

FUN FACTS AND TRIVIA - 3 stars

Plot - 3.5 stars - Podell has traveled all over the world--literally. He originally decided to break the record of auto-driving through as many countries as possible without repetition. But then he got hooked on the adventure. After many years of various travels, he realized that it was actually possible for him to visit every country in the world. Even with the changing world geography, he was determined to succeed. Not only that, but the political climate throughout the world kept changing, with danger zones in various parts of Africa and the Middle East, in particular.

Writing - 2.5 stars - The writing was fine. Podell is probably a personable guy to talk to, and this translates into an easy-to-read commentary about his amazing travels. It just went on for way too long, with too much detail about some countries and little information about others. I was a somewhat uncomfortable with his mention of casual romantic encounters, as well as some of his own political opinions. Neither detracted from the overall book but both seemed unnecessary.

Characters - 3 stars - Podell is an interesting guy. He lives a fairly upscale-sounding lifestyle in the U.S., but he's surprisingly willing to settle for extremely low-scale living when visiting various countries. He's interested in everything and in visiting everywhere, sounding very much like a manic traveler who always wants something new and different. At the same time, he's a very careful planner, arranging travel as much as he can in advance, deciding on a route, setting up a schedule, even when (or maybe especially when) traveling to so many obscure locations.

Title - 3 stars - Pretty self-explanatory. Podell has been traveling all his adult life, though a wide variety of countries and conditions. From his first trip to finally reaching his goal, it took almost exactly 50 years. He was definitely slowing down at the end.

Cover - 4 stars - Very attractive cover, showing colorful visas from many of the countries that he's visited.

Overview - 3 stars - Although the book keep moving forward, I found myself simply shaking my head over and over, wondering why anyone would put themselves into such stressful and dangerous situations. Podell had a multitude of crazy adventures, but after a while it became almost repetitious, battling against government corruption, often squalid living conditions, terrible driving/flying scenarios, and trying to avoid wars and conflicts. He seemed determined to complete his goal even when he admitted to having no desire to visit some of the countries on his list. And then he seemed determined to catalog it all in this book, even when the reader might not have wanted to hear about it, kind of like a friend or neighbor who is coerced into looking at someone else's vacation pictures and videos. Although much of the book was fascinating, it didn't really seem necessary to describe (in quite a lot of detail) every single country that was visited. Podell obviously tried to include interesting trivia and some history for many locations, but eventually it became an overload of facts--TMI! What saved my sanity was keeping the computer close by while I was reading so I could stop and look at pictures of each location and enjoy seeing what Podell saw.