"Lonely Planet Guide to my Apartment" refreshing travel article

My new favorite book (Photo: Amazon.com)

It is a rare gift in college classes to receive an assignment you cannot wait to complete.  Whether it is the unfamiliar desire to continue reading past assigned pages or the yearning to sit down and start that essay you’ve been allocated, enjoying homework is a must appreciated sigh of relief.  This is the way I felt reading “The Lonely Planet Guide to my Apartment,” by Jonathan Stern.  Anyone who has ever opened a Lonely Planet guide book is sure to enjoy the brief and hilarious article as much as I did:  

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/04/24/060424sh_shouts

The article first appeared in the “Shouts and Murmurs” section of The New Yorker in April, 2006.  However, this article came to me by way of Best American Travel Writing, 2007.  This book is an absolute MUST for anyone who loves travel, loves reading or loves reading about traveling.  As the names suggests, it is a collection of short stories about travel experiences.  I highly recommend this insightful and inspiring book for any student who is considering studying abroad or has recently returned from study abroad.  Ideally, for any student who is currently studying abroad I should hope you are only reading in your host country’s language, but the cynic is me tells me not all students are following that rule.  So, I also recommend this book for any student who is currently studying abroad.  It is available on Amazon.com for $11.20.  Although the Stern article is in the 2007 edition, there is a new 2008 edition as well as editions from 2000-2006.  Each features a different guest editor such as Paul Theroux and Frances Mayes.