James's Corner Flying Carpet Articles

Publisher’s Preface: A Meander through Books and the Journeys of Others
by James O’Reilly My favorite mountaineering book is The Mountains of My Life, by legendary Italian climber Walter Bonatti. While I love being in the mountains—it’s a rare day I don’t daydream about the Alps or the Himalayas—I am not... [Read on]
Added on August 27, 2010

Publisher's Preface: The Best Travel Writing 2009
James O'Reilly looks at the lessons in the hit film, Slumdog Millionaire. [Read on]
Added on March 10, 2009

The Best Travel Writing 2008—Publisher's Preface
James reflects on Paradise and how travel helps us keep from growing stale. [Read on]
Added on March 06, 2008

The Best Travel Writing 2007: Publisher’s Preface
James reflects on the world's most amazing travelers. [Read on]
Added on February 19, 2007

Publisher's Preface: The Best Travel Writing 2006
James reflects on the meaning of "warm heart." [Read on]
Added on February 21, 2006

Publisher's Preface: The Best Travel Writing 2005
James writes about why we travel as he introduces TT's newest collection of stories. [Read on]
Added on March 21, 2005

The Best TT 2004—Publisher's Preface
James reflects on 10 years of publishing excellence at Traveler's Tales. [Read on]
Added on February 18, 2004

Where do you want to go today?
James explores the concept of "the minimization of regret." [Read on]
Added on December 01, 2003

Why the World
James lists ten reasons to travel and read TT books. [Read on]
Added on October 15, 2003

I Know What I Did Last Summer
You might say it's trivial to talk about travel in a time of war, but I would disagree. About this time last year, six months after the World Trade Center horrors, when everyone seemed to be ditching travel plans, the... [Read on]
Added on August 04, 2003

An LA Kind of Weekend
The five of us, my wife and three teenage daughters, got back from three days in that strangest of cities, Los Angeles, where we were extras in a horror movie called Prime Evil, a tale about a huge crocodile, the... [Read on]
Added on May 22, 2003

Introduction to Ireland
When I was a boy, I remember my father sitting, lost in thought and memory, in view of a painting in our American living room. That painting was of Torc Mountain rising above the Lakes of Killarney in County Kerry,... [Read on]
Added on April 22, 2003

A Time of Gifts
At Travelers' Tales we talk about "the gift of travel," in fact we've even got a book by that name, but as we scurry around in this season of gift-giving, it's easy for the process to become mindless, all about... [Read on]
Added on December 22, 2002

Books to Live By
Publisher James O'Reilly recommends some great books to read. [Read on]
Added on November 03, 2002

The Sum of All Freedoms
"If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle…" Sun Tzu, The Art of War It is natural at this time to focus on "The Sum of All Fears" as the recent movie trumpets. But... [Read on]
Added on September 10, 2002

Approaching September 11th
"When the world is storm-driven and the bad that happens and the worse that threatens are so urgent as to shut out everything else from view, then we need to know all the strong fortresses of the spirit which men... [Read on]
Added on August 22, 2002

The Treasure House of the Human Race
As mayhem continues in the Middle East, and Indians and Pakistanis face off over Kashmir, I'm finding it a fascinating exercise to read Fouad Ajami's Dream Palace of the Arabs at the same time as Paul Fussell's The Great War... [Read on]
Added on July 22, 2002

Panamanian Orchids
After ten days in Panama, publisher James O'Reilly puts a few impressions in a nutshell… As I drained the best cappucino I've had in my life at the Janson Family Coffee ranch on the slopes of Volcán, in western Panama—just... [Read on]
Added on February 22, 2002

Introduction to France
France is, of course, the heart of Western civilization. And much as the heart gives life and meaning to the rest of the body, so France gives life and meaning to what we call culture, history, and worthwhile experience; France... [Read on]
Added on January 22, 2002

Introduction to Thailand
Thailand should satisfy just about any traveler’s hunger for the exotic, the beautiful, the thrillingly different. But it is a country whose very lure for the foreigner threatens to make it a parody of itself. It is a country with... [Read on]
Added on January 10, 2002

Merle Haggard and the Ambassador
Colonel Wakefield wore a faint smile. "Anyone want to see a leopard?" We nodded, cold but still eager after hours of bouncing around the forest in a jeep. The Colonel shone his flashlight on a sign at the entrance to... [Read on]
Added on November 22, 2001

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