Sunday Salon: Lions and Tigers and Calvin Trillin

Today by way of Salon reading I'm finishing up a light read, Peter Allison's Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide. As the subtitle suggests, it's a bunch of stories about his life as a safari guide, primarily in Botswana but also in South Africa. He's a youngish and good-looking Australian fellow, and seems likable enough from the book. He's apparently been on some animal-related television shows, but this is my first acquaintance with him. It's a quick bunch of stories, not so much about animals per se but about life as a guide. Certainly it never occurred to me to wonder before what life as a guide could possibly be like, so this is eye-opening. Allison tells various survival stories, and writes about the people who come on safari--some of them spoiled and stupid. There's a moving piece about a fellow guide, a Botswanan, who died of AIDS, and another who didn't manage to stare down a charging lion. Interesting stuff. People who like this sort of thing will like this sort of thing!

I had intended today to make a day of reading Calvin Trillin's About Alice, which Karen over at Verbatim so effectively plugged the other day. I have since gotten my hands on a copy, but I fell to decluttering a kitchen counter (i.e., one area of counter about 6 sq. ft.) and that took up a lot of my free time. So I may not get to Alice today.

Tags: The Sunday Salon