How to Travel with a Salmon: And Other Essays“Impishly witty and ingeniously irreverent” essays on topics from cell phones to librarians, by the author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum (The Atlantic Monthly). A cosmopolitan curmudgeon the Los Angeles Times called “the Andy Rooney of academia”—known for both nonfiction and novels that have become blockbuster New York Times bestsellers—Umberto Eco takes readers on “a delightful romp through the absurdities of modern life” (Publishers Weekly) as he journeys around the world and into his own wildly adventurous mind. From the mundane details of getting around on Amtrak or in the back of a cab, to reflections on computer jargon and soccer fans, to more important issues like the effects of mass media and consumer civilization—not to mention the challenges of trying to refrigerate an expensive piece of fish at an English hotel—this renowned writer, semiotician, and philosopher provides “an uncanny combination of the profound and the profane” (San Francisco Chronicle). “Eco entertains with his clever reflections and with his unique persona.” —Kirkus Reviews Translated from the Italian by William Weaver |
Contents
How to Go Through Customs | |
How to Travel on American Trains | |
How to Take Intelligent Vacations | |
How to Use the Taxi Driver | |
How to Become a Knight of Malta | |
How to Deal with Telegrams | |
How Not to Use the Fax Machine | |
How Not to Use the Cellular Phone | |
Three Owls on a Chest of Drawers | |
Editorial Revision | |
Sequels | |
How to Use Suspension Points | |
How Not to Talk about Soccer | |
How to Use the Coffeepot from Hell | |
How to React to Familiar Faces | |
How to Be a TV Host | |
How Not to Know the Time | |
Stars and Stripes | |
Conversation in Babylon | |
On the Impossibility of Drawing a Map of the Empire on a Scale of 1 to 1 | |
How to Eat Ice Cream | |
How It Begins and How It Ends | |
How to Justify a Private Library | |
How to Compile an Inventory | |
How to Spend Time | |
How to Buy Gadgets | |
How to Follow Instructions | |
How to Write an Introduction | |
How to Write an Introduction to an Art Catalogue | |
How to Set the Record Straight | |
How to Watch Out for Widows | |
How to Organize a Public Library | |
How to Speak of Animals | |
How to Play Indians | |
How to Recognize a Porn Movie | |
How to Avoid Contagious Diseases | |
How to Choose a Remunerative Profession | |
The Miracle of San Baudolino | |
Back Cover | |
Spine | |
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Common terms and phrases
actor Alessandria Altair Ambaraba Cicci Anthony Quinn applause Arcturus Arcturus Bootes army arrive artist ASTROGRAM Baudolino BETELGEUSE Bongas CASINO catalogue chest of drawers coffee Conflictual Potlatch critical discovered document drillers empire fact film finally folded friends GALACTIC CORPS Gggrs Giansaverio hand happened High Command Highly Placed Person impossible inhabitants Interga Intergalactic Finance inventory Italian La Turbie least Lombard League look Milan military minutes mother movie never NIMROD normal Normal Map once owls paper PERCUOCO perhaps PLUTO poem pornographic possible Potlatch problem Prosciuttini reader Rebaudengo salmon Secret Services semiotic sestina sleep Snoopy solution someone speak Special Branches STOP SIGNED subjects suggest taxi driver telephone tell territory thanks theater things three owls tion triangles URANUS URUK verse watch WIAC words write