VIDEO NIGHT IN KATHMANDU And Other Reports From the Not-So-Far East <i> by Pico Iyer Vintage: $9.95 </i>

When Pico Iyer began traveling in Asia, he planned to chronicle the increasing Westernization of the continent’s ancient cultures. He discovered that while America remains the model of the good, materialistic, modern life, the East is overtaking the West, absorbing and transforming its ideas and products--and, often, selling them back in new guises.

As he recounts his (mis)adventures, Iyer offers entertaining descriptions of the baroque excesses of the Indian cinema, the frenetic capitalism of Hong Kong, baseball mania in Japan and the seedy night life of Manila and Bangkok. This fascinating account of cultural cross-pollination is marred only by the author’s tendency to write too much about himself, like a tourist who comes home with snapshots of his friends standing in front of slightly fuzzy monuments.