AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS ...

AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS by Michael Palin (KQED Books: $17.95; 262 pp., illustrated, paperback original). As Jules Verne predicted in 1873, it’s now possible to circumnavigate the globe in 80 hours or less. But when Michael Palin retraced Phileas Fogg’s route, he tried to use the same modes of transportation, taking trains across Europe, China, India and the United States and securing passage on cargo and fishing boats. Palin offers a very entertaining comic travel log, as viewers of the related BBC series can attest. During his brief sojourn in California, Palin remarks, “Venice Beach is America at its least self-conscious. Loud, informal, brash, individualistic, ostentatious, tolerant and unapologetic.” His tongue-in-cheek commentary leaves the reader longing for more gracious and interesting means of travel than commercial airlines.