HOW TO TRAVEL WITH A SALMON &...

HOW TO TRAVEL WITH A SALMON & OTHER ESSAYS by Umberto Eco, translated from the Italian by William Weaver (Harcourt Brace: $11; 248 pp.). In this new collection of his spritely Diario Minimo columns, the author of “The Name of the Rose” reflects on the follies of modern life. Playing the wise fool, Umberto Eco mocks airline food, hotel mini-bars, the catalogues of useless gadgets found in airplane seat pockets, coffee pots, fax machines and cellular telephones. These often hilarious bagatelles conceal serious reflections on the excesses of contemporary consumer society. Eco comments: “The mass media first convinced us that the imaginary was real, and now they are convincing us that the real is imaginary; and the more reality the TV screen shows, the more cinematic our everyday world becomes.”