A review by linazu
A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East by Tiziano Terzani

3.0

I loved it, and I despised it.

This book is full of "romanticizing" of life. Likely I'll keep referring to it when I talk about slower living. About the fact that all the airports look the same and how taking the road or sea transport, we share something in common with everyone traveling - boredom. And how there's beauty in this.

Regarding cultures and people, my favorite little story was about tribal women selling goods and rejecting a much higher bill for two smaller ones - two must be worth more than just one, right?

It is a well-worth-a-read book, yet for me, it was torturous at times. The author would write somewhat cynically with a hint of superiority. Yes, we live in a world consumed by consumerism and capitalism and making money - I got tired of the rants. In addition, the back and forth of still going to the fortune tellers but simultaneously criticizing and judging them became repetitive.