Reading the latest World of Wanderlust book coincided with my own travels to Tasmania where the author Brooke Saward is from.
But as I could not find it in a bookshop I downloaded the free sample to my Kindle app from Amazon as I do before purchasing any digital edition.
Usually this would provide me with enough information to make an informed decision, however this was far from the case (and yes some of the following should be forgiven since it was designed as a coffee table book).
What should have been the Contents page took up six pages. Throw in a few pages of photos, an ‘About’ page which told me nothing and a poorly formated ‘About the Author’ which spilt over two pages and the actual content doesn’t start until 74% of the way through the sample.
In fact out of 22 pages, the only real written chapter content amounted to 4 of them, the Introduction.
The Kindle book price of $11.49 US on Amazon made it much cheaper than the previous book of Saward’s I read, so with low expectations I downloaded the full book and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of written content. It was at least a few hours worth of reading.
In World of Wanderlust, How to Live an Adventurous Life Brooke sums up her favourite luxury hotels, spa tratments and places to visit and more worldwide as well as offering tips on travel factors such as taking photos, overcoming jetlag and how to enjoy solo travel.
The content wasn’t new, but I was pleased to find she’d recreated it rather than directly transposing it from her blog.
Yes, she is detailing the same places/ neighborhoods/ food trucks/ patiseries as her blog posts and city guides (I googled them to check), but they’re written up differently and formatted into listicles. For example a chapter on Day Trips from Paris was similar to, yet different from a post on her blog.
There are plenty of infographics, pictures (which you will have seen before if you read her blog or follow her on social media) and lists of of movies, language tips and song playlists.
It’s not a ‘How to become a travel blogger’ or insightful autobiography, it is a book designed to look pretty on a coffee table and be flicked through for inspiration when one is dreaming of escaping to Europe.
The physical edition would make a nice gift for any young female wanderluster who is obsessed with Brooke – the same way books by Zoella or Tanya Burr tend to sell.
Have you read any of Brooke’s books or her blog?
Images from the book World of Wanderlust How to Live an Adventurous Life by Brooke Saward.
Maybe not a popular opinion but I’m not the biggest fan of her blog in general, I did like a whole lot more a long time ago, when I felt like more effort was put into it all and when she did more affordable things because not everyone can afford things such as a trip in California while sat in a fancy car/helicopter. Her photography is stunning on the other hand and I was curious about the book so I did like your review a lot!
Oh I don’t think that will be an unpopular opinion Naomi! She’s a bit of a PR girl in some ways, there is just no way her typical fans would be able to travel the way she does.
hmm I am not sure if I would enjoy it. But if I find it in a book store I would definitely check it out because your review did make me curious, haha.
I am always looking for good reads. I love the photos in this post – sounds like a decent coffee table book indeed! 🙂
Yes Emily, if it’s pretty travel related pictures and a bit of travel inspo for your coffee table that you’re after it’s the book for you!
Wait, question: you said that the chapter on day trips from Paris is similar to the article on her blog. But this blog post wasn’t written by her, but one of her contributors. Was there more text in the book? Because the blog post isn’t very informative. Thanks!
Hey good point Anna! It’s a similar amount of content to that post just slightly different. So same place, and still just a quick paragraph on each. There’s more content on Paris such as Paris Neighborhoods and Paris Patisseries where the locations are pretty much the same but the written paragraph is different, and I note now that the blog posts were written by a contributor not Brooke herself!