I was in the bookshop* yesterday and saw a book called something like “1001 Places to See Before You Die”. A very nice picture book, full of interesting locations. There are many of it’s type.
It struck me that, if you’re not careful, it could be quite a depressing thing. Clearly, I’m not going to see all the places contained within, so I may have to consider my life a failure already. I admit that renaming the book “If you see 10% of these then your life hasn’t been a complete waste” or “Just look at the pictures, it’s as good as being there” might not sell as well but it would stop the book pulling you up short in the shop and thinking “How many days have I spent in Livingston?“
Although, flicking through the book, I was buoyed by two things, I had been to some of the places and some of the places I hadn’t been to were really very dull, methinks they had stretched it a bit to get to 1001.
So, I might still buy the book, albeit I can’t find the exact one I saw online. I didn’t use my own ‘top tip’ – take a photo of the book in the shop and then find it online.
* a bookshop! In Livingston! Hurrah! It wasn’t busy…
