Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels

My father bought this book for me when I was 6, back in the middle 50s. While my other friends were boringly reading "run, spot, run," I was being introduced to places I could only wonder about. I was entranced by his chapter on Chichen Itza and that chapter alone was THE push that allowed me to become an archaeologist many years later. Richard Halliburton will always be a hero of mine, as he gave me a love of travel, other cultures, reading, and learning. I think there is a small pocket of people across the world who have been touched by this author in the same way I have. katwas (Juneau, Alaska)

I picked up my father's first printing of this when I was just starting to read as a little boy. It was the book which captivated him at the same age and made him determined to travel the world and see all its wonders. A tall order for a poor kid in the middle of the depression. But my father has traveled to every corner of this earth, and has been to all the locations in the Book of Marvels. I got caught in the same net, and I'm still traveling far and wide, thanks to this one book. The power of literature ... Oh, I still have that first edition, now dog-eared and timeworn from the eager fingers of little boys. And I'm starting to read it to my little niece and nephew - and they've already been to Rome, Helsinki, London, the Scottish Highlands, Austria, Sweden and Dublin. At four and six years of age, they're *way* ahead of my father and I!

I'm now 58 years old, but still remember first reading this book when I was 10. I can't remember how many times I would pick up this book and be transported as a child to so many different cultures. If I could find it, I would read it over and over and then give it to my grandchild when I felt he was old enough to even look at the pictures. I credit Mr. Halliburton with not only showing me the world, but starting me on my life long love of books. I too wish this book could be brought back into print. It belongs in every school and every home, for young and old alike.

I found a 1941 copy of this book at a military DRMO sale for a quarter in Berlin, Germany in 1990 just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I found a kindred spirit in Richard Halliburton. I joined the military with Europe guarranteed in my contract because of my thirst to see the world. I was very fortunate to be stationed in Berlin during the fall of the Wall, and was sent to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during the Gulf war. Later, my husband, son and myself were stationed in Spain and I was able to visit Morocco, Africa and Gibraltor and Portugal. On these adventures I always felt as if I were a co-conspirator with Mr. Halliburton. I soaked up every minute and second during my adventures knowing that eventually I would have to leave these places and wanted them to last forever in my mind. When I found this book, I first thought before I read it, "This looks interesting." Now it is a treasure to me. Now that my son is older I will start reading it to him. I would like to buy other books by him and am dismayed that they too are out of print. I hope something can be done about that.

There's not a lot to add to the previous reviews. I too discovered the book as a young adolescent (because I am from Halliburton's home town of Memphis, Tennessee) and read it as a bedtime book to my son. It's much more than a travel book because Halliburton not only gives his wonderful descriptions and pictures of marvelous places all over the world but also his infectious sense of romance and wonder. My most memorable chapters, swimming in the forbidden pool at the Taj Mahal and diving into the sacrificial pit at Chichen Itza, are prime examples of the daring and adventuresome approach to life that should make this book required reading in today's schools. The fact that it is not, and is even out of print today, seems to me a sad reflection of our society's choice of conformity and routine over risk taking and intellectual curiosity.