Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China

I'm sure Riding the Iron Rooster was a better book when it was written in 1988 than it is today. The Iron Rooster is a Chinese Train, one of dozens that Paul Theroux travels in as he criss-crosses China for months on end seeking to better understand the country in the late '80s. His adventures are amusing, but rarely more, and his descriptions of China are now so dated that it's hard to see beyond that. I actually found his stories from the Soviet bloc, then in its final throes, though few knew that at the time, to be more interesting than many of his dispatches from China.

I much preferred Paddling the Pacific and Hotel Honolulu (read in the pre-blog days) to Riding the Iron Rooster and, honestly, likely wouldn't have finished it at all if I'd had anything else to read on my way to Japan. Final verdict: only the most serious Chinese history and/or rail travel lovers need apply.