{"product_id":"mad-travelers-a-tale-of-wanderlust-greed-and-the-quest-to-reach-the-ends-of-the-earth-paperback","title":"Mad Travelers: A Tale of Wanderlust, Greed and the Quest to Reach the Ends of the Earth - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eDave Seminara\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA brilliant, young con artist offered to help the world's most traveled people reach the planet's last untouched frontiers; instead, they were taken for a wild ride that turned into a costly lesson on the perils of wanderlust.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt twenty-three, William Simon Baekeland was well on his way to becoming the world's best traveled person. The \"billionaire\" heir to a great plastics fortune had already visited 163 countries, but his real passion was finding ways to visit the world's most challenging destinations--war torn cities, disputed territories, and remote or officially off-limits islands at the margins of the map. He earned rock-star status in the world of extreme travel by finding ingenious ways to bring the world's most widely traveled people to difficult-to-reach and forbidden places. But when his story began to unravel, an eccentric group of hyper-well-traveled country collectors were left wondering how they had allowed their obsession to blind them to the warning signs that William Baekeland wasn't who they thought he was. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eMad Travelers: A Tale of Wanderlust, Greed and the Quest to Reach the Ends of the Earth \u003c\/i\u003edelves deep inside the subculture of country collecting, taking readers to danger zones like Mogadishu and geographical oddities like Norway's nearly impossible-to-reach Bouvet Island. Along the way, this raucous tale of adventure and international intrigue illuminates the perils and pleasures of wanderlust while examining a fundamental question: why are some people compelled to travel, while others are content to stay home? \u003ci\u003eMad Travelers\u003c\/i\u003e is a perceptive and at times hilarious account of how the pursuit of everywhere put the world's greatest travelers at the mercy of a brilliant young con man. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Featured in an HBO docuseries.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eDave Seminara is a writer, former diplomat, and pathological traveler who lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. His writing has appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, which first published a brief account of this journey, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal, BBC, The Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, and dozens of other publications. He is the author of\u003ci\u003e Footsteps of Federer: A Fan's Pilgrimage Across 7 Swiss Cantons in 10 Acts\u003c\/i\u003e and two other books: \u003ci\u003eBed, Breakfast \u0026amp; Drunken Threats: Dispatches from the Margins of Europe\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBreakfast with Polygamists: Dispatches from the Margins of The Americas. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 256\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 8.2 x 5.4 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 01, 2021\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51768022827296,"sku":"9781642938586","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/be26608b6b25a0d410749aa8ee472183.webp?v=1780322872","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/mad-travelers-a-tale-of-wanderlust-greed-and-the-quest-to-reach-the-ends-of-the-earth-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}