by Chris Springer, Contributing Editor

“The Clumsiest People in Europe, or: Mrs. Mortimer’s Bad-Tempered Guide to the Victorian World,” by Todd Pruzan and Favell Lee Mortimer (2005, Bloomsbury. ISBN 158234504X — 208 pp., $19.95 hardcover).

It’s a small world, after all — and here’s a shockingly small-minded view of it.

Nineteenth-century children’s author Favell Mortimer wrote a series of books on the people of the world, full of outré peremptory judgments — “It is...

When we return from an adventure, we count on photographs to tell the story and convey the excitement and the feeling of the place we’ve been. But often we end up with “George in front of the Eiffel Tower,” “George beside the Blue Danube,” “George riding on a camel,” “George staring into the camera”. . . . You can just hear your audience yawn.

Get yourself in the picture. Have George take some, and, if you are in a group, ask other members to push the shutter for you. Ask a stranger?...

I first visited Egypt 22 years ago. On my fourth trip to the country, in November 2004, I traveled with my 25-year-old daughter, Katie. I wanted to see her eyes light up at the sights that make Egypt one of this world’s greatest tourist destinations. I wanted her to say, 40 years from now, “Way back in ’04, I saw the pyramids for the first time with my MOM.”

Katie could only take one week off from her job. Friends and relatives questioned, “Only one week? What can you do in just one...