Let's face it, there are times when you just can't travel -- or don't want to. Vicarious web travel can be a great supplement to boots-on-the-ground journeys, and we should know, right? However, our wise elders keep talking about these things called "books", so we decided to check out these paper dinosaurs a bit, and guess what, they aren't all a waste of time. Some of them are quite good.
Viva Las Vegas! As Elvis put it, how we wish there were more than 24 hours in a day once we touch down in Sin City. If only we could get someone to send us there and pay us money to stay up, gamble and see the sights....
Oh, wait, Andres Martinez already got there first. In 1998, the reporter and lawyer got $50,000 from a publisher and blew it all over a month and ten different hotels in Las Vegas -- and, having seemingly no shame, wrote about it in 24/7: Living It Up and Doubling Down in the New Las Vegas.
Part of traveling, no matter how long the distance (Martinez was a New Yorker at the time), is leaving your old self behind. The author of 24/7 clearly wasn't a high roller when he started, but it only took a few nights until he was bellying up to the high-stakes baccarat tables and accepting comped nights from "favorite customer" programs in order to spend, spend, spend.
And even though the book ends with the opening of the Bellagio, no longer the biggest or most ornate hotel in Las Vegas, the author is eerily prophetic on the subject of the city's unstoppable expansion (and the problems that accompany it). He did it so you won't have to, but we wish Martinez would do the same thing now -- drinks at the Stardust demolition site are on us.
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[Photo: Random House]
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