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ISBN-10: 1436355567
ISBN-13: 9781436355568
Edition: 2008
List price: $19.99
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Description:
When my friends heard I was writing a book, they naturally wanted to know what it was about.This HOW-TO book is USEFUL and FUN!I told them that the main theme of the book is that stamp booklets can start a person on an adventurous trip. The booklets contain information that give you ideas about cultures and societies that you may not have thought about. Stamp booklets can take you on journeys around the world and back in time.One friend asked me if there weren't many other ways to do the same thing. I answered that of course there were. There are travel magazines, travel sections of newspapers, TV travel programs, and travel books. However, there is a difference. All the current travel… media are directed to you as a tourist. The messages that come across are, "See how interesting or relaxing or friendly our land and society are. Why don't you come and visit us?"Note: The online magazine Empty Nest, has an article about the book and me. Click on the Empty Nest link to read the article. It´s not bad reading.Certainly there are tourist messages in stamp booklets. In modern booklets, there are pictures of beautiful beaches, golf courses, soaring mountains, and gorgeous sunsets all designed to lure you to visit.The older booklets are different. Their messages were directed to their own people. The messages were designed to motivate the people to action buy our product, use our airline, contribute to our charity, help your government. Those messages are for the society that existed when the stamp booklet was sold. They are not directed at you.The booklets hold secrets of the society and culture in a foreign land that existed years ago. The fun and excitement of using these booklets to start a journey is uncovering the secrets hidden in the booklet.My friend interrupted and wanted to know if he couldn't get more information by looking at magazines and newspapers from that era and country. Of course. Those media are many times the size of a stamp booklet and contain much more information. The charm of a stamp booklet is its size. Think of the challenge a copywriter had. In a space of 2 x 3 inches, the writer had to use few words and tiny hand-drawn black-and-white pictures to set up a situation, present the problem, and motivate individuals to do what benefited the company or government.We see the message, and it is up to us to try to immerse ourselves in the environment, to feel the emotions of the people, to uncover and understand the forces driving the culture in the context of what was happening politically and socially, and to attempt to find out if the messages achieved their intended purpose.Therein is the big difference between the current travel media and the messages in stamp booklets. The current travel media provides tempting information. It tells us what's attractive and entices us with pretty pictures and seductive words. Very little effort is needed to understand what is being presented. Booklets provide a mystery. You are a "cold-case" detective trying to learn what was happening in that society, what was important, and where those uncovered events led. You are an explorer. You are investigating new things, events that interest you, and which roads to travel. You have to work to sample the atmosphere, to envision the political climate, and to absorb the culture. It is a vicarious adventure. You embark on a discovery trip, going where you want, whenever you want.This book tells you how to do that. It provides a methodology for finding answers. There are numerous examples of how the information in a stamp booklet whisks you into new worlds. Did you know that the same man who sponsored auto races at the turn of the century also paid for Henry Stanley's sea