How to Travel With A Salmon" is ideal for those who want to get a glimpse of Eco's erudition and unfailing wit without having to tackle the sheer -and sometimes overwhelming - intellectual density of his novelistic work. The manner in which these essays portray everyday situations and absurdities, ruthlessly undermine academia, and mercilessly demolish the merits of modernity, is subversive humour at its very best. When I read it in the park I was laughing so hard, I had about 20 pairs of eyes on me, and what's best: I didn't even care.