**A collection of impishly witty and ingeniously irreverent ( *The Atlantic *) how-to essays that highlight the absurdities of modern life, from the author of* The Name of the Rose*** *How to Travel With a Salmon* is a highly engaging collection of what Umberto Eco calls his *diario minimo* –minimal diaries–after the magazine column in which he began pursuing the pathways of parody. These essays are his playful but unfailingly accurate takes on militarism, computer jargon, Westerns, art criticism, librarians, bureaucrats, meals on airplanes, Amtrak trains, bad coffee, maniacal taxi drivers, express mail, multi-function watches, fax machines and cell phones, pornography, soccer fans, academia, and–last but definitely not least–the author’s own self. **Very funny. — *The New York Review of Books***