By: Juliet Pennington
Author, lecturer, and world traveler Lawrence Millman has written 23 books, at least half of which are about travel. The Cambridge resident is also a mycologist, a scientist who studies fungi. He even wrote a book in 2011 titled “Fascinating Fungi of New England” and shared that he is planning to go to Bermuda in the fall on a fungi mission. “I have a grant [from the government in Bermuda] to continue studying mushrooms there,” he said. And while he is proud of his mycologist title, Millman is also a bona fide Luddite. “I am anti-television, anti-automotive vehicle … I don't own a car and don't own a television,” he said proudly in a recent phone interview. “I consider myself a neo-Luddite, and I am perfectly happy. I prefer nature to technology and own a computer only because I have to.” This is the topic of his latest book, “A Luddite Lexicon,” which he described as a dictionary of terms “that speak out against the technological matrix currently enveloping our planet ... and my preference for nature.” It will be released on July 16, and Millman will do a reading and a signing that evening at the Belmont Public Library. Additional book events will be held this fall, he said. We caught up with the Kansas City, Mo., native, who lives in Cambridge “with a terrarium of giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches,” to talk about all things travel.
