Souvenir, a sweet new book by Rolf Potts, is a little gem (easily tucked into a jacket pocket) filled with big insights … Souvenir explores our passions for such possessions and why we are compelled to transport items from one spot to another … Souvenir's introduction, titled "An Embarrassment of Eiffel Towers," is a delight to ponder.

Forbes

Potts guides readers through a philosophical, anthropological, and historical study of the objects we collect. Why do we buy souvenirs? What historical roots ground this ritual? Is one way of collecting souvenirs better than others? Potts shares stories behind his personal souvenirs, showing that uniquely personal emotions imbue our collected objects with meaning. Collecting souvenirs has been a way to mythologize his life, to externalize memories in a narrative form and maintain recollection of distant worlds.

The Rumpus

Few of us would call ourselves collectors, but most travelers have, at some point or other, bought a keychain, pocketed a seashell, or saved a ticket stub from a vacation. Turns out, as Mr. Potts notes in a new little book called Souvenir, there's more to this seemingly simple (perhaps frivolous to some) practice than meets the eye … Souvenir offers ideas about what may be in play when we seek mementos … In the end, Souvenir suggests that the meaning of a keepsake is not fixed (its importance to the owner can change over time) and that its significance is bound up in the traveler's identity.

The New York Times

This book takes a deep, thorough interest in the kitschy keychains you casually picked up at the airport, or the seashell you tucked in your pocket during a walk on the beach, or the carefully chosen scarf you found for your mother-in-law while shopping in Paris … It is a fascinating journey that covers a lot of ground, and the author muses upon it with an engaging and charming curiosity. Readers of this little treatise will never look at souvenirs the same way again. Five stars.

San Francisco Book Review

Rolf Potts writes with the soul of an explorer and a scholar's love of research. Much like the objects that we bestow with meaning, this book carries a rich, lingering resonance. A gem.

Andrew McCarthy, actor, director and author of The Longest Way Home (2013)

In this slender but engrossing study of the phenomenology of souvenirs, Rolf Potts pinpoints the strange duality of travel, for where you 'go' is rarely identical to where you go. After reading it, I'll never be able to look at a Statue of Liberty key chain, Grand Canyon postcard, or Eiffel Tower ashtray in quite the same way again. If you love to travel, this book is essential.

Tom Bissell, journalist and author of Apostle: Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve (2016)