Progress report

It's been more than half a year since I published a Progress Report about my book. The reason is that, well, there hasn't been much progress since then.

Yeah, I did write many entries and found several new places, but one day I hit a wall. Partly it was because of being too busy or tired, but mostly it was because it came to a point that I didn't know how to continue anymore. Writing one review after another of hospody, etc. from all the corners of Prague had become tedious and, what was still worse, I was afraid that it would also be tedious to read. And I didn't want that.

I had to find an alternative, perhaps I could include some more articles about local beer culture. But that was not enough. I really didn't know what to do. But one night, after going to bed and unsuccessfully trying to fall asleep, I had a revelation. The book would change, and rather radically.

And that is how what was going to be a list of places ordered geographically, became a "Pub Crawl" guide. Now the pubs are going to be grouped by articles that will include at least four or five of them, together with directions, comments about the city and some anecdotes. There will also be lists, but more conceptual, "early boozers", "cafés with good beer", etc.

I sent the first draft of the first crawl to a couple of friends who happen to be top beer writers. The feedback I got from them was very positive and constructive. They gave suggestions, pointed to what could be improved, but the best was that they liked the idea and the style. You can't imagine how thrilled I was by that.

The only inconvenient, though, is that this new format means that I will have to start again almost from scratch. I know my original plan was to have the book ready to publish by the end of this year. This will not happen, obviously. But I'm not discouraged, I believe I will have a better, more original book that will also be more fun to read, and that, to me, is far more important.

To those generous souls who have sent donations, in the following days I will e-mail a polished version of that first crawl. I also want to know your opinions and get your feedback. (If any of you out there want to help finance this project and have a copy of the book once it's ready, just click on the "Donate" button right below my pic).

In the meantime, I'm still wandering around the streets of Prague, always looking for new places that could be included in the book. One day, while walking in Vršovice, I noticed a Bernard sign in a side street. Since I feel I still don't have enough places that offer those fine beers from Humpolec, I went to see what it was about. Finské Centrum, or something like that, it was called, and it was a sauna club. Interesting idea, I thought. It could be nice to have a good, crisp Bernard Světlý Ležák after having stewed in a sauna. The place was closed, so I went to the notice board next to the door to see what the opening times were. What I found was this photo:

Finské Centrum, or whatever its name is, won't be included in the book. No way. If I wanted to, it would mean I would have to visit it, and I don't think I want to do that. I get goosebumps just from thinking about it.

Na Zdraví!

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