SHOPPING FOR BUDDHAS by Jeff Greenwald (Harper & Row: $8.95)

This uneven travelogue chronicles the author’s journey through Nepal in search of the perfect statue of Buddha, one that “speaks” to him. Jeff Greenwald does his best writing when he simply records his often bewildered impressions of the country, including an embarrassing pilgrimage to a holy abbess, a visit to the first shopping mall in Katmandu and his attempts to use Eastern meditation techniques for self-improvement, if not enlightenment. When Greenwald tries to be clever, he tries too hard, and the result becomes as effortful to read as it apparently was to write.