Can anyone recommend a really good travel book for first timers, some essential reading perhaps? - x[posted anonymously]x
Can anyone recommend a really good travel book for first timers? I don't mean, a 'rough guide' or a 'lonely planet' about whatever region I plan on travelling to but personal favourites, maybe even a diary or story type book, essential reading being the main of my question.
Reply to this I'm really bad at reading travel literature. Before I went on my first long trip I read "Travelling Ireland with a Fridge" by Tony Hawks (the comedian not the skateboarder), and have since added a little Bill Bryson. I've yet to read anything that actually matched up with my own experiences back packing.
What type of travel are you going to be doing?
Anyone read the ultimate backpacking themed novel?
Reply to this Hi,
If you enjoy the narrative style of travel literature, Bill Bryson's book is worth a read. 😊
Reply to this Not exactly backpacking but travelling for sure - Paul Theroux (Louis's dad) wrote a few good books on travelling the world by train. The one I read "The Old Patagonian Express" takes him from USA to the southern tip of Patagonia by train.
A good read and he has an interesting (if perpetually grumpy) outlook on things.
Pete
Reply to this Yes, any of Theroux's travel books (he also does fiction) are worth a read. For more train travel, this time through Asia (including two fascinating chapters in Vietnam, '74) get 'The Great Railway Bazaar', it surpasses 'The Old Patagonian Express' IMO. I'm currently in the middle of his latest book, 'Dark Star Safari', in which he goes overland Cairo to Cape Town. It's excellent.
Bryson is good, but a little boring IMO - he pumps you with a lot of facts. My favourites are 'Neither Here Nor There' and 'A Walk In The Woods' - the latter is about the Appalachian Trail which runs down the east side of America, from Maine to Georgia , it very good.
Happy Reading!
Reply to this Thanks for your suggestions, I posted this piece before I registered. Found a great book in the travel vein, Che Guevera's "Motorcycle Diaries", which was recently made into a critically acclaimed movie. Its a great book of self-exploration and written with great passion and detail for the landscapes he travels across.
Reply to this It's a bit old-fashioned but "The Innocents Abroad" by Mark Twain is enlightening, amusing and definitely an inspiration to travel. Not that many people here seem to need it...
Reply to this I highly recommend "Touch the Dragon, A Thai Journal." It's by Karen Connelly, and it is based on her journals as an exchange student (from Canada) in Thailand. It was originally published in 1992 but I'm sure it is still available.
To quote the author from the preface, "it is an attempt, a record of living in a place that awakened every possibility of growth in me."
I really identify with this book, in part because I was an exchange student too, but also because one of my favourite things about travelling is what I discover about myself when I am removed from 'my world.'
Reply to this > one of my favourite things about travelling is what I discover about myself when I am removed from 'my world.'
I guess it's true that the only thing you can never escape from is yourself. Removed from your normal environment you get to find out what is from you and what is from peers/society/family/advertising...
Reply to this And sometimes, just when you start feeling settled into your own world and happy with where your life is at, you go away for a few days, and it's just enough time away to you realize that you want more/something different...
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