Travel Books You Must Read

---

<button class="_ay_h ms-font-weight-semilight ms-font-s ms-font-color-neutralSecondary o365button" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color:򢰪 cursor: default; display: inline; font-family: " wf_segoe-ui_semilight","segoe ui semilight","segoe wp semilight","segoe ui","segoe wp",tahoma,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 400; overflow: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px;" type="button" disabled="disabled">3 attachments (98 KB) <button class="_ay_h ms-font-s o365button ms-font-color-neutralSecondary" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color:򢰪 cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: " wf_segoe-ui_normal","segoe ui","segoe wp",tahoma,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 400; overflow: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px;" type="button">Download all<button class="_ay_l _ay_h ms-font-s _ay_o o365button" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color:򢰪 cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: " wf_segoe-ui_normal","segoe ui","segoe wp",tahoma,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 400; overflow: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px;" type="button">Save all to OneDrive - Personal

I am not going to tell you that I have read all of these books. But I am familiar with the authors, and many of their famous quotations from these famous books. I have read these, as well as others by the authors below: Kerouac, Allende, Bryson, Iyer, Krakauer, Theroux, Chatwin, Frazier, Steinbeck, Lawrence, Hemingway, and Highsmith. I knew Mr. Ripley personally, as well as his twin brother. 1. On the Road, Jack Kerouac*

2. The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles

3. The Beach, Alex Garland

4. Daughter of Fortune, Isabel Allende

5. White Teeth, Zadie Smith

6. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster

7. The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith

8. Open City, Teju Cole

9. The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova

10. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

11. The Plumed Serpent, D.H. Lawrence

12. Brooklyn, Colm Toibin

13. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

Non fiction

14. In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson*

15. Video Night in Kathmandu, Pico Iyer

16. Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer*

17. Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck*

18. Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey

19. Wrong About Japan, Peter Carey

20. Confederates in the Attic, Tony Horwitz

21. Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass, Isak Dinesen

22. The Snow Leopard, Peter Mathesson

23. The Great Railway Bazaar, Paul Theroux*

24. In Patagonia, Bruce Chatwin*

25. Great Plains, Ian Frazier * = I have read these.

If you could only read one, just one before you travel, Chatwin is the best. Rather read about a specific destination, and where to go, and what to do, read anything by Chatwin. His approach will actually make you a better and more aware traveler. "In Patagonia" is a fine piece, as are his others, but it will prepare you for the change of culture and attitude that enables us to enjoy travel. You will find that it is not about seeing places and things, or checking them off of a list. His almost blatant disregard for 'how to" or "why" is always missing more often than not. But you will become a richer traveler. You will begin to see things you never saw before. And most of you, you will see that what we are doing really does not matter in the grand scheme of things.

Here are a few more, perhaps better for a road trip: 1. Lucky Us by Amy Bloom (an earlier version of Thelma and Louise?) 2. Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon (a Sixties trip to famous Telegraph Avenue) SKIP IT!!! (vulgar)* 3. The Round House by Louise Erdich (a novel whose setting is a North Dakota reservation) 4. The Peripheral by Marvin Gibson (a cyberpunk travels the world on a private jet) 5. Three Kinds of Motion by Riley Hanick (weaves Kerouac, Pollack, and making of the American Highway)* 6. Madam by Cari Lynn and Kellie Martin (a novel based on notorious New Orleans madam Josie Arlington) 7. The Do-Nothing by Brannon Perkison (novel of a father killer on the lam in rural east Texas) 8. The Autumn Balloon by Kenny Porpora (memoir of a family filled with addiction and a son's rise above despair)

9. Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash (simple North Carolina characters who journeys reveal heart warming depth)
10. Carsick by John Waters (best title, hitchhikes across America, perfect audiobook) Watch out Amazon, I am going to buy a few right now!!!!

---