For eminently readable travel books about the UK I thoroughly recommend Stuart Maconie's books "Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North" and "Adventures on the High Teas: Middle England" (everyone loves a pun).

He is a very eloquent and funny writer and they're a good mix of travel and social history.
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Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.

I'm not a part of any organized religion, but this is one of my favorite books. It's about the missing period of Jesus' life in the bible. Moore's known for his imagination and humor and it all comes together with a human Jesus and his incorrigible best-friend, Biff. Hilarious and heart-warming.

• The God of Small Things about how small things are so important, and often overlooked within the shadow of big things.
• House of Leaves "I had one woman come up to me in a bookstore and say, 'You know, everyone told me it was a horror book, but when I finished it, I realized that it was a love story.' And she's absolutely right. In some ways, genre is a marketing tool." (from Wikipedia quoting Danielewski)
• The Eiger Sanction by Trevanian (who also has a lot of traveling in his novels + caving/rock-climbing)
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - I love the idea of a universal language across countries, religions, and ideas

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1 posts moved to this new topic: Autobiographies Reply to this

State of the Union by Douglas Kennedy

It is about a woman who inadvertently got caught up in radical politics in the US 1960s, and how it came back to haunt her and cause havoc in her life in the 2000s.

It is written by a man,about a female character ,with suprisingly good insight about women and motherhood.

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Travel writing!? Why would anyone be interested in someone’s holiday or their exaggerated scrapes in foolhardy places I asked myself? That was until I actually began on my own journey and found that novels didn’t really do it for me but that travel books did; I found them to be not only learned and informative but in the hard times comforting and inspiring.

Here's my selection of travel books that I've enjoyed on the road and since laying down the backpack (I don't do wheeled luggage!)

"The world's most perceptive travel writer"

"A book has a capacity to express a country’s heart – as long as it stays away from vacations, holidays, sightseeing and the half-truths in official handouts; as long as it concentrates on people in their landscape, and its dissonance as well as the melodies, the contradictions, and the vivid trivia – the fungi on the wet boots.”

Travel Writing: Why I Bother By Paul Theroux

Paul Theroux - father of BBC television journalist Louis and novelist Marcel, well I'm on a bit of a binge with him at the minute. He gets accused of mendacity, chauvinism as well as a perceived grumpiness but I think he's a great observer of people, things and cultures. Oh, and he's very good at aphorisms, which often makes me pause and smile (I even quote him on my travel blog profile).

I can heartily recommend his Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town, The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia and I'm reading his re-run of the same journey thirty years later, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the tracks of The Great Railway Bazaar

I have yet to read another of his most notable travel books, The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas but someone is retracing Mr Theroux's footsteps....

Another notable travel book I read was Eric Newby’s A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958) which was very detailed, a bit posh and made silly disastrous mistakes look like a laugh. Marvellous.

Recently I was a quarter of my way through reading The Road to McCarthy by the late Pete McCarthy; I found it was terribly anecdotal as opposed to journey-led and took on the worse traits of Bill Bryson namely 'conversational banality'. Something I tried my damndest not replicate in my own travel blog...but hey, I'm not getting paid to be entertaining! McCarthy's first book that I'd read, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland was pretty good though.
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Book Recommendations- in no particular order


Vagabonding by Rolf Potts - is about independently traveling the world, about taking time out of your "normal" life from weeks to years to explore, discover and experience the world on your own terms. He is a traveler on a shoestring budget.



A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson- a humorous view of a middle aged guy attempting to fulfill his dream of hiking the Appalachian Trail. A few laughs.


An Embarrassment of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof -- a Canadian couple ditch their jobs and sail the Caribbean for two years.


The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd-- a fun read, action packed, good guy vs. bad guy CIA hard ass type entertaining


Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese A novel about a medical family and the turmoils of Ethiopia. Lots of twists and turns


The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundareson A fascinating story of life in India in 1577 and the story of a family


The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan The study and a bit of history weaved in an interesting prose -- the apple, the tulip, marijuana and potatoes.




A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Becomes History's greatest traveler by Jason Roberts
An amazing story of a blind man's travels


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Life - Keith Richards.......he should be given a knighthood for simply being alive still. Great read. Reply to this

I am now reading 'A thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Hosseini

It is about a 15 year old girl who was married off to a middle aged man in Kabul. While she was living in Kabul with her husband, the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. Reply to this

littlewing: I'm listening to the audio of "Life" by Keith Richards (read by Johnny Depp) and agree that he should be awarded for still being alive.


Just finished:

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach - her subjects are so fascinating, and her questions often quirky and disturbing.

The Wind-up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi - Based in a dystopian Bangkok involving the environmental, economic, and cultural future of SE Asia and the world. A bit gruesome in parts, but I really enjoyed the credibility. Appreciate it all the more after experiencing Thailand and other parts of Asia.

Now:
Hyperion by Dan Simmons - Read it over a decade ago--great read! A knowledgeable sci-fi junkie said the rest of the series won't disappoint, so hopefully I will agree! Reply to this

Have any of you read Water for Elephants?

No, I didnt read that yet. 😊 Reply to this