MmePerdu

Maybe 'The Broken Road' by Fermor, the new & presumably last one, might make a good non-fiction book club choice after it's out in PB next spring.

Fra_Diavolo

"it is posted there simply for lack of a better sub-forum to post it on."

There is, The Lounge, but you joined Fodor's too late to access it. That is probably a good thing.

Favorite travel book for me is probably Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia. Lawrence Osborne is an interesting current writer.

flpab

Kevin O'Hara's book, "Last of the Donkey Pilgrims" It was released in 2010 but tells of his travels in Ireland during the 70's.

Bonjour 40: A Paris Travel Log (40 years. 40 days. 40 seconds.) Karen Chase.

I read several travel log books before Tuscany this year. I like these better than a actual travel book.
James Shaw, An Italian Journey, A Harvest of Revelations in the Olive Groves of Tuscany.

Paris, My Sweet by Amy Thomas is a must read for foodies before coming to Paris.

MmePerdu

I didn't know about Lawrence Osborne. My library has 'The Naked Tourist' which I've requested, sounds right up my alley. Thanks, Fra_Diavolo.

flpab

I have just added five books to my Kindle wish list. Great post improvisor

scotlib

I loved <i>Round Ireland with a Fridge</i> by Tony Hawks. The humor worked with my funny bone and he does a nice job describing the people he met and places visited.

I enjoyed a brief visit to York last year and certainly would love a longer visit in the area to get to "Herriot Country" (loved his books - briefly thought I'd like to be a vet - short thought).

The <i>Sand-Reckoner</i> by Gillian Bradshaw about a young Archimedes could make me seriously consider a trip to Sicily someday, to visit Siracusa/Syracuse. It started slow, but I loved that book once past the first chapter and I got to "know" the Archimedes character and his family.

A great list of reading ideas!

Bellarosa70032

Improviser, The Drifters sounds intriguing. I'll have to get it.

Underhill

Any book by H. V. Morton, especially his "In Search of England."

aliced

Jack Kerouac's On the Road;
Wash. Irving's Tales of the Alhambra

centraleurope

I just finished a fantastic book... Bridge over the Drina by ivo andric....

It is not quite in the category of some of these, but it did push Bosnia up on my list of trips in the spring.

grandmere

Running in Place: Scenes from the South of France by Nicholas Delbanco

Ackislander

How nice to find so many Paddy Leigh-Fermor fans! A most amazing man!

I love any book by Eric Newby, from his days as a boy on the last grain race in sailing ships to his mishaps as a "commando" with the SBS, his heroism as a POW, his life as a mountain climbing wholesale women's clothing salesman, but most of all his love of Wanda.

burnie

I just finished a fabulous autobiographical book about a couple who moved to Venice with their kids,called 'The Politics of Washing'. It really opened my eyes to life on the island of dreams.

centraleurope

yes... loved A Slow Walk in the Hindu Kush. I'm not a huge Bill Bryson fan. His humor gets on my nerves.,

Eric Newby has a much lighter touch with humor which I prefer
.

bendigo

<and "London" by Edward Rutherford, which gives a great history of the city through the lens of one fictional family.>

Rutherford's Paris has come out recently - in my pile to be read!

Have recently read Rome by Robert Hughes and Jan Morris' Venice - both excellent and evocative.

My travel passion started far from Europe and far from "literature". Hawaii by James Michener made me long for the mysterious and "not like home", and Louis Becke made me desperately yearn for the Pacific that was already gone forever.

isabel

These are some of the books I just read on my trip this summer - many were on kindle and when you buy one book Amazon makes suggestions for others. Since they are so cheap (and don't weigh anything) I bought quite a few 'memoir' type books, some of which were pretty bad so I just didn't finish them.

Beautiful Ruins – Jess Walter

Making Limonetta (post Katrina couple looses everything so moves to Italy, lots of useful explanations of what it’s like to live in Italy from trains to laundry to grocery shopping) Leann Horrocks

Cruising Attitude [Heather Poole] – memoir of a flight attendant

Have Mother Will Travel – Claire & Mia Fontaine - mother and daughter travel

Swallows and Robbins – Susie Kelly - memoir of Brit running gite in France

A Castle in the Backyard (couple buys a house in Castlenuld in the Dordogne) Betsy Draine

Another Book about Italy, Ann Rickard
Three in a Bed in the Med, Ann Rickard
(an Australian newpaper humor writer about her experiences running foodie tours in France)

bdokeefe

Glad to see "Last of the Donkey Pilgrims" by Kevin O'Hara getting some love here. Great read. I wish I could go visit the Ireland of that era, but everything must change. I got the impression that even though it was written about 1970's Ireland, it could have been from 50 yrs before that and not much would have been different. In the 40 years since, they shot forward into the 21st century.

Anything by Bill Bryson is a good read.

sueciv

It was years ago, the "A Year In Provence" made me want to go there. I actually liked the people he met. I remember thinking, my kind of place. I've read so many books about buying and living in France, I can't remember them all.

laurie_ann

Ina Caro's The Road from the Past: Traveling through History in France. She takes you from the Roman ruins in Provence to the medieval castles in the SW to the Renaissance chateau in Loire and into Paris.

It has inspired me to look at the history of every place I go in chronological order rather than just what is most convenient for sightseeing.

She has a newer book too that I haven't read with day trips from Paris. Paris to the Past: Traveling through French History by Train

MmePerdu

More of my favorite non-European:

Rory Stewart's 'The Places in Between', his adventures walking across Afghanistan in 2002.

'The Great Hedge of India', by Roy Moxham.

Alexander Frater's 'Chasing the Monsoon'.

And 'Finding George Orwell in Burma', by Emma Larkin.