Worktowander

So I'm still waiting for my new passport to arrive and sweating out a possible airline strike that could kill this spring's vacation.

While I haven't given up hope yet, I'm planning to make the best of the worst, if necessary, by reading about going places if I can't actually go.

So what are the best travel/adventure books (NOT GUIDEBOOKS!) that give you a travel fix when you're stuck at home?

Here's my trading material:

"Dove" by Robin Lee Graham. In 1965, the author set sail (at age 16!) to go around the world in a 24-foot sailboat. Absolutely fascinating book.

"The Intricate Art of Living Afloat," by Clare Allcard. The author, her husband and their baby daughter live aboard a wooden former Baltic trading boat and sail the world. It's more about how to preserve eggs for weeks at sea, make money while in port, and how to deal with heart attacks, fires and toddlers aboard ship than it is about travel, but it makes me want to buy a boat every time I read it.

"Notes from a Small Island," Bill Bryson. Commentary on modern English life from a Midwestern point of view.

"Into the Wild," Jon Krakauer. Not a happy book. It follows a well-educated young wanderer from a wealthy family to his mysterious end in the Alaskan wilderness.

What's on your shelf?

dsquared

Ditto "Into the Wild." Well written, thought-provoking.

I like to read fiction that is set in the area I'm thinking of traveling to.

Pausanias

Huckleberry Finn, On the Road, and large parts of The Lord of the Rings often come to mind when I starting to feel shut in. If I then re-read them, I'm in real trouble.

Tim Moore's travel books, Frost on My Moustache (far north), French Revolutions (cycling the tour de France route), and Travels with My Donkey (Santiago de Compostela) are very funny.

Norman Lewis' The Tomb in Seville, about his travels through the country on the eve of the Civil War was gripping (avoiding arrest), appalling (how about a witch burning in 20th century Portugal?) and sometimes funny (classic British dry humor).

Thomas Asbridge's brilliant history, The First Crusade, made me long for a time when a fella could finance an extended trip abroad with just a sword and shield. (Made me want to visit Crac des Chevaliers aussi.)

Histories and biographies often make me want to see the places where it happened. Too many to mention . . .

ekscrunchy

Anything travel by Paul Theroux or James Fenton or Redmond O'Hanlon. Or Colin Thurbon. "East Along the Equator: A Journey Up the Congo and into Zaire" by Helen Winternitz. "So Far From G-d," by Patrick Marnham (about Central America). Now reading "Japanland" by Karin Muller, who also wrote, "Hitchhiking Vietnam."

Powell

"Seven Ages of Paris" by Alistair Horne. It is witty, informative and easy reading. I highly recommend.

offwego

"Take me With You" by Brad Newsham

Anything by HV Morton

Worktowander

How about "McCarthy's Bar" and "'Round Ireland With a Fridge"? Both sort of silly, but I'd love to do what they did.

Also: "Canoeing with the Cree" by Eric Sevareid and "Distant Fires."