Name Your Favorite Can't-Put-It-Down Travel Book
Aug 17th, 2006, 12:19 PM
#23
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"Round Ireland with a Fridge"
Yes, it's about someone who, on a bet, decided to hitchhike around Ireland carrying a small refrigerator. So funny and a great insight to the country, the people, and the culture.
Yes, it's about someone who, on a bet, decided to hitchhike around Ireland carrying a small refrigerator. So funny and a great insight to the country, the people, and the culture.
Aug 17th, 2006, 01:16 PM
#25
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I have two, which I've read and reread many times:
Charles Kuralt's America
The Cannibel Queen by Stepehn Coonts
another one coming in a fairly close third is Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck.
Charles Kuralt's America
The Cannibel Queen by Stepehn Coonts
another one coming in a fairly close third is Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck.
Aug 17th, 2006, 02:37 PM
#27
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favorite books while I travel to and from work are books on CD,
and my fave at the moment for that are the Nicholas Sparks books,- they have good readers/narrators....
Another good one on CD (albeit loooong) is John Adams by David McCullough. I listened to that one on a 10 hour trip to FL once and it was great....tried to read it months before the trip and couldn't get past the 3rd chapter without going to sleep...
and my fave at the moment for that are the Nicholas Sparks books,- they have good readers/narrators....
Another good one on CD (albeit loooong) is John Adams by David McCullough. I listened to that one on a 10 hour trip to FL once and it was great....tried to read it months before the trip and couldn't get past the 3rd chapter without going to sleep...
Aug 17th, 2006, 03:03 PM
#29
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Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfire of the Vanities" and Anita Shreve's "The last Time They Met" were both "can't wait to see what happens" books.
"Bonfire" takes place in NYC and I love books about my old stomping ground.
Shreve's had a dynamite surprise ending...not given away unitl the second to last page.
Debi
"Bonfire" takes place in NYC and I love books about my old stomping ground.
Shreve's had a dynamite surprise ending...not given away unitl the second to last page.
Debi
Aug 17th, 2006, 04:30 PM
#30
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other good books I've actually read instead of listened to on CD or tape are: (in no particular order)
1. The Dogs of Babel (Carolyn Parkhurst)
2. Vernon God Little (DBC Pierre) - uses the F word a lot though but in a Holden Caufield kindof way
3. Ahab's Wife
4. Addiction (by GH Ephron)
5. Family Linen ( Lee Smith)
6. The Poisonwood Bible (Kingsolver)
7. Yada Yada Prayer Group (Jackson)
8. Saint Maybe (anything by Anne Tyler is good)
9. and then there's a whole series of books by a british author, Jasper Fforde, that are good..the first being The Eyre Affair
The Eyre Affair is the one I couldn't put down.
1. The Dogs of Babel (Carolyn Parkhurst)
2. Vernon God Little (DBC Pierre) - uses the F word a lot though but in a Holden Caufield kindof way
3. Ahab's Wife
4. Addiction (by GH Ephron)
5. Family Linen ( Lee Smith)
6. The Poisonwood Bible (Kingsolver)
7. Yada Yada Prayer Group (Jackson)
8. Saint Maybe (anything by Anne Tyler is good)
9. and then there's a whole series of books by a british author, Jasper Fforde, that are good..the first being The Eyre Affair
The Eyre Affair is the one I couldn't put down.
Aug 17th, 2006, 04:33 PM
#31
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I love Edward Abbey books, especially "Desert Solitaire". Also like Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" and currently reading The Dharma Bums". Recently read "Below Another Sky" by Rick Ridgeway. Great story about a guy who lost a friend ~19 years ago in the Himalayas and is now traveling and taking the friend's adult daughter to go see her father's grave way up in the mountain. It's a great book that narrates their travels to get to the burial site and shows the insight of how changed that part of the world is now vs just 19 years ago. Tibet, India, and China - so fantastic. Really good read. I also enjoyed "To The Edge: A Man, Death Valley, And the Mystery of Endurance" by Kirk Johnson. Read that right before my first trip to Death Valley ~4years ago and found that Tomato juice nad the desert is a really nice mix!
I just ordered Hitching Rides with Buddha (I hope it holds up too curiousgeo -but it sounds really good) and "Miles from Nowhere" (thanks Maggi).
Thanks for posting this MRand. I like good adventure travel books and have been wanting new ones to read but been hesitant to get them without recommendations!
I just ordered Hitching Rides with Buddha (I hope it holds up too curiousgeo -but it sounds really good) and "Miles from Nowhere" (thanks Maggi).
Thanks for posting this MRand. I like good adventure travel books and have been wanting new ones to read but been hesitant to get them without recommendations!
Aug 17th, 2006, 04:50 PM
#34
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BTW Maggi, since you recommended Miles To Nowhere, I think you will really like "To The Edge: A Man, Death Valley, and the Mystery of Edurance". Check it out at least and see if you like it. I even did a review and I never really do that with books. The way he describes those long nights during that ultramarathon run, delirious with exhaustion and finding willpower by listening to La Boheme and understanding opera for the first time. It's really a great story...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cus...nDate&n=283155
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cus...nDate&n=283155
Aug 17th, 2006, 05:15 PM
#35
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I just LOVE LOVE LOVE Patricia Cornwell! I think Kay Scarpetta series is unbelievable, especially the novel "Blow Fly." I think Pat should win a Nobel Prize for Literature!
The reason I love Kay Scarpetta so much is because she is a brilliant women working in an arena of incompetent men; it reminds me of my workplace.
Christine
The reason I love Kay Scarpetta so much is because she is a brilliant women working in an arena of incompetent men; it reminds me of my workplace.
Christine
Aug 17th, 2006, 05:45 PM
#36
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Also, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Micth Albom, is one you will won't to read straight through to see how it all comes together. It is short enough to read on a plane ride of a couple of hours, on a beach, etc.
Debi
Debi
Aug 17th, 2006, 05:50 PM
#37
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Well, i'm not about to put the kibbosh on any conversation about books, and sharing enthusiasm about books, and learning about new good reads.
BUT....I sure took the original title of this thread to mean: Books ABOUT travel...and that's what i clicked onto, expecting to find. Doesn't seem like the OP ever came to clarify, did s/he? Or maybe I missed it in my zeal to read what folks are reading about.
Sure enjoyed the early-on comments about New Yorker short story anthologies. Sent me right upstairs to the guest room to take a closer look at two of my volumes (75-cent local library sale purchases), which I just recently was thinking deserved a little more attention. I have the 1940 collection - which includes Shaw's "Girls in Their Summer Dresses," and also pieces by John O'Hara, E. B. White; Dorothy Parker, Joseph Mitchell, and what must be an early H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N story (though listed as author: Leonard Q. Ross - what part of early HK history am I unaware of??)
The other volume...reflects a major change. Although just about the same size, it's a compedium of New Yorker stores from 1950-1960.
Anyway...for books ABOUT travel, a recent favorite is: "Without Reservations" by (newspaper)Pulitzer P. winner Alice Steinbach, about a post-40 y.o. woman's single-O travel to Paris, Italy and London. Loved it!!
Will come back with a couple of favorite title on adventure travel when the brain kicks into gear and spits out titles/authors.
BUT....I sure took the original title of this thread to mean: Books ABOUT travel...and that's what i clicked onto, expecting to find. Doesn't seem like the OP ever came to clarify, did s/he? Or maybe I missed it in my zeal to read what folks are reading about.
Sure enjoyed the early-on comments about New Yorker short story anthologies. Sent me right upstairs to the guest room to take a closer look at two of my volumes (75-cent local library sale purchases), which I just recently was thinking deserved a little more attention. I have the 1940 collection - which includes Shaw's "Girls in Their Summer Dresses," and also pieces by John O'Hara, E. B. White; Dorothy Parker, Joseph Mitchell, and what must be an early H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N story (though listed as author: Leonard Q. Ross - what part of early HK history am I unaware of??)
The other volume...reflects a major change. Although just about the same size, it's a compedium of New Yorker stores from 1950-1960.
Anyway...for books ABOUT travel, a recent favorite is: "Without Reservations" by (newspaper)Pulitzer P. winner Alice Steinbach, about a post-40 y.o. woman's single-O travel to Paris, Italy and London. Loved it!!
Will come back with a couple of favorite title on adventure travel when the brain kicks into gear and spits out titles/authors.
Aug 17th, 2006, 06:11 PM
#39
"Cold Mountain" a great book about traveling home and the traveling we all do because of life's hardships and joys. I can't wait for Frazier's new one, coming out soon.
Just finished Krakauer's "Into the Wild" and just about to finish "Notes from a Small Island"
Just finished Krakauer's "Into the Wild" and just about to finish "Notes from a Small Island"
Aug 17th, 2006, 06:11 PM
#40
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Hey Wednesday, glad to see someone else likes Fleming, it was after starting to read him in high school that I wanted to see the world. Somewhere in my house, I have all the paperbacks, I need to drag them out and reread them.
