The Fountain Head Ayn Rand
Maya Richard Adams

Thanks Maria, I will check it out. I passed it on also to a good friend of mine, a marathon runner.

Birdie, I'll never forget Cold Mountain, I read it in it's entirety on a long journey to Europe. I remember reading and re-reading sentences for the sheer enjoyment of the words. I wrote my own journal of my trip in the pages in front and back of the book as a permanent souvenir. I didn't know he was coming out with another one. I just looked it up. Sounds like he has another winner on his hands:
http://tinyurl.com/knz42

Birdie - I loved "Into the Wild" also. I also read "Five People You Meet in Heaven" - that was good.

Oh and I took the question to mean "travel" books too and not books you like to read when travelling otherwise my list would've been much much longer! Although I have to admit "To the Edge.." is borderline travel adventure. For me it is because I was travelling to Death Valley then and i treally helped me see Death Valley in a different way.

Keep the book titles coming. I'm checking them as you guys post! MRand, really excellent thread you started! Thanks!

"Travels with Charley" Steinbeck...or for that matter anything by Steinbeck, but I am partial to Standard Poodles.

I adore anything by Bill Bryson. Also loved "Honeymoon with my Brother" and "Don't touch my Monkey".

I generally loan out my books after I read them, so I don't have the authors' names handy. Sorry!

There's another one I finished recently, but I can't recall it right now. I'll post later if I can!

Oh, and another vote for "Without Reservations"
H

My intent was to seek great can't-put-it-down books about travel, but the replies are interesting regardless.

In the serious travel category, the travlogues/histories "Balkan Ghosts" and "Eastward to Tartary" by Robert D. Kaplan were very absorbing.

Probably because I'm such a class A ninny, I sometimes get a great charge out of adventure travel. Two all-time favorites are Helen Thayer's "Polar Dream" about her solo excursion to the North Pole (with her dog) that included many polar bear encounters ->>>shiverrr<<<<, and Alvah Simon's "North to the Night," a riveting account of his Arctic sailboat excursion that left him trapped in the ice, alone, through the long winter.

Two more I've remembered: Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thessiger (who was my absolute hero and I'm so sorry he has died) and Two Middle-Aged Ladies in Andalucia. I lent the book to someone and never got it back so can't remember the author. It's actually about an English woman and her horse (the other middle-aged lady!) and their journey around Andalucia in the 1960s. My, how it's changed!

topping for Dolores

I have started reading something that is set where we are going on the plane (since I don't sleep). Had trouble with Australia, but I ended up reading a classic that I had never read but meant to - On the Beach. Yes it was depressing, but very well written and kept my focus for the entire trip. For New Zealand I read The Bone People by Keri Hulme. Very wierd, but a great book!

I second In a Sunburned Country and Honeymoon with my Brother. I also enjoyed Trip to the Beach by Melinda and Robert Blanchard and also An Embarrasment of Mangoes (and recall the author and it's out in the kitchen since I love the recipes from it).

Read Bryson's Sunburned (called Down Under in my UK copy) en route to Oz last year. Glad I did.

Best time though was a family read of Dave Barry's History of the United States while driving across the continent with our (then) 13 YO son. I don't think we were ever closer as a family, or needed more time outs to catch our breath, or needed loo breaks on the road.

A second to obxgirls's Bill Bryson book about UK. LOL funny, and full of love for the country and its contrasts with USA.

One that is both about travel, and impossible to put down: "Adrift on a Sea of Blue Light" by Peter Miuilenburg. A collection of short stories, it's about St John, the Caribbean, sailing, dogs, people, life... absolutely fantastic!

curiousgeo: Got the hitch hiking with budhha book and you're right. So far so good! It's funny too. Great recommendation, thanks!

Any of Paul Theroux's travel although The Great Railway Bazaar tops the list!

An Evening with Headhunters by Lawrence Millman

Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz

Anything by Tim Cahill or Bill Bryson.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals (don't recall the author - Martin van Troost maybe?)

And whenever I fly to the Caribbean, I take a book called Island Wise with me and read it on the plane - it totally puts me in the spirit for the journey.

Hey Maria So. Glad you are enjoying the book. I thought his description of the pachinko parlors was right on the money. Have a great read!