Name Your Favorite Can't-Put-It-Down Travel Book
Aug 17th, 2006, 06:58 PM
#42
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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'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
Aug 17th, 2006, 07:04 PM
#44
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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!
Keep the book titles coming. I'm checking them as you guys post! MRand, really excellent thread you started! Thanks!
Aug 18th, 2006, 04:35 AM
#46
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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
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
Aug 18th, 2006, 05:52 AM
#47
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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.
In the serious travel category, the travlogues/histories "Balkan Ghosts" and "Eastward to Tartary" by Robert D. Kaplan were very absorbing.
Aug 18th, 2006, 10:10 AM
#48
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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.
Aug 18th, 2006, 10:53 AM
#49
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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!
Aug 20th, 2006, 03:27 PM
#51
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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).
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).
Aug 20th, 2006, 03:52 PM
#52
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.
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.
Aug 21st, 2006, 01:13 AM
#53
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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!
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!
Aug 24th, 2006, 07:57 AM
#56
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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.
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.
