I agree with Mia on Rutherford's books. You can learn a lot from a novel.

Another is Among the Elephants by Iain & Oria Douglas-Hamilton.

I also like both Bill Bryson and Paul Theroux. Theroux often seems kind of cranky, but I usually end up wanting to get on a train and go somewhere.

For people traveling to the western US a good read is Cadillac Desert by Mark Reisner. Not a travel book exactly, but still gives a good background to what allows the west to survive.

And, of course, how can you travel to Nepal without reading The Snow Leopard and Seven Years in Tibet (book is much better than the movie).

steve

Simply by sailing in a new direction you could enlarge the world

EarthtoAngela, definitely keep us in mind! I just got back from a week in my native Virginia, actually, and spent a great deal of time unloading crates of books on unsuspecting friends. It all worked out in the end, though - the books are in good hands, and I now have unloaded more of my crap, making it easier to finish moving my life from Virginia to Oregon!

But I digress. I do definitely want to get my hands on a copy of The Sheltering Sky now, though...

Ah, a fellow Bryson fan (okay, fair enough - it's not like there's a shortage of us in the world).

While I was on vacation I finally got around to reading 'Neither Here Nor There'... good, but at the same time, not one of Bryson's best... a little too much junior high school nostalgia, and as much as he kept waxing on about sex I can't help but think that maybe he should have stuck around Amsterdam's red-light district a little longer!

Ant,

Be on the lookout for the book!

E2A

Thanks, E2A, the lads and I will be looking out for it!

If you need our mailing address, btw, click here:

http://www.BootsnAll.com/cgi-bin/gt/contact.shtml

Where are ya headin' off to, that's prompting this massive unloading of stuff?

Okay then! Just POBoxed that sucker over.
I'm going to India and SEA for 2002 so parting with things slowly but surely.

You guys don't need a kitchen table, do you?

Lieve Joris is my favourite travel writer. Afaik all her books are set in either the middle east or Africa. She's Flemish and so am I so I'm not quite sure which of her books have been translated into English. I know for sure that "The Gates of Damascus" and "Mali Blues" are included in Lonely Planet's Journeys series, so you can certainly check those out.

I read a book about the Transsiberian by some Irish author that I found quite inspirational some time ago, but I can't remember the title or the author at the moment.

Unfortunately, no... actually, we hardly have any space as it is! Hope you're managing to get rid of things (have you tried a big yard sale yet?)

Anyway, back on topic... Another of my fave 'travel' books - depending on how you look at the subject, is Conrad's Heart of Darkness... a classic, and short, but so, so packed a read!

Heart of Darkness is very good. I thought the theme of the civilized versus the savage was interesting when I read it a while back. This seems to run through a lot of his books.

The movie, Apocalypse Now was based on this book. Copolla's wife made a documentary about the making of the movie. Its title was, of course, Hearts of Darkness.

For a travel book with a different flavour, I would recommend "Chimpanzee Travels", by Dale Peterson. He wandered through Africa visiting chimp sanctuaries and research stations in the wild. I don't remember if the writing was stellar, but the story captivated me. I found it to be a really enchanting book.

"The Warrior's Honour: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience", by Michael Ignatieff, is an amazing book if any of you are looking for something to read. It's a collection of essays from his travels around the world (former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and South Africa, to name a few), trying to understand ethnic conflict. It's fascinating. OK, it might not be a feel-good type of book, but I think that there's a lot to learn from it.

'The Sheltering Sky' arrived this morning, E2A. Can't wait to tuck into it!

And those titles sound pretty interesting too, random - even that it's not going to leave you all warm and mushy inside. You know, I think that's so much of what I like about books - they hit you with reality, and remind that life ain't all pretty, and things don't always work out in the end. It's an important, but tough lesson, and one that, at least for me, often needs some reinforcement...

Thanks for all the recommendations!
My personal travel favorite is The Alchemist by Pablo Coleho (last name is spelled wrong). Short but inspiring and sweet, the perfect book to pass along.
Mutant Message Down Under, can't remember the female author, but again a short and easy yet inspriring read.
For longer books to dig into on the road, Ayn Rand is good. I prefer The Fountainhead.
Yes and I concur on the Heart of Darkness recommendations...

[This message was edited by Kris on 07 July 2001 at 13:59.]

Sorry Kris, but that question always makes me laugh! We programmed the message boards so that you will be called a tourist until you have made 5 posts - so don't worry, it won't be there forever, just keep posting!

The Fountainhead is definitely a good recommendation, and one that's going to keep you busy for a while (haven't thought of that book in ages, though). Heck, I've still yet to hit Atlas Shrugged, but that should be good for a nice long bus journey somewhere with scenery that's the equivalent of drying paint...

Ant, let us know what you think of SS when you finish!

Kris, I read the Alchemist way back in the day and really enjoyed it. It's a good book to pass onto others.

So....somebody just passed on a book to me--Into the Wild. I've heard a million things about it but never got around to reading it. I'm almost finished. To those that have read it, what do you think?

If u get the chance another good travel book
is

Clear Water Rising by Nicholas Crane

This is about his mountain walk across europe.
Once started could not put down