Right, the guys and I are kicking around setting up a travel book section/page for the site. *Not including guidebooks* (we're pretty sussed there), what titles would you say we absolutely, definitely, MUST list in this travel book section, lest we be looked upon as illiterate prats?

Thanks!
Ant

1. Da Beach - Alex Garland
2. Take me With You - Brad Newsham
3. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Mantainence
4. Investment Biker - Jim Rogers

Any body else have some must reads as far a travel books are concerned? I need to put together a list and could use some help on this one.

mother of a thousand sons - don't know who it's by but a must read for people interested in the complexities of indian culture regarding women and their role in religion and society!

Sima,

That title sounds bloody interesting - but I can't find it on Amazon! The closest I found was called 'The Thousand names of the Divine Mother', by M.N. DR. Namboodiri. Might that have been it?

Paul Bowles-The Sheltering Sky

Hmmm... interesting title. WHat do you like about the book?

Some classics:
Travels with Charley -- John Steinbeck
On the Road and The Dharma Bums -- Jack Kerouac
West with the Night -- Beryl Markham

And one pet favorite, Last Chance to See, by Douglas Adams. Sadly, I'm not sure it's in print any more, not having achieved the cult classic status of the Hitchhiker books, but it's well worth the effort if you can find it.

Thanks for those titles, nlc. And for the Adams recommendation - as it turns out, we actually have that one on the shelf here in the office! I think it will have to be one of my next reads.

I believe in reading fiction and essays about a place before I go, in addition to armchair traveling for inspiration.

Blood Tie and Turkish Reflections: A Biography of a Place (both by Mary Lee Settle)
The first is a novel about an American woman who moves to Bodrum on the Turkish coast. The second is the author's travel diary in Turkey.

Travels (Michael Crichton) Crichton really embarrases himself by unabashedly documenting his own arrogance (particularly in trying to climb Mt. Kilamangaro in ill-fitting boots -- seems appropriate for this site!)

Sailing Alone Around the World (Joshua Slocum) An unmatched true adventure. The sad thing is, many of the places he visited are long lost to "progress." The cool thing is, a few are still just as he found them. It's also a study for modern works like the movie Castaway -- Slocum was the archetypal hermit facing mother nature.

Gypsy Moth Circles the World and The Lonely Sea and the Sky (both by Sir Francis Chichester)
Chichester set single-handed sailing records. (And Gypsy Moth can be visited in Greenwich -- or at least she was there on display 10 years ago, I'm not sure if the millenium dome displaced her.) Chichester is also responsible for breakthroughs in the use of celestial navigation in airplanes, which he documents in The Lonely Sea and the Sky.

Antarctic Navigation (Elizabeth Arthur)
It's a novel, but well researched. It launched me into extensive reading about the exploration of Antarctica -- a fascinating place that I do not plan to travel to (it's just too darn cold!)

Chocolat (Joanne Harris)
Yes, the book the movie was based on. It's a slice-of-life in a rural French village, good prep for a French country holiday (no, I haven't seen the movie, but I gather it's not that close to the book).

Sarum (Edward Rutherford)
Enormous and dense, as are all his works, but worth the effort before a visit (he's also written London and Russka). His approach is part Michener, part scholar, tracking the history of a place from prehistoric times to the present.

Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follet)
Novelization of the construction of Salisbury Cathedral. Good companion to Sarum.

Okay, I'll stop now!

Mia

Wherever you go, there you are.

My list would include

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by Lawrence (the one of Arabia) for the Middle East

The Magus by John Fowles for the Greek islands

The Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin for Cairo

Jorge Luis Borges' short stories for Buenos Aires

Jorge Amado's Sheperds of the Night for Salvador do Bahia, Brasil

The first one is an autobiography, others are pure fiction but they give me the feel for the place (or at least the urge to go there). And for the very idea of the ultimate quest (as any real Travel is) I can think of nothing better than Moby Dick.
r

Great, another fan of fiction that sets the tone for travel.

I just though of another: Bombay Ice (Leslie Forbes), a murder mystery set in, duh, Bombay and centered to some extent on the Indian film industry.

Mia

Wherever you go, there you are.

And I think I'm going to have to raid the library again myself!

Wow!

Keep 'em comin'!

A most happy
Ant

I have a confession... it will probably sound very corny.. about 20 years ago I read ..wait for it... Jack Kerouac ..On The Road.. it stayed with me.. and I am off to the States in June with my seven year old. Will recapture a part of it i am sure.

Have to read Chocolat as i am buying a place in rural France prior to going on the Round the World Trip. so thanks once again Miamc!

I will be in Australia around about October for 3 months... and the book that springs to mind is
'Songlines' Chat somethingorother.

And another good read..but has nothing to do with travels ..but is a damn good read all the same was.. "If on a Winters Night a Traveller..." by Italio Calvino (so proud i remember that name!)

Another reason for me travelling as a lone female with a small child in tow is probably due to the fainthearted feminist books i read between the ages of 18 and 30.

Lisa6297@hotmail.com

It's too bad you'll have to do all the driving on your US trip (seeing as the rental companies won't rent to your 7-year-old -- if you're reading this and lost, check out the Member forum for Lisa's other post), there are so many Amerian road trip books that make good car reading. As you get further west in the US, you might want to read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (or reread it). If you're really ambitous, read Lonesome Dove.

The Voyage by Phil Caputo captures some archetypal eastern seaboard characters and plaeces (Maine to Key West) as they were at the turn of the last century. It's a damn good story, too.

As you head for the Australia, you might get a kick out of English Passengers (don't recall the author, but it's recent), about the way English deal with Manx and how the aboriginal Tazmanians were exterminated. The underlying message is quite poignant, but the narrative is hilarious.

And if you read Bonfire of the Vanities before you come to New York, please remember that it's 20 years old. I drive through the south Bronx regularly (since I live in the north east Bronx).

Hey, forum: Any other suggestions of books to NOT READ about a place before going? Like, is Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil just too over the top to properly prepare you for Charleston?

Mia

Wherever you go, there you are.

The Sheltering Sky is an incredible book. About a man who goes to the Sahara, loses all sense of foundation of what he's known before. (Ever heard of The Police song 'tea in the sahara', well it is based on this book.
It also gives a good description of the difference between tourists and travellers.
In paraphrase, tourists, are people who go to many destinations but always return to somewhere they call home whereas travellers, find a part of home in each place they visit or they have no sense of home at all.

i'm trying to get rid of my stuff---maybe i'll mail my copy to the boots crew!