BootsnAll Travel Community

You are doing some reading in preparation for a trip, and you suddenly come across the Holy Grail, that one book which, once you read it, brings everything into focus. It could be a travel book, a personal memoir -- hell, it could even be fiction! But once you've read it, you have a powerful mental picture against which to compare your experience.

Let me give you a few examples of some of mine:

For the travel industry in general, it is Michel Houellebecq's novel Platform.

For Iceland, it was Magnus Magnusson's Iceland Saga.

For the Orkney Islands off the Northern Coast of Scotland, it was George Mackay Brown's short stories in Hawkfall.

For Tierra del Fuego, it was E. Lucas Bridges's The Uttermost Part of the Earth.

For Northern New England, it was Van Wyck Brooks's The Flowering of New England.

What was the one book that brought your destination into the most powerful focus?

Jim Paris

interesting topic

For the Hawaiian Island of Moloka'i, I am currently enamored of Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

I've read a few books about the place, each with pros and cons, but I think b/c this is (historical) fiction, it's actually better than some non-fiction accounts. This novel combines elements of current and historical fact w/o being too specific about any one real person's experience (which always causes problems I think). It's a great example of how fiction is more true than non-fiction sometimes.