BootsnAll Travel Community

My is:
1. "the beach"
2. "Investment Biker"-really interesting book about an investment dude who rides his motorbike around the world.
3. Lonely planets in general - I can just site in a book store for hours looking at them and dreaming of where I am going next.

My list is kinda lame...I want to hear others..

The Accursed Mountains by Robert Carver about his travels in northen Albania
Boarder Crossing by Rossie Thomas about the rally between Peking and Paris with driver Phil Bowen (was shown as a half hr documntry on BBC 2

For light and a laugh any thing by Bill Byson

Here's some of my picks:

Tim Cahill:
A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg

And from Travelers' Tales:
The Road Within: True Stories of Transformation and the Soul

And definitely Bill Bryson. I think Notes from a Small Island is good, but I preferA Walk in the Woods. I just can't fathom how he could make such a big deal about going through Britain, yet not spend a full day in Edinburgh but 3 in Wick & Thurso... But that's just me...

Anthony

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1. Beyond Forbidden Frontiers - Nick
Danziger. Perhaps one of last
Romantic travellers. Essential reading and
inspirational.

2. In Siberia - Colin thurbon. What a
bloody moving book. Simply unmissible

3. Candide - Voltaire. I know this is cheating
but he does go to Suriname and Paraguay.

The first two because they're such a marvelous mixture of hilarity and seriousness, the last one because it's got so much good advice packed into a relatively small volume.

LORD OF THE RINGS

One River, by Wade Davis (Amazonia)
Catfish and Mandala, by Andrew X. Pham (Vietnam)
Chasing the Dragon, by Christopher Cox (Burma)

Let's look at the set-up:

1) The trip is unplanned.
2) The trip is most definitely not an organized tour, so it would qualify as independent travel.
3) The principle characters encounter many different individuals along the way, for varying lengths of time and involvement.
4) Without Lord of the Rings, where would travelers be - without the phrase "Not all who wander are lost"?!?

Most definitely a travel book... differing primarily from our own experiences, I would say, since we're not hobbits and elves, are our trips are taken mostly for fun/internal compulsion, and not because we have to save the world!

I agree, Lord of the Rings is definitely a travel book. I've read it several times starting in the 60's. I'm currently reading The Hobbit in Spanish, so I guess that makes it doubly travel. Since my Spanish is still limited, I chose The Hobbit as a warmup before tackling LOTR.

steve

Our travels in France have been a thoroughly enjoyable experience — truly, it’s an exciting and beautiful country. The towns we’ve visited, the sights we’ve seen, the people we’ve met! This is a story of what we saw, and where we saw it during our nine trips to France. It’s a composite of all our trips — nearly 160 nights, spent in over 100 different places.

Invitation to Germany

A vacation trip to Germany can be a trip through many different settings, representing many periods of history. Scenery, architecture, and the ambiance of the towns and villages, all change from one section of the country to another. Over 300 nights have been spent at the homes of 10 different families (most, but not all, were Emmy’s Cousins), and 115 nights were spent in 78 other cities, towns and villages.

Invitation to Italy

A trip to Italy is unlike any other trip imaginable. A beautiful, confounding, exciting, educational experience that will be remembered for a lifetime. Italy is cluttered with beautiful old towns and buildings, but more important, Italy is crowded with beautiful, friendly, congenial people. After 112 wonderful nights in 63 different places during eight trips to Italy, beautiful Italy, we don’t remember anything that wasn’t a few hundred, or even a couple of thousand years old.

Why would I suggest these three? Well, maybe it's because I wrote them!

Please visit the Bootsnall hosted site:

http://www.InvitationToTravel.com

Why not Travel, rather than How To Travel essays.

Thank you

Jim Humberd

Another awesome travel reference book is "Traveler's Toolkit."

Michael Crichton's "Travels" is about the only other one I could include.

Charles McCool
author, Winning the Airfare Game
http://www.LowerAirfares.com

[This message was edited by cmccool on 09 January 2002 at 12:23.]

quote:

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Originally posted by SteveP:
Ginger/Ant

I agree, Lord of the Rings is definitely a travel book. I've read it several times starting in the 60's. I'm currently reading The Hobbit in Spanish, so I guess that makes it doubly travel. Since my Spanish is still limited, I chose The Hobbit as a warmup before tackling LOTR.

steve

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1) The lord of the rings/ The hobbit
2) Three men in a boat ( Jerome K. Jerome)
3) Robinson Crusoe

I´d be more than grateful to read your opinion, particularly about number 2, a hilariuos, head-off laughing novel!!!