BootsnAll Travel Community

Please don't overlook John Steinbeck.

Oh, I know what you are thinking: "We got some of his stuff assigned in High School, and I hated High School".

But really: his writing is easily accessible, witty and, even better, often involves traveling!

Start with this short, tasty piece that was written for a magazine: Postiano

Who's discounting Steinbeck? Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden... all-time classics.

I think that these titles are good examples of ones that are overlooked (I said overlooked, not discounted) by people who have heard of them, but not read them on account of their scary "classics" designations. ("Classics = hard, dry times with odd, old language and antique words)

But nobody should be put off by Travels With Charley

I personally loved East of Eden, although it was a tad odd in places.

Steinbeck can be great -- as in some of the books whose titles have already been named above -- but some of his stuff can be way off the mark. I classify him as a Jekyll-and-Hyde author, from high points like The Log from the Sea of Cortez (a great travel book, by the way) to the lows of The Winter of Our Discontent.