The book that made you want to travel...

I was stationed in Germany after getting drafted, and in 1972 read Michner's "The Drifters" and ended up doing some travelling through Europe when I could get the leave time. Stood out like a sore thumb with my GI haircut but had a great time and fond memories. Have had the bug ever since.

Some of my first memories are of pleading my Mum to read this kids book to me - you know the ones where each page is a sheet of cardboard. It showed drawings of people in traditional dress from about 10 different places. The eskimoes that live in the igloos were the best!

I still have the book when I was a kid. It's called 'Round the world with Teddy Edward'. It's a bear who visits all the continents. It's not animated or photoshopped. It's a real teddy bear in the real locations. Its a great book.

Recently I have just read "Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term world Travel" by Rolf Potts. Despite the title it is not a guid book but a collection of inspiring stories and things to help enhance you travel experiance. He talk a lot about the philosophy of travel and how it describes a human being. Really good book.

The book that got me off my heinie was the original People's Guide to Mexico, which I must have read about three or four times. That started me off on more than fifteen years of vacation trips to various parts of Mexico.

Does anyone know of books like that for other parts of the world, with all that detail on foods, customs, etc.?

I read Eat Pray Love right before I left for China. It calmed some of my fears about traveling alone.

My mom read the "little house on the prairie" books to me since I can remember and they were always on the move. I was a bit of a minimalist as a child just in case we had to pack all our belongings into a tiny covered wagon (yes I was a wierd kid)...and it helps me now as a backpacker!

For me it was "Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig. I read the book in college -- nearly 20 years ago -- and wanted to head out across the country right then and there. But I didn't, and still haven't. Planning that trip now. Better late than never.

Great book -- I too loved "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." It actually encouraged me to buy my first motorcycle -- a beat up, old Harley, which I used to cruise up and down the coast of California with on weekends during college (when it wasn't broken down). I didn't get quite as good at repairing it as Mr. Pirsig was, but nonetheless, a beautiful way to travel.

The book that made me really want to take that first long trip abroad was Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer." I guess that may say a little too much about me! Oh well, happy to say my interests and goals in travel have transformed considerably since those first backpacking trips!

George
http://www.fidalisway.com/

I read this book well after I had developed my wanderlust but reading it only served to keep me addicted:

"Neither Here Nor There" by Bill Bryson.

I've read several of Bryson's books, and while I don't consider him a "traveler" in the more adventurous sense, his style of writing and his style of travel in this book really resonated well with me. Not to mention, that Europe is still one of my most favorite destinations in the world (anywhere in Europe, really).

"At the same time, I had a quite irrational urge to keep going. There is something about the momentum of travel that makes you want to just keep moving, to never stop. That was Asia over there, after all - right there in my view. The thought of it seemed incredible. I could be there in minutes. I still had money left. An untouched continent lay before me...In other circumstances, I think I might have gone. But that is of course, neither here nor there."

I must have read this book 5 or 6 times (in a row!). Reading it helps to remind me why I love to travel, why it's such a beautiful thing that no one can ever take away from you.

Oh, and I almost forgot, the very first time I went to Europe, arriving in Paris, was in the fall of 2003. I had with me a copy the "Let's Go" guide for Wester Europe. Even at that time, being there and using it, the book captivated and entranced me into the world of travel, with all it's little maps, guided walks, sidebars, "thumbs up" icons next to restaurants, and so on. I'd pick Lonely Planet over Let's Go and even Rick Steve's over Lonely Planet, but the budget-oriented coziness of the Let's Go book (2003, so it would have been an earlier format/version) kept me going. And besides, you never forget your first travel experience.

I'm with Mim. In my grandmother's cabinet was a very old children's book. No story, just pictures of children in exotic costumes doing (for me in small town Ohio) exotic things. I remember the Eskimos, and also the American Indians, but what stuck with me were the Laplanders. Beautiful costumes. And besides, these were people who wandered all the time. How wonderful.

Forty plus years later I went to northern Sweden and ate reindeer in a restaurant run by Sami (Laplanders). Who would have predicted that?

Vera
http://atravelerslibrary.com

removed

National Geographic magazine.

No Touch Monkey by Ayun Halliday- LOVED this book