Travel writing (not to be confused with time travel writing)

[MinDonner]

So yeah, I'm a big fan of interesting travelogues, particularly at the rougher end of the spectrum, so I was wondering what recs people have in this area. Bonus points for the more historical stuff, cos combining travel AND history is often a winner. I don't think we've had a thread for this recently, or at least I couldn't find one with a cursory search (and I'm gutted that all this will be lost when they upgrade the board, booo) but in the meantime, recommend away!

My top picks:

1. News from Tartary - Peter Fleming. 1930s account of a 6-month journey from Beijing to Delhi through civil-war-torn revolutionary China and across the wastelands of what is now Qinghai and Xinjiang. I like this partly cos I've been over that way, but also it's amazing to read about a time when camel-caravans were still the only way to make a journey I did by bus)

2. Life on Air - David Attenborough's autobiography, which includes trips in the 50s and 60s to barely-explored parts of eg. Borneo, South America, Easter Island, sub-Saharan Africa... everyone loves Attenborough, and he's just as good a writer as he is a presenter.

3. Jaguars Ripped My Flesh - Tim Cahill. Selection of magazine articles about misc adventure travel across various parts of the world, also collected in other volumes with names like "A wolverine is eating my leg" (this one has a very good article about the Jonestown massacre) and a few others that I've not read yet - very dry humour and evocative descriptions - yes, the title is ironic. He has a full autobiography coming out soon which I definitely plan to snap up.

4. Are You Experienced? - William Sutcliffe. Fictionalised but still obviously based on true events, about an 18-year-old boy's failure of a gap-year trip around India, pretty funny if probably a little dated now (my guess is that the actual travel happened in around 1990ish)

5. Most things by Bill Bryson, but that should probably go without saying.

[Rubies & Jade]

Not sure if these exactly count as travel writing, but Huntford's books about adventures to the South Pole ("The Last Place On Earth" and "Shackleton") were great. 

and Joe Simpsons "Touching the Void" was also good.

[all swedes are racist]

Dammit, I wanted to rec Life On Air. Fucking love that book

[Anasûrimbor]

Dammit, I wanted to rec Life On Air. Fucking love that book

 

Ha, me too. It's such a great book.

[underarmsauce]

Ghost Rider by Neal Peart is a great book, considering the circumstances that led to that book being written.
I think within a year to year in a half span, his daughter died from a car accident and his wife dies from cancer soon after. To cope with the circumstances he takes his motorcycle out on the road and travels from Canada all over the U.S. and into Mexico. Really good book.

[Gasp of Many Reeds]

In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin.

 

Gerald Durrell pumped out a load of books about his days as a zoo collector on trips to places like Cameroon, Paraguay and Mauritius which I remember finding interesting and fairly funny when I read them as a kid (but that was a while ago, so I don't know if they've dated badly). Does also offer an insight into the development of the idea of using zoos for conservation as opposed to just display. If you've read and enjoyed My Family and Other Animals, then don't see why you wouldn't enjoy these too. 

[sologdin]

pausanias. west's black lamb & grey falcon. does heart of darkness count?

[all swedes are racist]

Heh, made me think "Inferno?"

[Myrddin]

Does Twain's Innocents Abroad count? :)

 

I've got a little travelogue at home that I picked up at a used bookstore but I've never actually read it. It's a call Wild Wales or something. I always thought i'd be fun to read right before going to Wales or maybe during. I bought it when I was still traveling a lot more.

 

Before the Dark Times. Before the career.

[sologdin]

for a scenic descriptions of the holy land, the frigid north, and more exotic locales, there's also always a tidy little series called 'the second apocalypse.'

[Gasp of Many Reeds]

for a scenic descriptions of the holy land, the frigid north, and more exotic locales, there's also always a tidy little series called 'the second apocalypse.'

Such Bakkake, wow.

[sologdin]

well, when this year's inchie awards come out, i am gunning for a bakkake master nomination.

[Larry of the Lawn]

A Feast for Crows is a good one.

 

 

well, when this year's inchie awards come out, i am gunning for a bakkake master nomination.

 

I will destroy you with a phallic and accurate replica of the Heron Spear and commandeer your award.

[AshOrSpark]

How about 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning' by Laurie Lee? Historical and poetic.

 

Captain Cook's Journal. Interesting stuff.

 

South by Shackleton. Love anything to do with Shackleton.

[Zorral]

Mary Kingsley's Travels in West Africa, and, West African Studies.  She was a Victorian lady, who went, alone, to 19th century Africa.

 

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's collected letters --  Sources that Have Been Inaccessible to Other Travellers -- accounts of all those spaces where men could enter not in Turkey in the 18th century (she also played a large ole in introducing innoculation for small pox to England).

 

Jane Digby never wrote her own life, but Mary S. Lovell's. A Scandalous Life: A Biography of Jane Digby, is a fine read.

 

Freya Stark's books are excellent.

 

There were so many intrepid women travelers in the 19th century who wrote about what they experienced.

 

Then, of course there's always Richard Burton -- though he lived a vastly more interesting life than he was a writer.  It's better to read other books about Burton and his adventurous, swashbuckling life than reading his own books.  He's a terrible writer, though if one is doing research into West Africa, one does have to wade through his books from his time stationed there.

 

Patrick Leigh Fermor wrote many books and though he died not that long ago, his reputation has not faded.

 

The Polish journalist, Ryszard Kapuściński, who also has left us not that long ago, has written a series of splendid books about his journeys and sojourns in places few westerners were in those pre-digital days.

 

And always, too, the historian - traveler, William Dalrympl's earlier books which always mix travel and history so splendidly -- and who is also a wonderful writer.

 

Just for starters.

[James Pursaill]

If you want travelogues in a fantastical vein, I'd recommend Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. You'd think describing a different invented city each chapter grows dull, but Calvino keeps it fresh, intriguing and sometimes even funny. Very easy to plow through compared to his other works too.

 

Otherwise, Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will is next on my reading list - I'll let you know if it's worth a cop or not!

[Howdyphillip]

For Non fiction in this category, I always enjoyed Thor Heyerdahl's Kon Tiki Expedition. That is kind of an outside the box inclusion to travelogue literature, but never the less, I highly enjoyed reading it. 

[Larry of the Lawn]

For Non fiction in this category, I always enjoyed Thor Heyerdahl's Kon Tiki Expedition. That is kind of an outside the box inclusion to travelogue literature, but never the less, I highly enjoyed reading it. 

Oh man, so much.  This is some of my favorite nonfiction ever.  I buy a copy anytime I see one at a used bookstore to give away to a friend or leave at the coffee shop.

[voodooqueen126]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0824831179?colid=3KAWEK4V3Q1VI&coliid=I2ISF0VD6QGW0V&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl

This book looks good, but seems to be more academic then travel

 

However this book

 and this book this book

are the two travel writing books that I think will be useful in book 4 of my novel.