I love to read books about people’s travel experiences (also love to read the posts of your travels!). I would be interested to know if any of you enjoy reading of other people's experiences too. Here are a few of my favorites:
The Best Travelers Tales – True Stories from Around the World - I have three of these (2004, 2005, and 2006). Each chapter in these three books is a short true story by different authors. Here are a few of the chapter titles:
- The Snake Charmer of Guanacaste (an experience in Costa Rica)
- Mohammed Ali, Ear Cleaner (India)
- Walking the Kerry Way (Ireland)
- Paris, When it Drizzles (France)
- Confessions of a Travel Writer (on assignment)
- The Accidental Hotel (Bangkok)
- Sahara Unveiled (Algeria, Morocco)
- Clutching My Soul in Paradise (Papua New Guinea)
I also enjoyed A Woman’s Passion for Travel – True Stories of World Wanderlust, also by various writers. As with the above three books, each chapter is by a different author, all women. In this collection, women of all ages take risks, learn, and embrace the joys of the world. Lighthearted or serious, funny or sad, each story will move you, perhaps even to the road itself! Here is how the back cover of the book describes these stories:
- Find peace in a Spanish church on the Camino De Santiago
- Collect scorpions for science in the Tunisian Sahara
- Learn how to see the world from a boatman in Laos
- Deliver a postcard to strangers in Italy and become part of the family
- Drive a dog team with your daughter in Alaska
- Understand the meaning of hospitality in Morocco
- Discover your true identity in Hong Kong
- Track gorillas in the mountains of Rwanda (I have done this……World Traveler!)
- Travel unpaved roads through Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala
Another book I have is called Worlds to Explore, which contains classic tales of travel and adventure from National Geographic (edited by Mark Jenkins). Here are some of the chapter titles:
- Wild Man and Wild Beast in Africa (a lecture given by Theodore Roosevelt of his adventure, 1911)
- Three-Wheeling Through Africa, 1934
- With an Exile in Arctic Siberia, 1924
- Motor Through Sumata, 1926
- Buenos Aires to Washington by Horse, 1929
The Best American Travel Writing 2005, edited by Jamaica Kincaid, is another example of different authors for each chapter. Here is a sample of the chapter headings:
- My Florida
- Route 3
- The Vertigo Girls do the East Tonto Trail
- Maps and Dreaming
- West Highland Peace Trek
- Trying Really Hard to Like India
- Welcome to Nowhere
One that may not be considered a travel story (but I think it fits the bill!) is Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, about her trip hiking the Pacific Coast Trail in California after her mother died. It was made into a movie, but I liked the book much, much better.
I would love to hear about any books you have read where the writer tells of their adventure traveling anywhere in the world.
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