Combining two of my favourite things, reading and travel. Reading is a great form of escapism, and reading about travel is the most fantastic way to inspire your next adventure. It gives you, ‘If they can do it, well so can I’ mentality.
I never leave my house without a book. There will always be a 5-10 minute wait somewhere, or a long queue that can be enjoyed with a great book.
A book is also a great companion for your travels. Long flights, buses, or trains can be enjoyed with a good book. A great book is the best companion.
I have met so many of people who say, ‘I don’t like reading’. If that’s the case you’re reading the wrong books. Once you find the right book, you’ll not want to put it down, and you’ll make time to read it. I also meet people who say ‘I don’t have time to read’, which also signifies that they are not reading the right books.
If you are inflicted with the travel bug, wanderlust, adventurous or going on a trip, I would recommend reading some, (if not all) of the books I’ve listed below. If you haven’t found your ‘type’ of book yet, maybe try one of these!
Maybe you have a wanderlust friend and need inspiration for birthday or Christmas gifts?
If you really hate reading … try audiobooks! I use audible. http://www.audible.co.uk
If you are going for a long trip, I would suggest buying a kindle and downloading a stash of good books to keep you going throughout your trip. Books are heavy and take up a lot of room in your bag.
And finally … there is no film that will ever be better than the book. Bold statement, I know, but you cannot achieve 10 hours of enjoyment in a 2 hour film. Elements of the story will be cut and changed for cinematic purposes, and you don’t get into people’s heads the same way you do with a book. By all means, watch the films that have been produced from books, but I would always urge you to read the books first.
Books for the wanderust…
The beach
You’ve probably seen the film with Leonardo DiCaprio. I would urge you to read this book if you are going to Thailand or South East Asia.
The classic story of paradise found – and lost.
Richard lands in East Asia in search of an earthly utopia. In Thailand, he is given a map promising an unknown island, a secluded beach – and a new way of life. What Richard finds when he gets there is breathtaking: more extraordinary, more frightening than his wildest dreams.
But how long can paradise survive here on Earth? And what lengths will Richard go to in order to save it?
The backpacker
Leaving the blinding sand for the cool shade of the trees, I walked carefully through the undergrowth to where Dave, using two twigs as chopsticks, was picking up a freshly severed human finger…
John’s trip to India starts badly when he finds himself looking at the sharp end of a knife in a train station cubicle. His life is saved by the enigmatic Rick, who persuades John to abandon his mundane plans for the future for much, much more. Fast forward to the Thai island of Koh Pha-Ngan where they pose as millionaire aristocrats in a hedonistic Eden of beautiful girls, free drugs and wild beach parties. Soon pursued by Thai Mafia, they escape to Indonesia, Australia and Hong Kong, facing danger at every turn.
The author’s note in this book really struck a chord with me.
The Alchemist
A beautiful book about travel and self-discovery that I will most definitely read again. It’s the kind of book that will change you.
A global phenomenon, The Alchemist has been read and loved by over 62 million readers, topping bestseller lists in 74 countries worldwide. Now this magical fable is beautifully repackaged in an edition that lovers of Paulo Coelho will want to treasure forever.
Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. This is such a book – a beautiful parable about learning to listen to your heart, read the omens strewn along life’s path and, above all, follow your dreams.
Santiago, a young shepherd living in the hills of Andalucia, feels that there is more to life than his humble home and his flock. One day he finds the courage to follow his dreams into distant lands, each step galvanised by the knowledge that he is following the right path: his own. The people he meets along the way, the things he sees and the wisdom he learns are life-changing.
With Paulo Coelho’s visionary blend of spirituality, magical realism and folklore, The Alchemist is a story with the power to inspire nations and change people’s lives.
A fortune teller told me
My wonderful friend Nico, an Italian I met briefly on a watermelon farm in northern Australia, has posted two of his most favourite books to me in the past. This book and a book called the ‘Buddha, Geoff, and me’. Another wonderful book but not travel inspiring.
Warned by a fortune-teller not to risk flying, the author – a seasoned correspondent – took to travelling by rail, road and sea. Consulting fortune-tellers and shamans wherever he went, he learnt to understand and respect older ways of life and beliefs now threatened by the crasser forms of Western modernity.
William Shawcross in the Literary Review praised Terzani for ‘his beautifully written adventure story… a voyage of self-discovery… He sees fortune-tellers, soothsayers, astrologers, chiromancers, seers, shamans, magicians, palmists, frauds, men and women of god (many gods) all over Asia and in Europe too… Almost every page and every story celebrates the mystical and the unknowable. It is a fabulous story of renewal and change… Terzani is already something of a legend. He has written magnificently all his life. Never better than now.’
Yes, the fortune-teller did save him from an air-crash in Cambodia. Looking back afterwards, Terzani reckoned that ‘I was marked for death and instead I was reborn.’
The gringo trail
A journey through South America which will make you book your flights and pack your bags.
‘… there I was in the middle of Bogotá, coked up to my eyeballs, in a hallway holding two machetes, while some drunk Colombians argued about whether or not to blow up a bar with a live hand grenade…’
Asia has the hippie trail. South America has the gringo trail. Mark Mann and his girlfriend Melissa set off to explore the ancient monuments, mountains and rainforests of South America. But for their friend Mark, South America meant only one thing: drugs.
Sad, funny and shocking, The Gringo Trail is an On the Road for the Lonely Planet generation – a darkly comic road-trip and a revealing journey through South America’s turbulent history. Drama and discovery. Culture and cocaine.
Fact is stranger than fiction.
Wanderlust – a love affair with five continents
I listened to this one on audiobook and couldn’t turn it off. A girl who is always on the move, finding escape in foreign lands and falling on love all over the planet. Makes you consider the traditional way that we’re accustomed to live.
Spanning 15 years of travel, beginning when she is a sophomore in college, Wanderlust documents Elisabeth Eaves’s insatiable hunger for the rush of the unfamiliar and the experience of encountering new people and cultures. Young and independent, she crisscrosses five continents and chases the exotic, both in culture and in romance. In the jungles of Papua New Guinea, she loses herself–literally–to an Australian tour guide; in Cairo, she reconnects with her high school sweetheart, only to discover the beginning of a pattern that will characterize her life over the long-term: while long-distance relationships work well for her, traditional relationships do not. Wanderlust, however, is more than a chronological conquest of men and countries: at its core, it’s a journey of self-discovery. In the course of her travels, Eaves finds herself and the sense of home she’s been lacking since childhood–and she sheds light on a growing culture of young women who have the freedom and inclination to define their own, increasingly global, lifestyles, unfettered by traditional roles and conventions of past generations of women.
A year without make up
I haven’t read it yet, but it is on my kindle. I was immediately engrossed by the title.
Have you ever wanted to quit your job and go travel the world?
At 25 years old Stephanie Yoder was already fed up with the monotony of 9-5 life. After much agonizing, she quit her stable desk job to backpack around Asia. During a year of travel through Japan, China and South East Asia she became a minor Chinese celebrity, was attacked by giant parrots and met the love of her life. In A Year Without Make-Up, Yoder chronicles some of her craziest adventures along with providing helpful tips and encouragement for others looking to make a life change.
Ytravel ebook
http://www.ytravelblog.com/create-travel-life-love-ebook/
Another eBook on my kindle. This was written by one of my favourite travel bloggers; http://www.ytravel.com
Take it from us. We’ve been traveling on and off since 1997, without much money, and with all the same fears you have.
We’ve just learned how to overcome them and step toward our travel dream with careful PLANNING and SMART decisions.
We love to show others how they too can have a travel lifestyle similar to us. We believe life is an accumulation of memories not possessions. We’re not here to side with the naysayers and tell you all the reasons why you should stick with the status quo.
We’re here to tell you that you can travel, and it’s much easier (and more affordable) than you think.
We’ve taken all we’ve learned from over 17 years of world travel. All our tips and strategies for dreaming, planning and creating affordable ways to travel and put it into our ebook How to create travel life you love without costing a fortune.
Lost in the jungle
I heard the rustle again, too close and too real to ignore. I clutched the flashlight, stuck my head out of the mosquito net… and found myself face-to-face with a jaguar.
Four travellers meet in Bolivia and set off into the Amazon rainforest on an expedition to find a hidden tribe and explore places tourists only dream of seeing. But what begins as the adventure of a lifetime quickly becomes a struggle for survival when they get lost in the wilds of the jungle.
The group splits up after disagreements, and Yossi and his friend try to find their own way back without a guide. But when a terrible rafting accident separates them, Yossi is forced to survive for weeks alone in one of the most unpredictable environments on the planet. Stranded without a knife, map or survival training, he must improvise shelter and forage for wild fruit to survive. As his skin begins to rot from his feet during raging storms and he loses all sense of direction, he wonders if he will make it back alive. It’s a story of friendship and of the teachings of the forest, and a terrifying true account that you won’t be able to put down.
The pilgrimage
Paulo Coelho books are beautiful and if it is anywhere near as good as ‘The Alchemist’, I’m sure we will love it. I recently purchased this on audible as an audio book.
In this gripping story, Paulo Coelho is on a quest for the ultimate in self-knowledge, wisdom and spiritual mastery.
Guided by his mysterious companion Petrus, he takes the road to Santiago, going throush a series of trials and tests along the way–even coming face to face with someone who may just be the devil himself. Why is the road to the simple life so hard? Will Paulo be strong enough to complete the journey towards humility, belief–and faith?
Paulo Coelho. the author of The Alchemist, is an enchanting storyteller, inspiring people all over the world to see beyond the ordinary and into the remarkable.
Tracks
This is my current audiobook which I am half way through. I was given the film of this book as a present from my friend Joy, who is also a travel addict. I really love the film and decided to go hunting for the book. I am thoroughly enjoying the audiobook, especially as it is read in an Australian accent.
‘I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there’s no going back.’ So begins Robyn Davidson’s perilous journey across 1,700 miles of hostile Australian desert to the sea with only four camels and a dog for company.
Enduring sweltering heat, fending off poisonous snakes and lecherous men, chasing her camels when they get skittish and nursing them when they are injured, Davidson emerges as an extraordinarily courageous heroine driven by a love of Australia’s landscape, an empathy for its indigenous people, and a willingness to cast away the trappings of her former identity. Tracks is the compelling, candid story of her odyssey of discovery and transformation.
Wild
The only time I will watch a film before reading the book is if I watch a film without realising there is a book. This was the case for wild. I watched the film and have now added the book to my wish list for when I finish the two books I’m currently reading.
At twenty-six, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s rapid death from cancer, her family disbanded and her marriage crumbled. With nothing to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to walk eleven-hundred miles of the west coast of America and to do it alone. She had no experience of long-distance hiking and the journey was nothing more than a line on a map. But it held a promise – a promise of piecing together a life that lay shattered at her feet…
Eat pray love
I watched this film on a beach in Gilli Trawangan, Indonesia with my mum.
I just finished this book and I LOVED IT! I liked it so much I made a few people buy it and I gave it away as gifts.
It’s 3 a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She’s in her thirties, she has a husband, a house, they’re trying for a baby – and she doesn’t want any of it. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and bewildered and realises it is time to pursue her own journey in search of three things she has been missing: pleasure, devotion and balance. So she travels to Rome, where she learns Italian from handsome, brown-eyed identical twins and gains twenty-five pounds, an ashram in India, where she finds that enlightenment entails getting up in the middle of the night to scrub the temple floor, and Bali where a toothless medicine man of indeterminate age offers her a new path to peace: simply sit still and smile. And slowly happiness begins to creep up on her.
Into the wild
This is the kind of book that will stay with you. I finished the book and watched the film as soon as I had finished it. I found myself still thinking about it weeks after I had finished it. Alexander Supertramp (Chris) fed the homeless at the weekends and gave away all his money to Oxfam to feed the hungry, to later die of starvation. He longed for freedom, but in his last days he felted trapped. Tragic irony. A very poignant book. The author also tells us stories of other vagabonds and his own experience of the wilderness. I thoroughly recommend it. The soundtrack of the film is also great.
P.S. I added it to my ‘songs for the wanderlust’ playlist on Spotify.
By examining the true story of Chris McCandless, a young man, who in 1992 walked deep into the Alaskan wilderness and whose SOS note and emaciated corpse were found four months later, internationally bestselling author Jon Krakauer explores the obsession which leads some people to explore the outer limits of self, leave civilization behind and seek enlightenment through solitude and contact with nature.
The hobbit
I read this book as a child. My uncle Peter is a mad lord of the rings fan and made me promise him I would read it. It is essentially a story of a sheltered hobbit leaving his comfort zone and taking a big adventure across lands to new worlds and strange places.
The Hobbit is the unforgettable story of Bilbo, a peace-loving hobbit, who embarks on a strange and magical adventure.
A timeless classic.
Bilbo Baggins enjoys a quiet and contented life, with no desire to travel far from the comforts of home; then one day the wizard Gandalf and a band of dwarves arrive unexpectedly and enlist his services – as a burglar – on a dangerous expedition to raid the treasure-hoard of Smaug the dragon. Bilbo’s life is never to be the same again.
Seldom has any book been so widely read and loved as J. R.R. Tolkien’s classic tale, ‘The Hobbit’. Since its first publication in 1937 it has remained in print to delight each new generation of readers all over the world, and its hero, Bilbo Baggins, has taken his place among the ranks of the immortals of fiction.
Into thin air
This is the true story of a 24-hour period on Everest, when members of three separate expeditions were caught in a storm and faced a battle against hurricane-force winds, exposure, and the effects of altitude, which ended the worst single-season death toll in the peak’s history.
In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day eight people were dead. Krakauer’s book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Written within months of the events it chronicles, Into Thin Air clearly evokes the majestic Everest landscape. As the journey up the mountain progresses, Krakauer puts it in context by recalling the triumphs and perils of other Everest trips throughout history. The author’s own anguish over what happened on the mountain is palpable as he leads readers to ponder timeless questions.
Vagabonding
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0812992180?keywords=vagabonding&qid=1438456450&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
Vagabonding is about taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms. Veteran shoestring traveler Rolf Potts shows how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel. Potts gives the necessary information on:
• financing your travel time
• determining your destination
• adjusting to life on the road
• working and volunteering overseas
• handling travel adversity
• re-assimilating back into ordinary life
Not just a plan of action, vagabonding is an outlook on life that emphasizes creativity, discovery, and the growth of the spirit.
The lost girls
The Lost Girls Jen, Holly, and Amanda are at a crossroads, feeling the pressure to hit certain milestones–scoring a big promotion, finding a soul mate, having 2.2 kids–before they reach their early 30s. When personal challenges force them to reevaluate their lives, they journey 60,000 miles across four continents on a search for inspiration and direction.
Tales of a female nomad
Tales of a Female Nomad is the story of Rita Golden Gelman, an ordinary woman who is living an extraordinary existence. At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world. Rita’s example encourages us all to dust off our dreams and rediscover the joy, the exuberance, and the hidden spirit that so many of us bury when we become adults.
The geography of bliss
What makes a nation happy? Is one country’s sense of happiness the same as another’s? In the last two decades, psychologists and economists have learned a lot about who’s happy and who isn’t. The Dutch are, the Romanians aren’t, and Americans are somewhere in between…
After years of going to the world’s least happy countries, Eric Weiner, a veteran foreign correspondent, decided to travel and evaluate each country’s different sense of happiness and discover the nation that seemed happiest of all.
·He discovers the relationship between money and happiness in tiny and extremely wealthy Qatar (and it’s not a good one)
·He goes to Thailand, and finds that not thinking is a contented way of life.
·He goes to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, and discovers they have an official policy of Gross National Happiness!
·He asks himself why the British don’t do happiness?
In Weiner’s quest to find the world’s happiest places, he eats rotten Icelandic shark, meditates in Bangalore, visits strip clubs in Bangkok and drinks himself into a stupor in Reykjavik. Full of inspired moments, The Geography of Bliss accomplishes a feat few travel books dare and even fewer achieve: to make you happier.
What I was doing while you where breeding
Kristin Newman spent her 20s and 30s dealing with the stresses of her high-pressure job as a television comedy writer, and the anxieties of watching most of her friends get married and start families while she wrestled with her own fear of both. Not ready to settle down and yet loathe to become a sad-sack single girl, Kristin instead started traveling the world, often alone, for a few months each year, falling madly in love with attractive locals who provided moments of the love she wanted without the cost of the freedom she needed. She introduces readers to the Israeli bartenders, Argentinian priests, Finnish poker players, and sexy Bedouins who helped her transform into “Kristin-Adjacent” on the road—a quieter, less judgmental, and, yes, sluttier version of herself at home.
Ultimately, Kristin’s adventures led her to a better understanding of what she was actually running away from at home and why every life hurdle seemed to put her on a transatlantic flight to the unknown. Equal parts laugh-out-loud storytelling; thoughtful, candid reflection; and wanderlust-inspiring travel tales, What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding is a compelling and hilarious debut that will have readers scrambling to renew their passports.
Chicken Soup for the traveller’s soul
I have read a few books from the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and have always enjoyed them. The books consist of a collection of (true) heart-warming short stories. The range they have is vast. I have just added this book to my audible list.
Whether your idea of travel at its finest is trekking through Europe with a backpack, a map and a foreign-language dictionary; road-tripping across America in a fully loaded RV; or cruising the Caribbean aboard a luxury liner, Chicken Soup for the Traveler’s Soul celebrates the people you’ll meet, the lands you’ll discover and the lessons you’ll learn.
On the road
Sal Paradise (Sam Riley), a young innocent, joins his hero Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund), a traveller and mystic, the living epitome of Beat, on a breathless, exuberant ride back and forth across the United States. Their hedonistic search for release or fulfilment through drink, sex, drugs and jazz becomes an exploration of personal freedom, a test of the limits of the American dream. A brilliant blend of fiction and autobiography, Jack Kerouac’s exhilarating novel swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, racing towards the sunset with unforgettable exuberance, poignancy and autobiographical passion. One of the most influential and important novels of the 20th century, On the Road is the book that launched the Beat Generation and remains the bible of that literary movement.
Travels with charly
In 1960, John Steinbeck set out to rediscover and document his native land; accompanied only by his dog, he travelled all across the United States in a pick-up truck. This Penguin Classics edition ofTravels with Charley includes an introduction by Jay Parini.
When he was almost sixty years old, worried that he might have lost touch with the sights, the sounds and the essence of America’s people, Steinbeck took note of his itchy feet and prepared to travel. He was accompanied by his French poodle, Charley, diplomat and watchdog, across the states of America from Maine to California. Moving through the woods and deserts, dirt tracks and highways to large cities and glorious wildernesses, Steinbeck observed – with remarkable honesty and insight, with a humorous and sometimes sceptical eye – America, and the Americans who inhabited it. What he saw was a lonely, generous nation too packed with individuals for single judgements; what he saw made him proud, angry, sympathetic and elated. His vision of how the world was changing still speaks to us prophetically through the decades.
Neither here nor there
In Neither here Nor there he brings his unique brand of humour to bear on Europe as he shoulders his backpack, keeps a tight hold on his wallet, and journeys from Hamemrfest, the northernmost town on the continent, to istanbul on the cusp of Asia. Fluent in, oh, at least one language, he retraces his travels as a student twenty years before.
Whether braving the homicidal motorists of Paris, being robbed by gypsies in Florence, attempting notto order tripe and eyeballs in a German restaurant, window-shopping in the sex shops of the Reeperbahn or disputing his hotel bill in Copenhagen, Bryson takes in the sights, dissects the culture and illuminates each place and person with his hilariously caustic observations. He even goes to Liechtenstein.
A walk in the woods
Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes–and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings.
For a start there’s the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. Despite Katz’s overwhelming desire to find cozy restaurants, he and Bryson eventually settle into their stride, and while on the trail they meet a bizarre assortment of hilarious characters. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson’s acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America’s last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods has become a modern classic of travel literature.
Please note: Bill Byrson has a vast number of travel books. I picked two for this list that I want to read, but feel free to try out the rest of his work and comment below with any recommendations.
Two dogs and a suitcase
The title says it all: what we have and where we are. This travel memoir, the sequel to Glass Half Full: Our Australian Adventure, follows our French exploits as we endeavour to rebuild our lives in another new country, after spending four and half years in Australia. Our goal, or hope for the immediate future, is to focus positively on the present so that we can start a new, optimistic future back in Europe. Our main aim is to be nearer to the children, leaving the dark clouds of the challenges we faced in Australia as a distant memory. Journey with us as we arrive in rural South West France; enjoy my reflections, thoughts, and observations about my family, our new surroundings, and our lifestyle. Follow the journey of my writing career and how we start our renovation project while managing our convoluted family life. Once again, we will laugh, cry, and enjoy life to the fullest with a generous helping of positive spin thrown in for good measure.
Stranger on a train
In spite of the fact that her idea of travel is to stay home with the phone off the hook, Jenny Diski takes a trip around the perimeter of the USA by train. Somewhat reluctantly she meets all kinds of characters, all bursting with stories to tell and finds herself brooding about the marvellously familiar landscape of America, half-known already through film and television. Like the pulse of the train over the rails, the theme of the dying pleasures of smoking thrums through the book, along with reflections on the condition of solitude and the nature of friendship and memories triggered by her past times in psychiatric hospitals. Cutting between her troubled teenaged years and contemporary America, the journey becomes a study of strangers, strangeness and estrangement – from oneself.
American nomads
Fascinated by the land of endless horizons, sunshine, and the open road, Richard Grant spent fifteen years wandering throughout the United States, never spending more than three weeks in one place and getting to know America’s nomads ? truckers, tramps, rodeo cowboys, tie-dyed concert followers, flea market traders, retirees who live year round in their RV?s, and the murderous Freight Train Riders of America (FTRA). In a richly comic travelogue, Grant uses these lives and his own to examine the myths and realities of the wandering life, and its contradiction with the sedentary American dream.Along with a personal account, American Nomads traces the history of wandering in the New World, through vividly told stories of frontiersmen, fur trappers and cowboys, Comanche and Apache warriors, all the way back to the first Spanish explorers who crossed the continent. What unites these disparate characters, as they range back and forth across the centuries, is a stubborn conviction that the only true freedom is to roam across the land.
Life on foot – A walk across america
On February 26, 2011, Nate Damm stood barefoot in the Atlantic Ocean on the Delaware coast, then put his shoes on and started walking west. Over 3,200 miles passed under his feet over the following seven-and-a-half months, and he found himself in San Francisco, having walked across America. This is the story of what drove Nate to hit the road and what he found once he got there. Featuring a cast of quirky, wild, and endearing characters, this is a story of heartbreak, redemption, random acts of kindness, blisters, idiotic drivers, no less than one bear attack, small towns, sanity lost somewhere in the desert, love, and what it takes to find peace and happiness at three miles per hour.
In a strange room
Damon Galgut’s masterful novel of longing and thwarted desire following one man on three very different journeys.
A young man takes three journeys, through Greece, India and Africa. He travels with little purpose, letting the chance encounters of the road dictate his path. But although he knows that he is drifting, he is unable to settle. It is as if, without these encounters, the person he is cannot exist. And yet each journey ends in disaster.
A novel of longing and thwarted desire, rage and compassion, In a Strange Room is an extraordinary evocation of one man’s search for love, and a place to call home.
The longest road
The far traveller
The Far Traveler “Five hundred years before Columbus, a Viking woman named Gudrid sailed past the edge of the known world. She landed in the New World and lived there for three years, giving birth to a baby before sailing home. Or so the Icelandic sagas say. Even after archaeologists found a Viking longhouse in Newfoundland, few believed that the details of Gudrid’s story were true.
Walking home
One summer, Simon Armitage decided to walk the Pennine Way – a challenging 256-mile route usually approached from south to north, with the sun, wind and rain at your back. However, he resolved to tackle it back to front, walking home towards the Yorkshire village where he was born, travelling as a ‘modern troubadour’, without a penny in his pockets and singing for his supper with poetry readings in village halls, churches, pubs and living rooms.
Walking Home describes his extraordinary, yet ordinary, journey of human endeavour, unexpected kindnesses and terrible blisters.
Walking away
Not content with walking the Pennine Way as a modern day troubadour, an experience recounted in his bestseller and prize-wining Walking Home, the restless poet has followed up that journey with a walk of the same distance but through the very opposite terrain and direction far from home.
In Walking Away Simon Armitage swaps the moorland uplands of the north for the coastal fringes of Britain’s south west, once again giving readings every night, but this time through Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, taking poetry into distant communities and tourist hot-spots, busking his way from start to finsh.
From the surreal pleasuredome of Minehead Butlins to a smoke-filled roundhouse on the Penwith Peninsula then out to the Isles of Scilly and beyond, Armitage tackles this personal Odyssey with all the poetic reflection and personal wit we’ve come to expect of one of Britain’s best loved and most popular writers.
No fixed address
In every religion I can think of, there exists some variation on the theme of abandoning the settled life and walking one’s way to godliness. The Hindu Sadhu, leaving behind family and wealth to live as a beggar; the pilgrims of Compostela walking away their sins; the circumambulators of the Buddhist kora; the Hajj. What could this ritual journeying be but symbolic, idealised versions of the foraging life? By taking to the road we free ourselves of baggage, both physical and psychological. We walk back to our original condition, to our best selves.
After many thousands of years, the nomads are disappearing, swept away by modernity. Robyn Davidson has spent a good part of her life with nomadic cultures. In this fascinating and moving essay she evokes a vanishing way of life, and notes a paradox: that even as classical nomads are disappearing, hypermobility has become the hallmark of contemporary life. In a time of environmental peril, she argues, the nomadic way with nature still offers valuable lessons. No Fixed Address is part lament, part evocation and part exhilarating speculative journey.
Robyn Davidson is an award-winning writer who has travelled and published widely. Her books include Tracks, Desert Places, Quarterly Essay 24: No Fixed Address – Nomads and the Future of the Planet and, as editor, The Picador Book of Journeys and The Best Australian Essays 2009. Her essays have appeared in Granta, the Monthly, the Bulletin and Griffith Review, amongst others.
Travelling light
Desert places
The Rebari are a nomadic tribe in India’s Thar Desert. Like nomads everywhere, the Rebari are being forced into accepting a more sedentary life. Their traditional trading and pilgrimage routes have been transected by borders and canals or blocked by atomic bomb testing sites and irrigated farm lands. But once a year, they arrive in Pushkar, partly as a pilgrimmage to bathe in the most sacred lake in India, partly to buy and sell their animals, partly to enjoy the biggest annual fair in Asia. Robyn Davidson crossed the pathless Thar Desert with the Rebari. Interwoven with the journey of the Rebari is the story of Minu, a highly spirited upperclass Indian woman, forced into an arranged marriage with the ex-king of Ghanerao, locked up in the women’s quarters of the palace and subject both to the strict laws of Purdah and to psychological warfare with her in-laws.
love with a chance of drowning
A city girl with a morbid fear of deep water, Torre DeRoche is not someone you would ordinarily find adrift in the middle of the stormy Pacific aboard a leaky sailboat – total crew of two – struggling to keep an old boat, a new relationship and her floundering sanity afloat. But when she meets Ivan, a handsome Argentinean man with a humble sailboat and a dream to set off exploring the world, Torre has to face a hard decision: watch the man she’s in love with sail away forever, or head off on the watery journey with him. Suddenly the choice seems simple. She gives up her sophisticated city life, faces her fear of water (and tendency towards seasickness) and joins her lover on a year-long voyage across the Pacific.
Set against a backdrop of the world’s most beautiful and remote destinations, Love with a Chance of Drowning is a sometimes hilarious, often moving and always breathtakingly brave memoir that proves there are some risks worth taking.
casting off
As a journalist for the Independent, Emma Bamford is swept along with the London rat race, lost amongst the egos of Fleet Street. Surrounded by budget cuts and bullies, the thrill of a breaking news story is no longer enough. And at 31, still struggling to get to a fourth date and surrounded by friends settling down to married life and babies, Emma decides to grasp her life by the roots and reclaim her freedom…by running away to sea and joining a complete stranger (and his cat) on a yacht in Borneo.
Reflective yet humorous and self-deprecating, we share Emma’s excitement and fear at leaving a good job for an unknown adventure, and join her as she travels to some of the most exotic places in the world and starts to realise what really matters in life. She discovers the supreme awkwardness of sharing a tiny space with total strangers, the unimaginable beauty of paradise islands and secret jungle rivers, glimpses lost tribes, works all hours for demanding superyacht owners, and has a terrifyingly near miss with pirates. Fending off romantic propositions from a Moldovan pig farmer and a Sri Lanken village chief amongst others, Emma finds adventure and happiness in the most unlikely places.
From planning each day meticulously to learning to let go and leave things to chance, Emma’s story shows that it is possible to break free and find happiness – and love – on your own terms.
the turk who loved apples
While writing his celebrated Frugal Traveler column for the New York Times, Matt Gross began to feel hemmed in by its focus on what he thought of as “traveling on the cheap at all costs.” When his editor offered him the opportunity to do something less structured, the Getting Lost series was born, and Gross began a more immersive form of travel that allowed him to “lose his way all over the globe”-from developing-world megalopolises to venerable European capitals, from American sprawl to Asian archipelagos. And that’s what the never-before-published material in The Turk Who Loved Apples is all about: breaking free of the constraints of modern travel and letting the place itself guide you. It’s a variety of travel you’ll love to experience vicariously through Matt Gross-and maybe even be inspired to try for yourself.
do travel writers go to hell?
As Kohnstamm comes to personal terms with each of these job requirements, he unveils the underside of the travel industry and its often-harrowing effect on writers, travelers, and the destinations themselves. Moreover, he invites us into his world of compromising and scandalous situations in one of the most exciting countries as he races against an impossible deadline.
smile when you’re lying
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SMILE-WHEN-YOURE-LYING-Confessions/dp/0805082093/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_y
Travel writer, editor, and photographer, Chuck Thompson has spent more than a decade traipsing through thirty-five (and counting) countries across the globe, and he’s had enough. Enough of the half-truths demanded by magazine editors, enough of the endlessly recycled cliches regarded as good travel writing, and enough of the ugly secrets fiercely guarded by the travel industry. But mostly, he’s had enough of returning home from assignments and leaving the most interesting stories and the most provocative insights on the editing-room floor. From getting swindled in Thailand to running afoul of customs inspectors in Belarus, from defusing hostile Swedish rockers backstage in Germany to a closed-door meeting with travel execs telling him why he’s about to be fired once again, Thompson’s no-holds-barred style is refreshing, invigorating, and all those other adjectives travel writers use to describe spa vacations where the main attraction is a daily colonic.” Smile When You’re Lying” takes readers on an irresistible series of adventures in Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and beyond; details the effects of globalization on the casual traveller and ponders the future of travel as we know it; and offers up a treasure trove of travel-industry secrets collected throughout a decidedly speckled career.
unlikely destinations – the lonely planet story
the lonely planet story – once while travelling
The highly readable Lonely Planet Story: Once While Travelling is a unique mix of autobiography, business history and travel book. It traces founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler’s personal story as well as the often-bumpy evolution of their travel guide business into the world’s largest independent travel publishing company. In 2007, the Wheelers shocked the publishing industry by selling to BBC worldwide. For the first time, they explain their reasons behind the sale, and their hopes for the future of the brand. Above all, their memoir reveals the spirit of adventure that has made them, according to the New York Daily Times, ‘the specialists in guiding weird folks to weird places’. Lonely Planet Publications was born in 1973 when the Wheelers self-published a quirky travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. This was quickly followed by what soon became the backpackers’ bible, South-East Asia on a Shoestring. Going boldly where no other travel publisher had ventured, they catered to a new generation of independent, budget-conscious travellers long before the advent of mass tourism.
river town
When Peter Hessler went to China in the late 1990s, he expected to spend a couple of peaceful years teaching English in the town of Fuling on the Yangtze River. But what he experienced – the natural beauty, cultural tension, and complex process of understanding that takes place when one is thrust into a radically different society – surpassed anything he could have imagined. Hessler observes firsthand how major events such as the death of Deng Xiaoping, the return of Hong Kong to the mainland, and the controversial consturction of the Three Gorges Dam have affected even the people of a remote town like Fuling.
Poignant, thoughtful and utterly compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a place caught mid-river in time, much like China itself – a country seeking to understand both what it was and what it will one day become.
oracle bones
Peter Hessler’s previous book River Town was a prize-winning, poignant and deeply compelling portrait of China. Now, in Oracle Bones, Hessler returns to the country, excavating its long history and immersing himself in the lives of young Chinese as they migrate from the traditional Chinese countryside to the booming ever-changing cities and try to cope with their society’s modern transformation.
how to become the jack of all travel
How To Become The Jack Of All Travel is your gateway into the world of free travel, seasonal travel jobs, and voluntourism at home and abroad, perfect for those seeking to live their own real-life adventures like Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love.
“An excellent starting point for adventurers-to-be, this book gives you the inspiration, resources, and knowledge you need to travel long term for free- to teach English in Thailand, volunteer in Hawaii, work as a ski instructor in the Rocky Mountains, help maintain a national park, intern in Europe, harvest fruit in Australia, and explore the world.”
How To Become The Jack Of All Travel will provide the information you need to achieve your travel goals, beginning by defining the skill sets that will be most useful on your travel résumé and culminating in a grand round-up of the places you’ll have the most success when searching for free and paid travel experiences.
seven years in tibet
A landmark in travel writing, this is the incredible true story of Heinrich Harrer’s escape across the Himalayas to Tibet, set against the backdrop of the Second World War. Heinrich Harrer, already one of the greatest mountaineers of his time, was climbing in the Himalayas when war broke out in Europe. He was imprisoned by the British in India but succeeded in escaping and fled to Tibet. Settling in Lhasa, the Forbidden City, where he became a friend and tutor to the Dalai Lama, Heinrich Harrer spent seven years gaining a more profound understanding of Tibet and the Tibetans.
the longest way home
Andrew McCarthy explores the tumultuous, complicated, and circuitous route he’s travelled to finally settle down with one woman, whom he married last August. Telling this story through the lens of a series of seven exotic trips he’s recently taken all over the world (Patagonia, the Amazon, Costa Rica, Baltimore, Vienna, Kilimanjaro, Galway), he’ll write about his wanderlust-and other lusts-and connect his obsession with travel with his phobia of commitment. The story will culminate with one of the most momentous-and terrifying-days of his life: his wedding day. A thoughtfully observant writer, McCarthy touches on his personal life, his acting career, and his fascination with travel in a truly captivating manner. Genuine and spirited, The Longest Way Home is the fascinating story of how one man’s insight into his relationships with both the people closest to him and the places very new to him allowed him to fully commit to another person.
the great railway bazaar
The Great Railway Bazaar is Paul Theroux’s account of his epic journey by rail through Asia. Filled with evocative names of legendary train routes – the Direct-Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Delhi Mail from Jaipur, the Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, the Hikari Super Express to Kyoto and the Trans-Siberian Express – it describes the many places, cultures, sights and sounds he experienced and the fascinating people he met. Here he overhears snippets of chat and occasional monologues, and is drawn into conversation with fellow passengers, from Molesworth, a British theatrical agent, and Sadik, a shabby Turkish tycoon, while avoiding the forceful approaches of pimps and drug dealers. This wonderfully entertaining travelogue pays loving tribute to the romantic joys of railways and train travel.
the happy isles of oceania
Paul Theroux invites us to join him on one of his most exotic and tantalizing adventures exploring the coasts and blue lagoons of the Pacific Islands, and taking up residence to discover the secrets of these isles.
Theroux is a mesmerizing narrator – brilliant, witty, keenly perceptive as he floats through Gauguin landscapes, sails in the wake of Captain Cook and recalls the bewitching tales of Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson. Alone in his kayak, paddling to seldom visited shores, he glides through time and space, discovering a world of islands, their remarkable people, and in turn, happiness.
Please note: I have only listed two of Paul Theroux’s books. I would love to hear what you think of his other novels of which he has many. I plan to read them all.
the sex lives of cannibals
At the age of twenty-six, Maarten Troost–who had been pushing the snooze button on the alarm clock of life by racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs–decided to pack up his flip-flops and move to Tarawa, a remote South Pacific island in the Republic of Kiribati. He was restless and lacked direction, and the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better. “The Sex Lives of Cannibals” tells the hilarious story of what happens when Troost discovers that Tarawa is not the island paradise he dreamed of. Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles through relentless, stifling heat, a variety of deadly bacteria, polluted seas, toxic fish–all in a country where the only music to be heard for miles around is “La Macarena.” He and his stalwart girlfriend Sylvia spend the next two years battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricity, and a paucity of food options (including the Great Beer Crisis); and contending with a bizarre cast of local characters, including “Half-Dead Fred” and the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of Tarawa (a British drunkard who’s never written a poem in his life). With “The Sex Lives of Cannibals,” Maarten Troost has delivered one of the most original, rip-roaringly funny travelogues in years–one that will leave you thankful for staples of American civilization such as coffee, regular showers, and tabloid news, and that will provide the ultimate vicarious adventure.
The result is the Republic of Kiribati, a hard paradise, where despite an unwavering fondness for continents, I soon found myself at home.’ J. Maarten Troost spent two trying years in his island paradise.
the good girls guide to getting lost
Rachel Friedman has always been the consummate good girl who does well in school and plays it safe, so the college grad surprises no one more than herself when, on a whim (and in an effort to escape impending life decisions), she buys a ticket to Ireland, a place she has never visited. There she forms an unlikely bond with a free-spirited Australian girl, a born adventurer who spurs Rachel on to a yearlong odyssey that takes her to three continents, fills her life with newfound friends, and gives birth to a previously unrealized passion for adventure.
As her journey takes her to Australia and South America, Rachel discovers and embraces her love of travel and unlocks more truths about herself than she ever realized she was seeking. Along the way, the erstwhile good girl finally learns to do something she’s never done before: simply live for the moment.
turn right at machu picchu
What happens when an unadventurous adventure writer tries to recreate the original expedition to Machu Picchu? In 1911, Hiram Bingham III climbed the Andes in Peru and ‘discovered’ the famed archaeological site. While history recast Bingham as a liar and a thief, Mark Adams set out to retrace the explorer’s perilous path in search of the truth; the only problem was he had written about adventure far more than he had ever actually lived it. In fact, he had never even slept in a tent. Adams’ acclaimed account will thrill all as he travels through these remote and historic hills.
marching powder
MARCHING POWDER is the story of Thomas McFadden, a small-time English drug smuggler who was arrested in Bolivia and thrown inside the notorious San Pedro prison. He found himself in a bizarre world, the prison reflecting all that is wrong with South American society. Prisoners have to pay an entrance fee and buy their own cells (the alternative is to sleep outside and die of exposure), prisoners’ wives and children often live inside too, high quality cocaine is manufactured and sold from the prison.
Thomas ended up making a living by giving backpackers tours of the prison – he became a fixture on the backpacking circuit and was named in the Lonely Planet guide to Bolivia. When he was told that for a bribe of $5000 his sentence could be overturned, it was the many backpackers who’d passed through who sent him the money. Sometimes shocking, sometimes funny, MARCHING POWDER is an always riveting story of survival.
‘All the staples of the prison memoir are here: sadistic guards, an attempted break-out, the terrors of solitary confinement, the joys of freedom . . . The result is a truly gripping piece of testimony’ Sunday Telegraph
paris was ours
Paris is the world capital of memory and desire, concludes one of the writers in this intimate and insightful collection of memoirs of the city. Living in Paris changed these writers forever. In thirty-two personal essays more than half of which are here published for the first time the writers describe how they were seduced by Paris and then began to see things differently. They came to write, to cook, to find love, to study, to raise children, to escape, or to live the way it s done in French movies; they came from the United States, Canada, and England; from Iran, Iraq, and Cuba; and a few from other parts of France. And they stayed, not as tourists, but for a long time; some are still living there. They were outsiders who became insiders, who here share their observations and revelations. Some are well-known writers: Diane Johnson, David Sedaris, Judith Thurman, Joe Queenan, and Edmund White. Others may be lesser known but are no less passionate on the subject. Together, their reflections add up to an unusually perceptive and multifaceted portrait of a city that is entrancing, at times exasperating, but always fascinating. They remind us that Paris belongs to everyone it has touched, and to each in a different way.
holy cow – an indian adventure
After backpacking her way around India, 21-year-old Sarah Macdonald decided that she hated this land of chaos and contradiction with a passion, and when an airport beggar read her palm and insisted she would come back one day – and for love – she vowed never to return.
But twelve years later the prophecy comes true when her partner, ABC’s South Asia correspondent, is posted to New Delhi, the most polluted city on earth. Having given up a blossoming radio career in Sydney to follow her new boyfriend to India, it seems like the ultimate sacrifice and it almost kills Sarah – literally. After being cursed by a sadhu smeared in human ashes, she nearly dies from double pheumonia. It’s enough to send a rapidly balding atheist on a wild rollercoaster ride through India’s many religions in search of the meaning of life and death.
From the ‘brain enema’ of a meditation retreat in Dharamsala to the biggest Hindu festival on earth on the steps of the Ganges in Varanasi, and with the help of the Dalai Lama, a goddess of healing hugs and a couple of Bollywood stars – among many, many others – Sarah discovers a hell of a lot more.
shantaram
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0349117543?keywords=shantaram&qid=1438792770&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
A novel of high adventure, great storytelling and moral purpose, based on an extraordinary true story of eight years in the Bombay underworld.
‘In the early 80s, Gregory David Roberts, an armed robber and heroin addict, escaped from an Australian prison to India, where he lived in a Bombay slum. There, he established a free health clinic and also joined the mafia, working as a money launderer, forger and street soldier. He found time to learn Hindi and Marathi, fall in love, and spend time being worked over in an Indian jail. Then, in case anyone thought he was slacking, he acted in Bollywood and fought with the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan . . . Amazingly, Roberts wrote Shantaram three times after prison guards trashed the first two versions. It’s a profound tribute to his willpower . . . At once a high-kicking, eye-gouging adventure, a love saga and a savage yet tenderly lyrical fugitive vision.’ Time Out
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Driving-Over-Lemons-Optimist-Andalucia/dp/095600380X
The travel guide for the young, sexy, and broke
This all-encompassing travel guide features approximately 100 exciting destinations like Buenos Aires, Brazil, Columbia, Greece, and Thailand, and everything college students, grads, and those in their twenties and thirties want to know about them, including: the cities with the craziest sex shops; the best places to get a tattoo; where to check out some amazing street art; why you should try fried bugs; the best clubs to party until dawn; and much more. Broken into three parts, the first section focuses on what to do and where: food, fashion, music, sports, sex and partying, and more. The second half of the book dives into practical tips and advice on budgeting, hostels, and transportation, and the third section offers great ideas about extending your stay. Entertaining and informative, this lively guide also includes fun charts and graphs and 100 to 150 full-color photos throughout.
The secret
Not necessarily a travel book, but it will help you in the understanding that anything is possible. You can do, go and be anywhere you want to be. I read this book, and all her other books, which I would also recommend for a happy fulfilled life. It most certainly helped me get over my fears, and do the travelling I had only dreamt of.
Once known only by an elite who were unwilling to share their knowledge of the power, ‘the secret’ of obtaining anything you desire is now revealed by prominent physicists, authors and philosophers as being based in the universal Law of Attraction. And the good news is that anyone can access its power to bring themselves health, wealth and happiness. Fragments of The Secret have been found in oral traditions, literature, religions and philosophies throughout the centuries. A number of the exceptional people who discovered its power went on to become regarded as the greatest human beings who ever lived. Among them: Plato, Leonardo, Galileo and Einstein. Now ‘the secret’ is being shared with the world. Beautiful in its simplicity, and mind-dazzling in its ability to really work, The Secret reveals the mystery of the hidden potential within us all. By unifying leading-edge scientific thought with ancient wisdom and spirituality, the riveting, practical knowledge will lead readers to a greater understanding of how they can be the masters of their own lives.
The travel book
A huge book. More a coffee table book than a book to bring with you on your backpacking trip. One of my favourite books. I flick through it at my leisure or when I’m planning a trip somewhere.
Lonely Planet: The world’s leading travel guide publisher*
Celebrate the world.
229 countries & destinations to explore, 817 beautiful images to inspire – this international best seller features 100% all NEW images and text.
Bigger, brighter and bolder than ever, the second edition of Lonely Planet’s definitive travel pictorial has been revised and updated to be even more inspiring than the last. The Travel Book captures the essence of every country on the planet through stunning photographs and atmospheric text. User-friendly A-to-Z coverage and double-page spreads of every country make this book a total delight – and an amazing gift. Includes cultural insights, key facts and maps. Also available in hardback, mini edition, and children’s Not For Parents: The Travel Book – cool stuff to know about every country in the world!
“It just reminds me how much of the world there is still to see” – Tony Wheeler, Lonely Planet founder, 145 countries visited and counting …
‘At a time when the world feels as if it’s becoming a larger, more divided and increasingly impossible place to understand, let alone discover, The Travel Book is a reminder that the world is truly an amazing place.’ The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
The world
We’ve taken the highlights from the world’s best guidebooks and put them together into one 960-page whopper to create the ultimate guide to Earth. This user-friendly A-Z gives a flavour of each country in the world, including a map, travel highlights, info on where to go and how to get around, as well as some quirkier details to bring each place to life. In Lonely Planet’s trademark bluespine format, this is the ultimate planning resource.
From now on, every traveller’s journey should start here…
- Nearly 1000 colour photos of must-visit highlights
- More than 200 colour maps
- The guidebook every traveller needs to own
You only live once
You Only Live Once: A Lifetime of Experiences for the Explorer in All of Us is not just another bucketlist of big-ticket items. We’ve all heard about Venice and, yes, it is probably worth going to Italy to see its waterways, but hopefully you’ll take away something more from this book: a resolve to live life to the fullest–to add a dash of joie de vivre to every day.
You Only Live Once will inspire readers of all ages to seize the moment, channel their inner hero, explore the world, create moments they will celebrate for years to come, and share their incredible stories. Providing suggestions for life’s essential experiences for every stage of life, this eclectic gift book is the perfect manual for a life well-lived.
Anyone can sleep in a castle, sail a ship, make a music pilgrimage, and so much more. What all the book’s ideas have in common is that they’re starting points. They will reignite long-forgotten desires – to learn an instrument or a language – or spark new and unexpected ambitions: why shouldn’t you move to Provence for a year?
When you know what’s stopping you, you can start working on a solution. Perhaps this book will be as useful in helping you identify obstacles as will be for refining your month’s or your year’s travel experiences. Then it’s time to turn to Lonely Planet’s extensive travel resources and begin planning the rest of your life.
Combining stunning photography with illustrations and infographics, it will surprise and entertain with a quirky mix of experiences everyone should try at some point in their life.
‘You only live once; but if you do it right, once is enough.’ – Mae West
- Cloth-spined hardback
- Visual feast
- 1000 experiences to inspire and entertain
- Refreshing take on the “list” book
Best in travel 2015
The best places to go and things to do all around the world in 2015! Drawing on the knowledge, passion and miles travelled by Lonely Planet’s staff, authors and online community, we present a year’s worth of travel inspiration to take you out of the ordinary and into some unforgettable experiences.
Whether it’s thanks to a sporting event, a revitalised infrastructure, a special anniversary or just that aura of ‘right now’, each destination featured has passed through our agonising selection process to win a place on Lonely Planet’s hallowed Best in Travel list.
Highlights:
- Lonely Planet ranks to top 10 countries, regions and cities to visit in 2015
- The best travel experiences for the year ahead
- 16 top travel lists to give you fresh ideas for exploring the world from a new perspective
- More than 35 events mapped out month by month in the 2015 travel
The unforgettable series
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unforgettable-Journeys-Take-Before-You/dp/0563522631/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_y
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unforgettable-Things-Before-you-Die/dp/0563521074/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_y
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unforgettable-Places-See-Before-You/dp/0563487461/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_z
Lonely planet magazine subscription
I have just recently subscribed to lonely planet magazine and I’m wondering why I never did it sooner. I’m kind of bummed about the magazines I’ve missed now. It works out about 4.66 sterling, per issue! Worth every penny!
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/magazine/
With all these new books to read, and only one backpack, it might be worth investing in a kindle.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=kindle
I’ll admit I don’t use it much when I am at home, but when travelling it is a must! I wouldn’t fancy lugging all those books around, and they take up too much space.
Reading and travel quotes I love…
If I have missed any great travel books in this list, please comment below so I can add them to the list. I would love to hear your recommendations.
Enjoy your adventure (be it imaginary or real), and return safely,
The wandering boomerang 🙂
the wandering boomerang 
Thank you for sharing! I am not a reader at all but you’ve got me on the alchemist and a year without makeup. I’m going to give them a try!
P.S. Headed to Ireland this August, thanks for the tips there too.
-Kate
New Jersey, US
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Hi Kate!
I’m glad you like my blog!
I think anyone can become a reader, you just got to find the right book! Reading shantaram at the moment and loving it! The alchemist is one of my most favourite books (and I’ve read a lot of books). Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Ireland in August fantastic! I hope to have my dublin blog ready by then, so keep an eye out for it!
Happy travels 😁
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😀 thanks! yeah I was actually looking to see if youve posted Dublin yet. I imagine its going to be a ton to cover… my Toronto post took me a whole work shift (12 hrs). Thanks, yeah I am so excited. I’ll be going to Dublin, Belfast, County Kerry, Aran Islands and one other place I cant think of right now. I cannot wait.
Shoot me a message when your Dublin post is up! Also, I have an open room if you ever wanna travel to New Jersey lmao. its not Iceland but it is a pretty fun place.
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I was hoping to have it done by now, but I’m moving to dublin at the end of the month and job hunting/apartment hunting has taken up all my free time! Looking forward to getting back into my dublin blog!
If you follow me on Instagram/pinterest/facebook I’ll be posting my new blogs on there!
Kate that’s such a kind offer! Thank you! I’d love to hit all the national parks in America! One day I will 🙂
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