Can you recommend some good travel writing?

[Tibidabo]

Not a a travel writer in the traditional sense, but Anthony Lloyd’s My War Gone By, I Miss It So is definately worth a read

[Stranger_On_A_Train]

@Darryl Lict

I’ve read Pillars of Hercules and started The Great Railway Bazaar. I guess I just find his style a bit off putting and frankly, just not all that interesting. I’ve done a fair amount of traveling and I knew of Paul Theroux as one of the most famous travel writers. I suppose I had really high expectations and was disappointed at what I found to be a somewhat curmudgeonly narrative.

Yeah, that’s his metier; either you find it amusing (and look past it to his genuine enthusiasm for meeting people) or it’s really an out of tune key. (He actually alludes to this on the first page of The Pillars of Hercules, when he makes deprecating comments about the people harassing the macaques on Gibralter, and then writes, “the person who just muttered, ‘Oh, there he goes again!’ must read no further.”

@Darryl Lict

Damn, someone help me out. I know there are people out there who like Bryson. I’ve read almost everything he’s written.

Bryson always reads to me like he’s writing specifically so he can read his own prose on “This American Life” or somesuch, full of cutsey, pithless observations. But that’s me; he sells rather well, and clearly has a wide readership. My main beef against him is his excrable A Short History of Nearly Everything which is almost, but not quite, completely inaccurate on nearly every topic it covers. People read, then they quote it, and I have to clinch my throat rather than unsolicitedly correct every misapprehension coming therefrom.

Stranger

[twickster]

A previous thread on the topic, with my two recommendations, Bruce Chatwin and Peter Matthieson.

[Rodgers01]

@twickster

A previous thread on the topic, with my two recommendations, Bruce Chatwin and Peter Matthieson.

Thanks for finding that thread; I was gonna look for it myself.

I strongly second straykat23’s recommendation of Jan/James Morris. I’ve mentioned a couple times on these boards how much I enjoy her Pax Brittanica trilogy (I’m on the final volume now). While the trilogy is technically more of a history than a travel narrative, it’s really a “travelogue through history,” if you know what I mean – some incredibly vivid writing there. I can only imagine what her real travel books are like. Simon Winchester is a great fan too: in his “5 favorite travel books” article (which inspired the other thread), he listed Morris’s “Oxford” as number 1 –

@Simon Winchester

Insofar as “Oxford” was the first real travel book I ever read, it had an enormous, maybe a disproportionate, influence on me. Its quirkiness, its ceaseless rain of curiosities, its endlessly entertaining diversions–the amazing patchwork and pointillist portrait of what it fast convinced me was one of the world’s most interesting small cities–all astonished me. I had no idea that writing could have such understated force and charm, and it led to my reading, a year later, a second Morris book, “Coronation Everest,” that became an instant catalyst for a total change in my life. I turned from geology to journalism there and then, and James–turned into Jan since the gender change of 1974–remains today as important a person to me as Oxford remains an important city. The happy combination of author and subject in this one remarkable volume stands on my shelf as a constant reminder of the debt of gratitude I owe to both.

[zagloba]

My favorite travel books of all time are by Patrick Leigh Fermor, an altogether remarkable man who played a key role in Crete during World War II. But in 1933, at the age of eighteen, he set off on foot on a solo journey from Holland to Istanbul. When he was nearly 70, he looked back on this time with two books:
A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube and
Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates
Sadly, he hasn’t written the story of the last leg of this journey, but he has written several other travel books that I’m looking forward to getting my hands on.

I second Jeff’s recommendation of Robert Kaplan’s Balkan Ghosts. I especially appreciated it for introducing me to Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, about her travels in Yugoslavia in 1937. It’s nearly a thousand pages long, but well worth it.

Sage Rat is quite right to mention Mark Twain’s travel writing. Roughing It is a particular favorite of mine. It begins with his stage coach journey accompanying his brother to his appointment as secretary to the governor of Nevada, but goes on to his adventures in silver mining, accidentally burning down a great swath of the forest around Lake Tahoe, and numerous other western tales which may not have happened exactly as they are told.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@capybara

Something called “Travels with my Donkey” or something-- can’t remember the author’s name but about his trip to Santiago with a donkey. Not deep but hilarious and definitely not moronic.

Were you thinking of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes? I tried looking it up on Amazon.com, and apparently it’s available in numerous editions, most out of print but available used, and many published together with other of his travel writings (here’s one example).

[well_he_s_back]

I’m a great fan of good travel writing. Many of my favorites have been mentioned already, but a few haven’t. Here’s my recommendations:

-Brazilian Adventure by Peter Fleming (Ian Fleming’s brother, I think. His writing is wry and can have me in tears of laughter. I’ve enjoyed all his travel books).
-In Patagonia and Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
-A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby (love most of Newby’s stuff)
-The Snow Leopard by Peter Mathiesson
-Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman
and

• Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia by Tom Bissell (love this book. it is fantastic.)

[plnnr]

“Travels with Charley,” by John Steinbeck

[capybara]

Nah, looked it up-- Travels with my Donkey: One Man and his Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago, by Tim Moore.

[straykat23]

Ya’ know who else has a great travel blog? Our very own jjimm.

jjimm’s blog

Go to the “Blessed to be a Witness” section. This covers an extensive journey from February through October, 2005, that includes working with tsunami victims in Thailand. This blog is funny, irreverant, informational, humbling.

CairoCarol mentioned Pico Iyer. Here’s his Wiki entry - gives his bibliography. Excellent writer!

Pico Iyer

[CapnPitt]

Tim Severin is pretty good. I’ve read “Tracking Marco Polo” and “In Search of Genghis Khan” and thoroughly enjoyed both.

Also, I got a recommendation of an excellent book from somewhere here on the Dope, “At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig: Travels through Paraguay” by John Gimlette.

I’m a fan of both Theroux and Bryson, so I guess I’m not very discriminating though.

[SmackFu]

I really enjoyed Holidays in Hell by PJ O’Rourke. It’s funny but not “lite”. A bit dated now… half of the hellish places are just fine now.

[Zsofia]

@well he's back

I’m a great fan of good travel writing. Many of my favorites have been mentioned already, but a few haven’t. Here’s my recommendations:

-Brazilian Adventure by Peter Fleming (Ian Fleming’s brother, I think. His writing is wry and can have me in tears of laughter. I’ve enjoyed all his travel books).
-In Patagonia and Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
-A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby (love most of Newby’s stuff)
-The Snow Leopard by Peter Mathiesson
-Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman
and

• Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia by Tom Bissell (love this book. it is fantastic.)

I came in to suggest Eric Newby - I adore A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. He and his friend are the sort of crazy dilettantes Britain used to turn out in droves - they spend a weekend in Wales learning to climb mountains so they can climb one in Middle of Nowhere, Afghanistan and therefore sneak into some really middle of nowhere part of Afghanistan. Which, once they get there, doesn’t sound that exotic to me, since the residents pay taxes and all, but hey. It’s really funny, but not in a twee way - the guy’s a real serious hardcore traveler, it just happens to be absolutely hilarious.

[borschevsky]

Here’s one I liked about the Canadian prairie.

[Captain_Amazing]

“When in Rome” by Robert Hutchenson, is a good book about day to day life in the Vatican City.

[Shamozzle]

Wow, thanks to everyone for contributing. So many titles, I’ll be reading until I’m dead!

[Surok]

@Zsofia

I came in to suggest Eric Newby - I adore A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.

Newby’s The Last Grain Race is also superb.

[jjimm]

@straykat23

Ya’ know who else has a great travel blog? Our very own jjimm.

jjimm’s blog

Well, blush. Every so often a vanity search comes up trumps.

I’m glad you liked it. I put an awful lot of effort into writing it - it’s my ambition to be a travel writer, though I’m getting a little long in the tooth for ambitions these days… so it’s nice to know it’s been appreciated. Thank you.

[Gulo_gulo]

I really enjoyed Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw but that may be too fluffy for you.

[Darryl_Lict]

@Stranger On A Train

My main beef against him is his excrable A Short History of Nearly Everything which is almost, but not quite, completely inaccurate on nearly every topic it covers.

Heh. That’s the one I haven’t read!